In recent years, scientists have been able to correlate the amount of global warming to cumulative carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels – a relationship that became the basis of the Paris Agreement on climate change that guides policies of most world nations to limit their carbon emissions.
In recent years, scientists have been able to correlate the amount of global warming to cumulative carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels – a relationship that became the basis of the Paris Agreement on climate change that guides policies of most world nations to limit their carbon emissions.
A new study demonstrates that a correlation also exists between cumulative carbon emissions and future sea level rise over time – and the news isn’t good.
Even under the most optimistic scenarios outlined in the Paris Agreement – keeping the overall warming of Earth to 1.5 degrees (Celsius) – sea levels will continue to rise by several meters over the next few thousand years. If humans continue to burn fossil fuels so that temperatures meet the 2-degree (Celsius) threshold outlined in the Paris Agreement, global mean sea level rise may exceed nine meters, or nearly 30 feet.
Results of the study have been published today in Nature Climate Change.
“When we pump more carbon into the atmosphere, the effect on temperature is almost immediate,” said Peter Clark, an Oregon State University climate scientist and lead author on the study. “But sea level rise takes a lot longer to respond to that warming. If you take an ice cube out of the freezer and put it on the sidewalk, it doesn’t melt immediately.
Read more at Oregon State University
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