Save 'trillionth tonne' warn Oxford scientistsApril 30th, 2009
in Space & Earth / Environment Oxford scientists say climate
change can only be stopped by phasing out carbon dioxide
emissions (PhysOrg.com) -- Emitting carbon dioxide slower will
not prevent dangerous climate change unless it involves phasing
out carbon dioxide emissions altogether, before we reach an
upper limit of one trillion tonnes of carbon, a team led by
Oxford University scientists has concluded. Two studies
published in today’s Nature show that the risk of dangerous
climate change is primarily determined by the accumulation of
carbon dioxide emissions over time, not by short-term emission
rates. The first study, led by Dr Myles Allen from Oxford’s
Department of Physics shows that total cumulative emissions of
one trillion tonnes of carbon (1 Tt C, or 3,670 billion tonnes
of carbon dioxide) over the entire ‘anthropocene’ period
1750-2500 causes a most likely peak warming of 2 degrees Celsius
above pre-industrial temperatures. Most of the