Lifetime of Anthropogenic Climate Change
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Material Information

Title:
Lifetime of Anthropogenic Climate Change Millennial Time Scales of Potential CO2 and Surface Temperature Perturbations
Series Title:
Journal of Climate Volume 22
Creator:
M. Eby
K. Zickfeld
A. Montenegro
D. Archer
K.J. Meissner
A. J. Weaver
Affiliation:
University of Victoria -- School of Earth and Ocean Sciences
University of Victoria -- School of Earth and Ocean Sciences
University of Victoria -- School of Earth and Ocean Sciences
University of Chicago -- Department of the Geophysical Sciences
University of Victoria -- School of Earth and Ocean Sciences
University of Victoria -- School of Earth and Ocean Sciences
Publisher:
American Meteorological Society
Publication Date:
Language:
English

Subjects

Subjects / Keywords:
climate change
carbon dioxide
global carbon cycle

Notes

Abstract:
Multimillennial simulations with a fully coupled climate–carbon cycle model are examined to assess the persistence of the climatic impacts of anthropogenic CO2 emissions. It is found that the time required to absorb anthropogenic CO2 strongly depends on the total amount of emissions; for emissions similar to known fossil fuel reserves, the time to absorb 50%of the CO2 is more than 2000 yr. The long-term climate response appears to be independent of the rate at which CO2 is emitted over the next few centuries. Results further suggest that the lifetime of the surface air temperature anomaly might be as much as 60% longer than the lifetime of anthropogenic CO2 and that two-thirds of the maximum temperature anomaly will persist for longer than 10 000 yr. This suggests that the consequences of anthropogenic CO2 emissions will persist for many millennia.

Record Information

Source Institution:
Florida International University
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Aggregations:
Sea Level Rise