Study Suggests Emissions Irrelevant to Climate Change

A new study released by the A.M. Obukhov Institute of Atmospheric Physics RAS, in Moscow, Russia claims that human generated emissions of greenhouse gases (such as CO₂) are irrelevant to climate change.

The press release is rather light on details, however a PDF of the report can be found here.

The link between the carbon cycle, and human effects caused by emissions, energy use and agriculture, may only be relevant for the next ’several centuries,’ suggest Igor Mokhov and Alexey Eliseev from the A.M. Obukhov Institute of Atmospheric Physics RAS, in Moscow, Russia. The authors used a climate model known as IAP RAS CM to study how feedback between our climate and the carbon cycle changes over time. In their simulations, the authors assumed that fossil fuel emissions would grow exponentially with a characteristic timescale from 50 to 250years.

In their models, Mokhov and Eliseev found that although climate–carbon cycle feedback grows initially, it then peaks and eventually decreases to a point where the feedback ceases. If we succeed in slowing down the rate of emissions, the peak would be reached much later. However, a steep increase in emissions would bring the peak in coupling between climate and carbon emissions even closer.

The authors suggest that we are heading inexorably towards the saturation peak, irrespective of how quickly we get there: “Even weak but continuing emissions lead to eventual saturation of the climate–carbon cycle feedback,” Mokhov and Eliseev explain.

This one study goes counter to about 20 years worth of peer-reviewed research on the topic, so take it with a grain of salt. Of course, this is all that’s needed for opponents of alternative energies to rally behind.

[Via Eurekalert]

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