Climate change and the planet’s sensitivity to rising temperatures will only get worse before it gets better, researchers at the University of Michigan have found. As global emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) grow, so will the amount of heat trapped in the atmosphere. Climate scientists have presented the dire warning based on a study of extreme conditions from more than 50 million years ago. The findings, one researcher who co-authored the study claimed, are “scary”.
The climate change study was presented for publication on September 18 in the journal Science Advances.
Postdoctoral researcher Jiang Zhu said: “We were surprised that the climate sensitivity increased as much as it did with increasing carbon dioxide levels.
“It is a scary finding because it indicates that the temperature response to an increase in carbon dioxide in the future might be larger than the response to the same increase in CO2 now. This is not good news for us.”
The researchers looked at the Early Eocene period, which lasted between 56 million and 40 million years ago.
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During this period, the so-called Early Eocene climatic optimum witnessed between two million and three million years of high temperatures.
The rate at which the planet heated up was found to be in response to the growing build-up of heat-trapping CO2 in the atmosphere.
The Early Eocene is considered to be the warmest period in Earth’s history in the past 66 million years.
The period of warming started with the so-called Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum.
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During this time, the Earth witnessed elevated levels of CO2 in the atmosphere.
Surface temperatures peaked as high as 25F degrees (14C) higher than average temperatures today.
The finding suggests temperatures will drastically grow in the foreseeable future.
Study co-author Christopher Poulsen said: “Our findings highlight the role of small-scale cloud processes in determining large-scale climate changes and suggest a potential increase in climate sensitivity with future warming.”
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If CO2 emissions are not cut in the foreseeable future, the climate study suggests levels will reach 1,000 parts per million as early as 2100.
Identical levels were found in the geological evidence dating back to the Early Eocene.
Modern-day levels, associated with the burning of fossil fuels stand around 412 parts per million.
However, Jessica Tierney of the University of Arizona, who co-authored the paper, said: “The sensitivity we’re inferring for the Eocene is indeed very high, though it’s unlikely that climate sensitivity will reach Eocene levels in our lifetimes.”