Eddie Gonzales Jr. – MessageToEagle.com – Humans are responsible for pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere at a rate nine to 10 times higher than the greenhouse gas was emitted during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), a global warming event that occurred roughly 56 million years ago.
A new study shows that if carbon emissions continue to rise, our climate will match the PETM and it will take place in 2159.
“You and I won’t be here in 2159, but that’s only about four generations away,” Philip Gingerich, a paleoclimate researcher at the University of Michigan and author of the new study, said in a press release.
“When you start to think about your children and your grandchildren, and your great-grandchildren, you’re about there.”
In the new study, Gingerich found a way to mathematically compare modern carbon emissions to PETM emissions on the same time scale.
“To me, it really brought home how rapidly and how great the consequences are of the carbon we’re producing as a people,” Gingerich said.
Projecting current emissions into the future, Gingerich found that if emissions continue to rise, we could be facing another PETM-like event in fewer than five generations.
The total carbon accumulated in the atmosphere could hit the lowest estimate of carbon accumulated during the PETM — 3,000 gigatons — in the year 2159.
It would hit the maximum estimated emissions — 7,126 gigatons — in 2278, based on Gingerich’s calculations. Humans have emitted roughly 1,500 gigatons of carbon as of 2016.
The results showed current carbon emission rates are nine to 10 times higher than those during the PETM.
Written by Eddie Gonzales Jr. – MessageToEagle.com Staff Writer