• Question: Do you believe that the harmful effects that global warming has had on this world can be reversed?

    Asked by TheHappyHamburger04 to Hannah, Joanna, Joe, Luis, Vincent on 16 Jun 2016.
    • Photo: Luis Perez Calderon

      Luis Perez Calderon answered on 16 Jun 2016:

      There is a field of chemistry that looks at capturing carbon dioxide (one famous harmful greenhouse gas). It aims to get carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it underground.

    • Photo: Hannah Grist

      Hannah Grist answered on 16 Jun 2016:

      That’s a huge question! Well done :-).

      If we stop putting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, we could stop it warming any further, which is really important. We could also do things like planting more trees and stop cutting down the ones we have. Eventually, the trees would take some of the gases out of the atmosphere, which would start reversing the process of global warming.

      However, even if we do this, it is probably too late to stop some of the harm that has been done. Parts of the Arctic that have melted would probably not refreeze, for example. In particular, lots of plants and animals have gone extinct, or might go extinct, and we have no chance of getting them back once they are gone.

    • Photo: Vincent Keenan

      Vincent Keenan answered on 20 Jun 2016:

      That’s a great question! But it does depend on what you mean by reversed..

      If you mean the implications for wildlife, I think the answer is no. Animals evolve with their environment, but this is a slow process and the changes are happening too quickly for some of them to adapt and they risk becoming extinct.

      Some scientists believe that the the planet can gradually get warmer if we do not stop contributing to greenhouses gases, this can gradually get cooler if we do stop. There is a tipping point (that no one knows! 🙁 ) however, if this is reached the cooling process will be much slower. This is a process called climate hysteresis.

    • Photo: Joe Nunez-Mino

      Joe Nunez-Mino answered on 21 Jun 2016:

      I think there are lots of things we can do to reduce the negative impacts that global warming can have. Can the effects be reversed? Probably but it would be at a huge cost to the way we currently live. What we can all do is make sure we dont make a bad situation any worse – we need to make sure we stop making it even hotter.

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