UNITED STATES: According to a recent study conducted using artificial intelligence, the Earth will soon breach the critical climate threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius, despite reducing emissions. According to this study, even low emissions could cause 2 °C of warming.
The study was published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and clearly stated that global warming is on track to reach 1.5 C above the industrial averages at the dawn of the 2030s.
This “time to threshold” estimate comes from an analysis that uses artificial intelligence to predict climate alterations using temperature observations from all around the world. Measurements from the past were also put in so that scientists could figure out how hot it is now based on how hot it has been in the past.
The study’s lead author and a climate scientist from Stanford University, Noah Diffenbaugh, says: “Using an entirely new approach that relies on the current state of the climate system to make predictions, we can confirm that the world is on the cusp of crossing the 1.5 C threshold.”
Diffenbaugh co-authored this book with the help of a Colorado State University atmospheric scientist, Kara J Foundation Professor and Kimmelman Family Senior Fellow in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, Elizabeth Barnes.
They envisioned the possibility of temperatures rising to 2 °C even if emissions dwindle in the coming decades. Barnes says: “Our model is quite convinced that there has already been enough warming that 2 °C is likely to be exceeded if reaching net-zero emissions takes another half century.”
There is still hope for stabilising global temperatures by rapidly reducing carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases. Countries like China, the European Union, India, and the United States have net-zero goals between 2050-2070.
The impacts of this half-degree increase in temperature are immense, as ecosystems can be badly affected around the world. Plant and animal lives that depend on them The number of summers could be increased, and the Arctic region could be devoid of ice for longer.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the difference between 1.5 and 2 °C can result in twice the amount of habitat loss for plants and three times the amount for insects. Disasters could also sprout, resulting in firestorms and floods.
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