Abrar Hussain: Researchers believe that the Earth could soon cross a threshold leading to boiling hot temperatures and towering seas in the coming centuries, warning that even if countries succeed in meeting their CO2 targets, we could still slip into this “irreversible pathway”
Their study shows it could happen if global temperatures rise by 2C.
An international team of climate researchers, writing in the journal, ‘Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences’, express concern that the warming expected in the next few decades could turn some of the Earth’s natural forces – that currently protect us – into our enemies.
Each year the Earth’s forests, oceans and land soak up about 4.5 billion tons of carbon that would otherwise end up in our atmosphere and further increase temperatures. But as the world experiences warming, these carbon sinks could become sources of carbon and make the problems of climate change significantly worse.
So, the researchers warn, whether it is the permafrost in northern latitudes that currently hold millions of tons of warming gases, or the Amazon rainforest, the fear is that the closer we get to 2 degrees of warming above pre-industrial levels, the greater the chances that these natural entities will spew out more carbon than they currently take in.
-Source: BBC