• Question: When is global warming estimated to be at its peak?

    Asked by for_science_john to Francesca, Laura, Matthew, Andrew, Rebecca on 18 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Andrew McKinley

      Andrew McKinley answered on 18 Nov 2014:

      I’m not sure there is an answer to this one. “Global warming” is a misnomer and has become something of an outdated term. “Climate change” is the preferred term to describe mankind’s impact on the global climate, not least because “Global warming” will ultimately lead to the UK becoming cooler! Melting of the ice-caps will stop the Gulf Stream bringing heat to the UK from the tropics, meaning that we will experience a drop in our mean temperature.

      As to when our effect on climate change will peak, well, that will only happen once our ability to sustain ourselves and our emission of ‘greenhouse gases’ like carbon dioxide is balanced by the Earth’s capability to absorb the gases again. I fear that will only happen once we have completely exhausted our supplies of fossil fuels.

    • Photo: Matthew Camilleri

      Matthew Camilleri answered on 18 Nov 2014:

      The global warming effect will be present long after we change our ways, and the reversibility of such an effect is not entirely a certainty. Once we change our ways, if we actually do that, we will not necessarily see the effects immediately, but if we do not change our ways and standards of livings we will have to prepare for a tough future.

    • Photo: Laura Schofield

      Laura Schofield answered on 19 Nov 2014:

      This will be either when we stop releasing greenhouse gases (like CO2) into the atmosphere or when we find a way to soak them up once released. The most obvious way to do this is to use cleaner energy sources that we don’t have to burn and so don’t produce vast quantities of CO2, but as this would take a lot of new technology, a lot of people I work with are working on Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS).
      The idea with CCS is that power stations will use molecules that act as CO2 “sponges” and soak it all up before it escapes into the atmosphere. Once it has been trapped, there is a new problem though, what do we do with it next! One of the girls in my research group is looking into what types of pipes would be needed to transport the CO2 once it has been evacuated from the “sponges” to put it underground in disused oil wells. That would be a pretty good solution if we can find a way to get it there and then stop it escaping straight away as maybe in a few thousand years it will have made some more coal and oil!

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