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      Irreversible climate change due to carbon dioxide emissions

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      Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

      Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

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          Abstract

          The severity of damaging human-induced climate change depends not only on the magnitude of the change but also on the potential for irreversibility. This paper shows that the climate change that takes place due to increases in carbon dioxide concentration is largely irreversible for 1,000 years after emissions stop. Following cessation of emissions, removal of atmospheric carbon dioxide decreases radiative forcing, but is largely compensated by slower loss of heat to the ocean, so that atmospheric temperatures do not drop significantly for at least 1,000 years. Among illustrative irreversible impacts that should be expected if atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations increase from current levels near 385 parts per million by volume (ppmv) to a peak of 450-600 ppmv over the coming century are irreversible dry-season rainfall reductions in several regions comparable to those of the "dust bowl" era and inexorable sea level rise. Thermal expansion of the warming ocean provides a conservative lower limit to irreversible global average sea level rise of at least 0.4-1.0 m if 21st century CO(2) concentrations exceed 600 ppmv and 0.6-1.9 m for peak CO(2) concentrations exceeding approximately 1,000 ppmv. Additional contributions from glaciers and ice sheet contributions to future sea level rise are uncertain but may equal or exceed several meters over the next millennium or longer.

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          Constraints on future changes in climate and the hydrologic cycle.

           Conrad Ingram,  Adrian Allen (2002)
          What can we say about changes in the hydrologic cycle on 50-year timescales when we cannot predict rainfall next week? Eventually, perhaps, a great deal: the overall climate response to increasing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases may prove much simpler and more predictable than the chaos of short-term weather. Quantifying the diversity of possible responses is essential for any objective, probability-based climate forecast, and this task will require a new generation of climate modelling experiments, systematically exploring the range of model behaviour that is consistent with observations. It will be substantially harder to quantify the range of possible changes in the hydrologic cycle than in global-mean temperature, both because the observations are less complete and because the physical constraints are weaker.
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            Prioritizing climate change adaptation needs for food security in 2030.

             D Lobell,  Claudia Tebaldi,  M Mastrandrea … (2008)
            Investments aimed at improving agricultural adaptation to climate change inevitably favor some crops and regions over others. An analysis of climate risks for crops in 12 food-insecure regions was conducted to identify adaptation priorities, based on statistical crop models and climate projections for 2030 from 20 general circulation models. Results indicate South Asia and Southern Africa as two regions that, without sufficient adaptation measures, will likely suffer negative impacts on several crops that are important to large food-insecure human populations. We also find that uncertainties vary widely by crop, and therefore priorities will depend on the risk attitudes of investment institutions.
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              Changes in the velocity structure of the Greenland Ice Sheet.

               Eric Rignot,  P Kanagaratnam (2006)
              Using satellite radar interferometry observations of Greenland, we detected widespread glacier acceleration below 66 degrees north between 1996 and 2000, which rapidly expanded to 70 degrees north in 2005. Accelerated ice discharge in the west and particularly in the east doubled the ice sheet mass deficit in the last decade from 90 to 220 cubic kilometers per year. As more glaciers accelerate farther north, the contribution of Greenland to sea-level rise will continue to increase.
              Article 0 comments Cited 330 times – based on 0 reviews     Review now
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Title: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
                Abbreviated Title: PNAS
                Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
                ISSN (Print): 0027-8424
                ISSN (Electronic): 1091-6490
                Publication date Created: February 10 2009
                Publication date Created: February 10 2009
                Publication date (Print): February 10 2009
                Publication date (Electronic): January 28 2009
                Volume: 106
                Issue: 6
                Pages: 1704-1709
                Article
                DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0812721106
                PMC ID: 2632717
                PubMed ID: 19179281
                Copyright statement: © 2009
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