What happens to the carbon dioxide after emissions are cut?

Question

The icecaps are melting, temperatures are going to raise, and so forth according to the majority of scientists.

My question is this: If all carbon emissions were stopped, what then happens to all the extra carbon dioxide? Yes, I know plants breathe it in, the sea absorbs some, etc etc, but all that carbon dioxide created surely won't disapear over a night, a year, or a decade simply from those things. I'm guessing it would take many decades, centuries or even millenia for all the carbon dioxide added into the air by us to eventually fizzle out.

So would global warming would carry on pretty much as it is for a long time even if somehow (unrealistcaly I know, it's not going to happen) every carbon emission was stopped? If not, where would it all go?

I am very curious, as we are always being told to cut carbon emissions, but nobody ever explains what will happen to the excess carbon already there and why it won't just keep global warming going at it's current rate.

I'd also appreciate a link to a reputable website if you know any which contains such information.

This question isn't about the existance of global warming, and I know that other things, such a methane also contribute to it, I'm just asking about the carbon dioxide.

Answer 1

To answer this question it would require that scientist understand the extent of the CO2 sinks globally.  The sad truth is that they do not.  They know the largest of the sinks is the ocean, but after that they just cannot be certain.  Is it the northern boreal forests or perhaps the equitorial jungles?  It is an inknown quantity.  

They also claim to know the CO2 saturation of the atmosphere, but like most people they hate to admit when they are wrong.  The CO2 concentrations are not homogenuous across the globe.  The last attempted "global" measurement of CO2 produced a concentration much lower then the most up to date computer models.  Scientists were confounded, they could not figure out where all the CO2 went.  They had no answers, just more theories and speculation.  Which makes sense, since thats all they had in the first place.  Global warming is a theory, not a very good one at that.  So buy into it if it makes you feel a sense of purpose, but your still a sucker.

Answer 2

Currently there is rougly 1°F further warming 'in the pipeline' from the CO2 we've already emitted.

http://environmentaldefenseblogs.org/cli...

So in other words, if we drastically cut our CO2 emissions immediately, the planet would warm another degree or so and then temperatures would level off.

CO2 can stay in the atmosphere for hundreds of years.  Recent studies indicate that recovery from a large input of atmospheric CO2 from burning fossil fuels will result in an effective lifetime of tens of thousands of years

Answer 3

I'm really not impressed by film of ice melting in the frozen north in the summer months.  Why?  Because I have seen film footage of exactly the same from the Yukon in 1928.

Global Warming is a con.

Climate Change happens all the time.

We only have written data about our weather going back 200 years.

I remain a true British sceptic in all things and don't believe a word being spun to me, especially not by scientists who want to plant millions of GM trees here in UK just to see what will happen.

Our world is dominated by mad scientists and off their trolleys politicians.

Answer 4

The average lifetime of a CO2 molecule in the troposphere (the lowest layer of the atmosphere, in which we live and where weather occurs) is about 100 years.  Eventually the carbon gets dissolved into the oceans, taken up by plants and trees, and absorbed by other processes.

The temperature would still continue rising for a while, as a result of the carbon already in the atmosphere.  Our most sophisticated models currently predict that we are committed to a further increase of approximately 0.5 degrees (Celsius) in global average temperature, if all CO2 emissions were to stop now.  This rise would happen by about 2050, after which the temperature would slowly start to fall back to pre-industrial levels.

The most reliable scientific source for info about climate change is the IPCC, an international body made up of thousands of scientists from around the world:  www.ipcc.ch

Unfortunately the IPCC website can be a bit difficult to navigate around and find the info you want (IMO!) - for something a bit more user-friendly try this blog written by climate scientists working at NASA and other top scientific institutions:  www.realclimate.org

Answer 5

If all CO2 emissions were stopped, the environment would be able to clean it up faster. Which means our earth would be able to restore itself faster. The only reason that it would take thousands and millions of years to do even a little bit is because the environment is trying to clean up what we're currently putting into the air, it doesn't have the necessary time to clean up the damage that has been done in the past.

Answer 6

It get's absorbed by plants then is locked into the soil and goes on to form rock. Alternatively it's absorbed by sea creatures who die, fall to the bottom of the sea, are fossilised and go on to form rock or fossil fuel locked into rock. The CO2 in the rock does eventually get subducted into the earths mantle due to plate techtonics and can be emitted back into the atmosphere in millions of years through volcanic eruptions. This is the natural Carbon cycle. The problem currently is that human kind is digging all of the carbon out of the rocks in the form of coal, oil and gas and releasing into the atmosphere in a very short space of time (geologically speaking) this is why we have artificial global warming at present.

hope this makes sense.

Answer 7

it will, it looks so far like the delay is about 50 years, so, it would take that long for temp to start dropping again after co2 has peaked. the co2 would eventually get reabsorbed, in some hundreds of years, unless we desertify the land and acidify the sea, in which case it might take tens of thousands of years to get back to this kind of climate.



thats assuming we dont set off some large positive feedback effect like the melting permafrost or even (horror!) methane 'burp' from under sea clathrates. sorry, cant just look at co2 in isolation, so much stuff feeds into other stuff.

Answer 8

actualy, it will take two years at most.