Leading climate scientists have warned that global warming is accelerating faster as a result of an earlier attempt to curb climate change.
A study led by renowned climate scientist James Hansen shows that reducing emissions from ships is with the opposite effect on temperature.
As commercial ships cross the ocean, they emit exhaust fumes containing sulfur, which is known to be harmful to human health and the environment.
In 2020, an international rule came into effect that sharply reduced the amount of sulfur allowed in marine fuel.
One way to do this was to fit ships with a ‘scrubbed’, an exhaust gas cleaning system that treats pollution that would normally end up in the air and then dumps it into the sea.
But dumping the waste into the water has caused more heat to be absorbed into the seas, creating an energy imbalance where more heat is stored than released.
A new study has claimed that rules to reduce sulfur emissions from ships and fossil fuel plants are harming our planet by causing temperatures to rise faster
NASA published a study in 2022 showing that a global standard implemented by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) led to fewer pollution fingerprints worldwide.
This was probably achieved by reduced rutting of ships.
“The 1.5 degrees Celsius limit is deadlier than a nail,” says co-author Hansen of Columbia University’s Earth Institute, who was one of the first scientists to warn the world about the climate-warming effects of greenhouse gases in the 1980s . .
“The shortcoming of our scientific community is that they do not make it clear to political leaders what the situation is.”
According to experts, the world is already almost 1.2 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial temperatures.
The study found that scientists have underestimated how sensitive Earth’s climate is to rising carbon dioxide levels.
Despite his plea, however, climate scientist Rob Jackson of Stanford University said, “I tend to trust Hansen.
“I think his claim that the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) has underestimated climate sensitivity will prove to be true.”
The sulfurous exhaust helps create sea clouds that push heat back into space in the form of aerosols, but the oceans trap the heat and raise temperatures more quickly
Climate scientist Michael Mann of the University of Pennsylvania, who has maintained that warming has been steadily increasing but not accelerating since 1990, has posted a rebuttal to Hansen’s claims, saying that climate change is bad enough right now and that it is not necessary to exaggerate the matter.
Mann said, “It has always been risky to ignore (Hansen’s) warnings and admonitions,” but when claims are made so out of the mainstream, the standard of proof is high, and he said Hansen has failed to meet that.
However, a data check from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) supports Hansen’s models.
Hansen and his team looked at climate data from 1970 to 2010 and found that the world was warming at 0.32 F (0.18 C) per decade, and predicted that it would warm 0.5 F (0.27 C) per decade after 2010. are – and NOAA data confirmed this model.
That start date is critical because it would allow scientists to see the effect of clean air regulations that reduce aerosol pollution and the amount of sulfur in the fuel used by maritime shipping, Hansen said.
Study author James Hansen said the energy imbalance on Earth is much greater than it was a decade ago
Another factor cited in the report has to do with China’s progress in cleaning up air pollution, caused mainly by sulfur dioxide emitted from coal-fired power stations, in addition to global efforts to curb such emissions from shipping.
Cleaning the air while achieving health benefits and saving lives will accelerate climate change. Aerosols scatter and reflect solar radiation.
Past calculations were based on data from plant and animal fossils, assuming that microbiotic organisms would not adapt to warming but would move to their preferred temperature range.
Hansen said recent research shows the microorganisms adapt and stick around.
When his team calculated past temperature changes based on chemical, not biological, markers, they found that warming was much faster when carbon dioxide doubled in Earth’s ancient history.
Hansen said the energy imbalance on Earth is much greater than it was a decade ago.
‘That imbalance has now doubled. Therefore, global warming will accelerate. Therefore, global melting will accelerate,” he said.
Asked if this is evidence of the extreme warming we’ve seen over the past five months, Hansen said: ‘Yes. Absolutely so.’