Theoretically speaking isn't it essentially impossible to reverse the effects of climate change?

Before the industrial revolution of course.

And the risk is practically incalculable if say there were a large volcanic eruption right after we were well into engineered cooling.

Planting tons of trees to battle global warming isn’t a far fetched idea, which is one put out by the Climate accord in Paris.

“Combined, the suggested “regreening of the planet” would be equivalent to halting all burning of oil worldwide, it said.”

Whew! That’s a relief! Now we can go out in style and not feel guilty about it. :wink:

Not significantly. If all industrial countries eliminated 100% of their CO2 emissions today, the 2C temperature increase expected by 2100 would only be reduced by 0.2 C.

https://www.cato.org/carbon-tax-temperature-savings-calculator

Yep. Low land countries like Bangladeshv, for instance, lose far more land per person a year to population growth than they do to sea level rise.

The hippies were right yet again.

the hippie in town

is the smartest guy i know

he destroys me at chess

every time

he doesnt talk much politics

but everybody knows hes the town lib

Various reasons.

But if the earth was only designed to absorb x amount of CO2 and we are now putting in X3 (I meant to say x cubed but can’t seem to do so) then how does it compensate? And realistically speaking it will take decades is ever to get back to x. So in other words not only is there the excess CO2 from the past say 200 years but we will still be putting in massive amounts of excess CO2 over the next few decades even if there is a concerted effort by all nations to do so.

How would the temperatures even drop if the excess CO2 is still there?

There’s really one overarching reason,…

co2 is a trace gas in our atmosphere. there is more argon in our atmosphere than co2. in large amounts (venus) it traps a lot of heat. water vapor, other pollutants/particulates trap/reflect a lot more heat than co2.

co2 happens to be the only substance that can controlled by policy though

I didn’t see a particular statistic put forth by this article that indicated as such? Not sure which you are alluding to?

Those are questions that remain largely unanswered. A warmer climate overall seems to be the most likely scenario according to current science.

As you are aware I’m sure.

Because technological, food production, and medical advances have improved suvivability, particularly in the first five years of life, beyond the capability of people killing people to keep the population in check.

That is a gross exaggeration. Man’s contribution to the rise in atmospheric CO2 is only 3-4%. The problem we face (if indeed CO2 is the culprit) is that it takes a very long time for Earth to absorb that “excess” CO2 and reach a natural staibility. All attempts to reduce or even eliminate man-made emissions of CO2 would merely (again, IF CO2 is the culprit) slow the rate of temperature increase and slightly decrease the ultimate temperature rise.

It won’t … it would take a very long time (in terms of human life span) for the natural absorption rate of the planet to lower the percent of CO2 in the atmosphere sufficiently to reduce global temperature.

From 280 ppm pre industrial revolution to 410 ppm today is a lot more than 3 to 4 percent

That’s not what I said. The increment of man made CO2 over natural sources is only 3-4%. But that’s only part of the story. The increase from 280 ppm to 410 ppm over the last 150 years represents an annual growth rate of only 0.25%. The average annual growth rate of the atmospheric concentration since 1960 has been about 0.6% per year; currently the growth rate is about 0.75% per year. The discrepancy between that number and the 3-4% figure I cited, is absorbtion. The planet has been absorbing (in green plant growth and into the oceans and other natural sinks) most of the CO2 that man produces.

The “jump” from 280 ppm to 410 ppm may sound like a lot, but it’s like interest on your savings account. If you draw out less money than is accrued in interest, the account grows. An annual 3.5% interest rate will double your money over 20 years. An annual interest rate of 0.75% will double your money in about 92 years.