Even if there comes a day when the world completely stops emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, coastal regions and island nations will continue to experience rising sea levels for centuries afterward, according to researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Simon Fraser University in the US.
The greenhouse gases such as methane, chlorofluorocarbons or hydrofluorocarbons linger in the atmosphere for just a year to a few decades.
These effects - essentially irreversible on human timescales - are due in part to carbon dioxide's residence time.
The greenhouse gas can stay in the atmosphere for centuries after it is been emitted from smokestacks and tailpipes.
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In contrast to carbon dioxide, other greenhouse gases such as methane and chlorofluorocarbons have much shorter lifetimes. However, previous studies have not specified what their long-term effects may be on sea-level rise.
With the model, the team calculated both the average global temperature and sea-level rise, in response to anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, chlorofluorocarbons and hydrofluorocarbons.
The researchers' estimates for carbon dioxide agreed with other predictions and showed that, even if the world were to stop emitting carbon dioxide starting in 2050, up to 50 per cent of the gas would remain in the atmosphere more than 750 years afterward.
The reason, Solomon said, is due to "ocean inertia", as the world warms due to greenhouse gases - carbon dioxide included - waters heat up and expand causing sea levels to rise.
Removing the extra ocean heat caused by even short-lived gases and consequently lowering sea levels, is an extremely slow process.
The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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