Climate change 2/3: Changes we cannot escape

There is very little discussion in the public sphere about what awaits us in the future, or at least about what scientists believe awaits us in the context of climate change. Another key fact is the inertia of the climate system. Even if humanity miraculously stopped emitting all greenhouse gases overnight, warming would not stop immediately, which must be emphasised [1].

The climate system (especially the oceans) responds with a delay to already elevated CO₂ concentrations. NASA states that if we stopped all emissions today, temperatures would stop rising within a few years, but would remain elevated – and the climate would remain shifted to a higher level for centuries. In other words, global warming is already under way and cannot be reversed all at once. Some changes (such as glacier retreat, ocean warming or rising sea levels) are essentially irreversible over timescales of hundreds to thousands of years. [2].The IPCC states with high confidence that global temperatures will continue to rise for at least the next several decades (primarily depending on emissions to date). This means that even with aggressive emissions cuts by 2030 or 2040, we will not avoid certain significant impacts – we must adapt to them[3].