Unless global heating is reduced to 1.2C ‘as fast as possible’, warm water coral reefs will not remain ‘at any meaningful scale’, a report by 160 scientists from 23 countries warns

  • Rhaedas@fedia.io
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    13 hours ago

    Unless global heating is reduced to 1.2C

    If we plateaued right now and did everything possible to draw CO2 out of the atmosphere and oceans, it would probably take a few thousand years to get back down. The reasoning - we weren’t the main CO2 contributor, we just were the extra catalyst to throw things off to begin the acceleration up. So now that things are off balance and feedbacks are kicking in, how can we reverse what we put into the environment AND counter the extra feedback outputs? It’s like trying to stop the boulder that was easy to push onto the hill slope.

    • Zedstrian@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      7 hours ago

      Humanity absolutely was and continues to be the main ‘CO2 contributor’; coal, oil, and natural gas didn’t just dig themselves out of the ground and spew themselves into the atmosphere. The immediate halting of worldwide pollution is necessary, but unfortunately unlikely to occur in a manner keeping to the Paris Agreement’s goals, particularly while Big Oil has such a strong influence over American politics and countries worldwide continue to rely on and expand fossil fuel production.