Ive read that our carbon emissions have basically started a cascade effect that we can’t limit now. IS this right or wrong?
In: 840
Firstly, we’ve put about 2 trillion tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere. It currently costs around $150 or so per tonne to remove it, and requires raw materials we simply don’t have enough of. So we’re not going to be removing it any time soon unless there are some remarkable breakthroughs.
But yes, it would make an immediate different in air temperatures across the planet. Sadly, some of the damage can’t be reversed, particularly the lost glaciers and land ice. That ice accumulates *very* slowly over millions of years, and once it’s melted it’s effectively gone forever. And any ecosystem damage will also take a long time to repair, extinct species won’t come back, etc.
But in terms of climate and temperature, if we were to stop emitting right now and magically remove all the extra CO2, we’d be back to “normal” fairly quickly, once the excess heat in the oceans in particular slowly gets radiated out into space. It won’t happen overnight, it will take many years or decades to fully revert, but that’s still quite “fast” by climatic standards.
Sadly, even with all the efforts we’re making, and cutting emissions *per person*, we’re still emitting more than at any other point in history. It will be *at least* a few decades until we can get even close to a net zero situation, and start to even think about reversing the damage. The only question is, will that be too late to avoid utterly catastrophic damage?
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