Warmer Temperatures Felt Just 10 Years After Carbon Release

Just after scientists revealed the mathematical link between carbon emissions and warming, a new study has found that it takes just 10 years for Earth to feel the warming effects of these emissions after their released.

Some have argued that the majority of global warming from carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions won't become a problem for several decades, but researchers at the Carnegie Institute for Science suggest otherwise. Their study confirms not only that it takes just one decade for the world to get noticeably warmer, but that these warming effects can persist for more than a century.

"A lot of climate scientists may have an intuition about how long it takes to feel the warming from a particular emission of CO2, but that intuition might be a little bit out of sync with our best estimates from today's climate and carbon cycle models," lead author Dr. Katharine Ricke said in a press release.

During this 10-year period, both the atmosphere and upper layers of the ocean take in heat emitted from greenhouse gases like CO2. At first the oceans absorb more than the atmosphere, cooling the air, but after about a decade the two processes cancel each other out and warming reaches a maximum.

When it comes to climate talks and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, world leaders usually note how their actions against climate change could benefit generations to come. But with warming effects felt just a decade after carbon emissions are released into the atmosphere, leaders could reap the rewards of their efforts in their lifetime.

Some of the benefits of reduced emissions include avoiding extreme weather events, which the World Bank says could become the new norm, including increased droughts, heat waves and flooding.

Bigger climate impacts from warming, such as sea-level rise, melting ice sheets and long-lasting damage to ecosystems, could also potentially be avoided, but these repercussions may not be felt for hundreds or thousands of years after carbon release.

The findings are described in more detail in the journal Environmental Research Letters.

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