The EU’s target of 550 parts per million of CO2 need to be slashed to 350 ppm according to Hansen. Those drastic cuts have to be met if “humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilisation developed” warned the climate scientist who along with eight others just finished a paper on climate findings.
The report used evidence from the Earth’s history instead of theoretical models. Taking core samples from the bottom of the ocean the researchers were able to track CO2 levels for millions of years. Those findings showed that 35 million years ago when the Ice Age began the CO2 in the atmosphere was at about 450ppm.
“If you leave us at 450ppm for long enough it will probably melt all the ice – that’s a sea rise of 75 metres. What we have found is that the target we have all been aiming for is a disaster – a guaranteed disaster,” Hansen told the Guardian.
What Hansen found with the research is startling. At the projected goal of 550ppm the oceans would warm by 6C. Estimates prior to this report guessed that the warming would be in the 3C range.
Hansen was one of the first scientists to bring climate warming concerns to Congress back in the 1980s. His relationship has been frosty though with the Bush administration. In 2005 he accused the White House and NASA of trying to censor him.
The projected future that Hansen lays out is frightening.
As the ocean temperatures rise caused by greenhouse gases ice and snow will melt. They will leave behind exposed ground that instead of reflecting sunlight will absorb more heat.
Satellite technology have shown that over the past three years this has begun to happen. Greenland and west Antarctica have both lost mass because of the melting ice sheets.
Many climate scientists have said it will take thousands of years before the ice sheets will shrink. This attitude is not carried by Hansen.
“If we follow business as usual I can’t see how west Antarctica could survive a century. We are talking about a sea-level rise of at least a couple of metres this century.”
The good news according to the climate scientist is that the reserves of fossil fuels have been exaggerated. That being the case alternative sources of energy will have to be put into place much quicker. Those energy sources could help reduce the CO2 emissions.
