Young people's burden: Requirement of negative CO2 emissions
Global temperature is a fundamental climate metric highly correlated with sea level, which implies that keeping shorelines near their present location requires keeping global temperature within or close to its preindustrial Holocene range. However, global temperature excluding short-term variability...
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ftanucanberra:oai:openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au:1885/218616 2024-01-14T10:07:45+01:00 Young people's burden: Requirement of negative CO2 emissions Hansen, James Sato, Makiko Kharecha, Pushker von Schuckmann, Karina Beerling, D J Cao, Junji Marcott, Shaun A. Masson-Delmotte, Valerie Prather, Michael J Rohling, Eelco Shakun, Jeremy D. Smith, P application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/1885/218616 https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-8-577-2017 en_AU eng Copernicus Publications 2190-4979 http://hdl.handle.net/1885/218616 doi:10.5194/esd-8-577-2017 Earth System Dynamics Journal article ftanucanberra https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-8-577-2017 2023-12-15T09:34:04Z Global temperature is a fundamental climate metric highly correlated with sea level, which implies that keeping shorelines near their present location requires keeping global temperature within or close to its preindustrial Holocene range. However, global temperature excluding short-term variability now exceeds +1 °C relative to the 1880–1920 mean and annual 2016 global temperature was almost +1.3 °C. We show that global temperature has risen well out of the Holocene range and Earth is now as warm as it was during the prior (Eemian) interglacial period, when sea level reached 6–9 m higher than today. Further, Earth is out of energy balance with present atmospheric composition, implying that more warming is in the pipeline, and we show that the growth rate of greenhouse gas climate forcing has accelerated markedly in the past decade. The rapidity of ice sheet and sea level response to global temperature is difficult to predict, but is dependent on the magnitude of warming. Targets for limiting global warming thus, at minimum, should aim to avoid leaving global temperature at Eemian or higher levels for centuries. Such targets now require negative emissions, i.e., extraction of CO2 from the air. If phasedown of fossil fuel emissions begins soon, improved agricultural and forestry practices, including reforestation and steps to improve soil fertility and increase its carbon content, may provide much of the necessary CO2 extraction. In that case, the magnitude and duration of global temperature excursion above the natural range of the current interglacial (Holocene) could be limited and irreversible climate impacts could be minimized. In contrast, continued high fossil fuel emissions today place a burden on young people to undertake massive technological CO2 extraction if they are to limit climate change and its consequences. Proposed methods of extraction such as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) or air capture of CO2 have minimal estimated costs of USD 89–535 trillion this century and also have ... Article in Journal/Newspaper Ice Sheet Australian National University: ANU Digital Collections Earth System Dynamics 8 3 577 616 |
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Open Polar |
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Australian National University: ANU Digital Collections |
op_collection_id |
ftanucanberra |
language |
English |
description |
Global temperature is a fundamental climate metric highly correlated with sea level, which implies that keeping shorelines near their present location requires keeping global temperature within or close to its preindustrial Holocene range. However, global temperature excluding short-term variability now exceeds +1 °C relative to the 1880–1920 mean and annual 2016 global temperature was almost +1.3 °C. We show that global temperature has risen well out of the Holocene range and Earth is now as warm as it was during the prior (Eemian) interglacial period, when sea level reached 6–9 m higher than today. Further, Earth is out of energy balance with present atmospheric composition, implying that more warming is in the pipeline, and we show that the growth rate of greenhouse gas climate forcing has accelerated markedly in the past decade. The rapidity of ice sheet and sea level response to global temperature is difficult to predict, but is dependent on the magnitude of warming. Targets for limiting global warming thus, at minimum, should aim to avoid leaving global temperature at Eemian or higher levels for centuries. Such targets now require negative emissions, i.e., extraction of CO2 from the air. If phasedown of fossil fuel emissions begins soon, improved agricultural and forestry practices, including reforestation and steps to improve soil fertility and increase its carbon content, may provide much of the necessary CO2 extraction. In that case, the magnitude and duration of global temperature excursion above the natural range of the current interglacial (Holocene) could be limited and irreversible climate impacts could be minimized. In contrast, continued high fossil fuel emissions today place a burden on young people to undertake massive technological CO2 extraction if they are to limit climate change and its consequences. Proposed methods of extraction such as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) or air capture of CO2 have minimal estimated costs of USD 89–535 trillion this century and also have ... |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Hansen, James Sato, Makiko Kharecha, Pushker von Schuckmann, Karina Beerling, D J Cao, Junji Marcott, Shaun A. Masson-Delmotte, Valerie Prather, Michael J Rohling, Eelco Shakun, Jeremy D. Smith, P |
spellingShingle |
Hansen, James Sato, Makiko Kharecha, Pushker von Schuckmann, Karina Beerling, D J Cao, Junji Marcott, Shaun A. Masson-Delmotte, Valerie Prather, Michael J Rohling, Eelco Shakun, Jeremy D. Smith, P Young people's burden: Requirement of negative CO2 emissions |
author_facet |
Hansen, James Sato, Makiko Kharecha, Pushker von Schuckmann, Karina Beerling, D J Cao, Junji Marcott, Shaun A. Masson-Delmotte, Valerie Prather, Michael J Rohling, Eelco Shakun, Jeremy D. Smith, P |
author_sort |
Hansen, James |
title |
Young people's burden: Requirement of negative CO2 emissions |
title_short |
Young people's burden: Requirement of negative CO2 emissions |
title_full |
Young people's burden: Requirement of negative CO2 emissions |
title_fullStr |
Young people's burden: Requirement of negative CO2 emissions |
title_full_unstemmed |
Young people's burden: Requirement of negative CO2 emissions |
title_sort |
young people's burden: requirement of negative co2 emissions |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/1885/218616 https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-8-577-2017 |
genre |
Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
Ice Sheet |
op_source |
Earth System Dynamics |
op_relation |
2190-4979 http://hdl.handle.net/1885/218616 doi:10.5194/esd-8-577-2017 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-8-577-2017 |
container_title |
Earth System Dynamics |
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8 |
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3 |
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577 |
op_container_end_page |
616 |
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1788062149397970944 |