According to a recent research in Paris, Marine clouds that have been protecting us from extreme Earth conditions through reflecting sunlight back into space would soon disappear. This will happen in wake of Carbon Dioxide level increasing in the atmosphere to its extremes.
A scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California and lead author of a study detailing the findings, told AFP, that Climate Change which is increasing at an alarming rate is going to make things even worse. The sad part is one cannot easily detect and conquer these changes.
The stratocumulus clouds cover which about 20% of subtropical oceans, mostly near the coasts of California, Mexico and Peru, if get vanished then Earth’s temperature will rise by 8℃, with global warming making conditions even worse.
The deadly effect of global warming would also melt polar ice and lift sea levels.
It also interesting to know that the last time Earth was that hot was somewhere about 50 million years ago, the time when Eocene Epoch crocodiles existed in the Arctic.
According to the data, around 1℃ increase has been noticed since the mid-19th century , i.e. approximately in the last 50 years causing heatwaves, droughts, flooding and cyclones.
An important UN report published in October, however, studies that even a 2℃ hike in the pre-industrial benchmark will have harmful effect in the form of declining shallow-water level reefs that hold almost a quarter of marine species.
Further the report says, as man- made global warming has been introduced, the Carbon Dioxide concentration in the atmosphere has risen up nearly 45% , right from 285 to 410 parts per million.
Meanwhile, the protective cloud cover will vanish if Carbon Dioxide levels reach 1200 parts per million, according to an innovative approach that studies behaviour of the stratus clouds.
The sad parts is, even after 30 years of alarming warnings about the deadly effect of climate change, global greenhouse gas emissions are increasing year after year.
At current rates of CO2 pollution, the 1200 ppm value will be crossed by 2104, according to the research.
Moreover, the man-made global warming may increase the release of CO2 and methane making the situation even more deadlier.
The findings, published in Nature Geosciences, study the early Eocene Epoch that existed 50 million years ago, when temperatures used to be about 12℃ warmer than today.
According to Climate models, CO2 levels need to get risen above 4,000 ppm to explain the level of global warming. However, geological evidence shows only 25 to 50% hike.
The clouds will broke up when CO2 levels hit 1,200 ppm, and would not reform until the concentration of carbon dioxide drops well below a certain level.
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