NPR: Carbon Emissions Could Plummet. The Atmosphere Will Lag Behind.
In the next several days, the Biden administration is expected to announce plans across the economy to reduce America’s greenhouse gas emissions dramatically by 2030.
The Biden administration’s goal is to speed the process to avoid a climate tipping point that scientists warn is quickly approaching. If global warming continues at its current pace, rising seas and heavy rain will flood cities around the world, wildfires and hurricanes will become even more destructive, and many more plant and animal species will go extinct.
But reducing emissions, even sharply, will not immediately fix the problems up in Earth’s atmosphere. It took decades for greenhouse gases to accumulate in the atmosphere and trap heat, and it will take centuries for those gases to dissipate once humans decide to stop pumping them into the air.