Humanity is still fighting today to reverse climate change, but is this fight in vain? Predictions may be somber, but that should not be discouraging, on the contrary, it should determine us to take an even stronger stance against carbon dioxide increases.

 

 A recent study by researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration revealed that carbon dioxide emissions today have already left a fingerprint on the next 1,000 years in an irreversible way.

 

This means that even if we would somehow manage to stop CO2 emissions today, we would still have changes in surface temperature, rainfall and sea level for centuries to come.

 

Our study convinced us that current choices regarding carbon dioxide emissions will have legacies that will irreversibly change the planet, Susan Solomon, NOAA senior scientists and lead author of the study, explained.

 

To give us a better idea of the magnitude of the effects ahead of us, the scientists estimated that if CO2 levels would be allowed to reach peaks beyond present-day concentrations of 385 parts per million, we would have irreversible changes in some key regions of the world.

 

For example, if CO2 levels would reach 450-600 parts per million, humanity would have to deal with increasing drought comparable to the 1930s North American Dust Bowl across southern Europe, northern Africa, southwestern North America, southern Africa and western Australia.

 

Furthermore, the sea level would rise by the year 3000 by at least 1.3 to 3.2 feet at CO2 peak levels of 600 parts per million, and double that amount if CO2 peaks at 1,000 parts per million.

 

While it might seem like a hard burden to handle, this is no reason to despair or give up, and that is ultimately the message scientists need to get across. The conclusion of this study is not necessarily a new one, but rather an old one with more explicit quantifications, and why not, a motivational one.