Long-term stabilization of carbon dioxide in atmosphere will require major cuts in emissions

Science Daily: Carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas that has had the largest impact on our climate, will continue to rise even if current national and international targets for reducing emissions are met, scientists warn. But, they say, strong action taken now– such as the 80% target recently announced by the UK government – will continue to have benefits a long time into the future.

A group of scientists have, for the first time, combined the outcomes of proposals by the G8 countries and the UK Government’s Stern Review with the latest knowledge of climate change feedbacks relating to the carbon cycle (the way carbon moves between the oceans, atmosphere and land). Their findings show that short-term cuts alone will not solve the problem and that policy makers need to plan for hundreds of years into the future….

Smokestacks shot by Uwe Hermann, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 License