Opinion

Cooling the atmosphere may be our only hope

By Andrew Glikson
Updated January 26 2020 - 7:24pm, first published January 11 2020 - 12:00am

The release of some 910 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide since the onset of the industrial age is leading human society to an existential impasse. Reports from the Madrid COP-25 climate conference suggest negotiations were almost exclusively focused on reduction of carbon emissions. This avoids the evidence that the high atmospheric concentration of CO2, at 410 parts per million (or 500 ppm when combined with methane and nitrous oxide) has created amplifying feedbacks. These include the release of methane from permafrost, desiccated vegetation, extensive fires, a reduced capacity of warming oceans to absorb CO2, and the melting of ice sheets, which opens ocean and land tracts that absorb infrared radiation, pushing global temperatures further upwards.

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