Groovy Graphic

Potemkin Villager · Post by **Potemkin Villager** » 14 Sep 2016, 16:22

http://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2015- ... the-world/

woodburner · Post by **woodburner** » 14 Sep 2016, 19:08

Interesting.

The question is what are we going to do about it?

There is nothing that is going to stop the trend in the short term, and not being able to stop it will mean the system will probably change catastrophically.

Potemkin Villager · Post by **Potemkin Villager** » 15 Sep 2016, 08:06

The graphs imply that atmospheric aerosols from burning fossil fuels has a nett cooling effect of a very significant half a degree. Imagine if we stopped all emissions tomorrow. As a result the aerosols would reduce in a short period of time, presumably in a similar manner to post volcanic eruptions, leading to a dangerous increase in warming!

PS_RalphW · Post by **PS_RalphW** » 15 Sep 2016, 08:57

This is true, has to some extent already happened with the desulphurisation of coal burning, and was demonstrated on 12/9/2001 when the US shut down all aviation and the skies turned magically blue.

Potemkin Villager · Post by **Potemkin Villager** » 15 Sep 2016, 11:15

So, attempts to reduce temperature by reducing GHG gases gradually would take a long time to kick in. Any cooling effect resulting from this would however be offset by a reduction of the cooling effect due to aerosols which will kick in relatively quickly.

Oh s**t!