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Water is a far more efficient insulator than CO2 at more than double heat retention. This is mathematically tolerable due to atmospheric life cycle duration. Wa
by austincheney 5y ago
Water is a far more efficient insulator than CO2 at more than double heat retention. This is mathematically tolerable due to atmospheric life cycle duration. Water vapor has an atmosphere duration of about 8 days before recapture at the surface but CO2 remains in the atmosphere for 72 days.
- pfdietz 5y agoRelease of CO2 causes problems for much longer than 72 days. The bump from all our fossil fuel burning won't go away for many thousands of years.
- labster 5y agoIn a net zero scenario, we should start to see improvement in a couple centuries. The ocean overturning time is roughly 500 years, and getting carbonic acid under the carbonate compensation depth can have a huge effect, dwarfing anything we do in the terrestrial biosphere like “planting trees”.
- pfdietz 5y agoYes, we start to see improvement, but then that plateaus. To get back to a preindustrial state would take a very long time, as I understand it.