By Gary Thomas
Scientists at the Lancaster University in UK have asserted that society will have to respond more actively to address the damages and risks associated with increase in greenhouse gas emissions.
Emissions
The study was performed by Dr Andy Jarvis, Professor Nick Hewitt and Dr David Leedal belonging to the Lancaster Environment Centre. They have proposed to link societal actions to changes in temperature in order to consider the reactions of the society to global warming.
When compared to its responsiveness in 1990, the society will have to increase its responsiveness by 50 times in order to address the worldwide change in temperature.
The society’s decarbonization effort stands at 0.6% per year for 160 years. These efforts will have to be hiked up to 13% per year.
Since 1990, globally, new renewable sources of energy have grown. This has led to a climate–society feedback in terms of 0.25% annually in CO2 emissions for every degree of increase in temperature.
The present climate damages can induce the society to react more or less. Taking measures to repair the climate damages may lead to increase in greenhouse gas emissions. It may also lead to economic loss if the greenhouse gas emissions are dampened. Professor Nick Hewitt states that both reactions are unpredictable and may be dangerous.
The study has been published in the journal Nature Climate Change.
Source: http://www.lancs.ac.uk/