|
A sobering thought; The Earth's climate responds to a number of factors, Atmospheric CO2 being just one of them. There is however a certain amount of inertia in the process, so we are not seeing anywhere near the full impact of our actions, yet. So far the Earth's global average temperature has risen by 0.75 degrees in the last 100 years. A conservative estimate of the consequence of our actions to date, suggests that we will experience a rise of 2 degrees once the system reaches equilibrium over the next couple of decades. And this assumes that we radically decarbonise our economies in the mean time.
To lend some perspective on what that means to us, consider this quote from the CSIRO:
During the last major ice age, the global average temperature was only 3-5 ºC cooler than today and sea levels were more than 120 m (400 feet) lower than present.
About 125 000 years ago our ancestors lived through an inter-glacial period in which the polar regions were 3-5 ºC warmer than today, and sea levels were about 4-6 metres higher than in the 20th century.
This illustrates that even a few degrees change in global temperatures can create a vastly different environment.
|