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Long term planning
Even if we stop burning fossil fuels immediately, climate change will take its toll on Earth for centuries.
That’s the conclusion of an investigation published Thursday in the journal. Scientific reports, which describes climate change and rising temperatures as a vicious cycle that has already gotten out of control. As a result, like Business Insider The European researchers behind the study reportedly say it may be too late to halt global warming without ambitious geoengineering projects that suck carbon out of the atmosphere.
Vicious circle
The problem, the study authors say, is that carbon sinks like the Arctic tundra are releasing greenhouse gases that warm the atmosphere, exacerbating the phenomenon of climate change. The end result, they calculate, is a 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit (3 degrees Celsius) rise in temperatures and an 8 feet rise in sea level by the year 2500.
“The tundra will continue to melt for the next 500 years, regardless of how quickly humanity reduces its greenhouse gas emissions,” said lead author and climate strategist Jørgen Randers. WITH A.
Clean
Because their research suggests that stopping carbon emissions is no longer enough to curb the problem, the researchers say we will need geoengineering technology like carbon capture to keep climate change under control.
“In general, I am against geoengineering because of its unwanted side effects,” Randers said. “But if the world continues to delay meaningful and feasible actions to phase out fossil fuels, we may have to resort to geoengineering.”
READ MORE: Any hope of keeping Earth habitable now requires sucking carbon out of the atmosphere, according to a new study. [Business Insider]
More on geoengineering: Oxford Physicist: Geoengineering to Prevent Climate Change Won’t Work
