- The ocean takes thousands of years to reach equilibrium with a warmed atmosphere.
Once, and if, CO2 levels stabilise,the oceans will continue to warm and expand
because of the gradual penetration of heat downwards.
-
This figure shows the thermal expansion component of sea level rise, in a climate
model experiment where CO2 was increased by 1% per year for 70 years, until the
amount of CO2 in the atmosphere had doubled, and then was halted.
- The blue part
of the curve at the beginning is the rise during the climate change part of the experiment.
But, despite the fact that CO2 did not change after year 70 (which is obviously
impractical as it would require an overnight reduction of about 70% in global CO2 emissions), the sea level carried on rising for hundreds of years.
- So at any point the sea
level rise caused by the greenhouse effect carries with it a commitment to an additional,
inescapable, rise.
Source: Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research
