Here are some fresh thoughts on the enduring and important questions surrounding «climate sensitivity» — how much warming will result from
a substantial buildup of greenhouse gases.
Not exact matches
The vast majority
of research in recent decades on the carbon dioxide
buildup has been focused on the atmospheric impacts
of the accumulating
greenhouse -
gas blanket even though the vast majority
of the heated trapped by these
gases has gone first into the seas — and the drop in seawater pH driven by CO2 has been a clear signal
of substantial environmental change.
Between the poles
of real - time catastrophe and nonevent lies the prevailing scientific view: Without big changes in emissions rates, global warming from the
buildup of greenhouse gases is likely to lead to
substantial, and largely irreversible, transformations
of climate, ecosystems and coastlines later this century.
One grand, overarching myth not discussed by Plumer is that the kind
of solar technology produced by companies like Solyndra can play a
substantial role in blunting the
buildup of greenhouse gases driven largely by burning coal and oil.