A new study has provided a terrifying glimpse into the future of our planet, and it doesn’t look optimistic. Namely, the researchers simulated the greenhouse effect, the dramatic escalation of temperatures on our planet.
It is worrying that the Earth could soon become an ‘uninhabitable hell’, like the neighboring planet Venus, writes the Daily Mail.
And it won’t be that far in the future because scientists predict that the greenhouse effect on Earth could be in a few hundred years or even sooner.
The new study was made by astronomers from the University of Geneva together with the French CNRS laboratories in Paris and Bordeaux.
There are several scenarios that should explain the difference between Earth and Venus.
Venus is known as Earth’s ‘evil twin’ because it is also rocky and about the same size, but its average surface temperature is an incredible 465°C.
Thanks to its dense atmosphere, Venus is even hotter than the planet Mercury, even though it orbits closer to the Sun. That rocky orb is not only inhospitable, it’s sterile, with a surface hot enough to melt lead and toxic clouds of sulfuric acid.
As reported, even from Earth, Venus is the brightest in the night sky apart from the Moon, and can be recognized by its slightly yellowish hue.
Thus it acts as a visible warning to habitants of Earth of what may happen to their planet.
Although gases such as carbon dioxide and methane are known to cause global warming, the authors of the study say that water vapor may actually be driving the greenhouse effect on Earth.
The world is already warming due to carbon dioxide and methane emissions, and this results in an increase in water vapor in the atmosphere due to ocean evaporation.
Although many people don’t know it, water vapor is a natural greenhouse gas.
Water vapor prevents solar radiation absorbed by the Earth from being re-emitted into the void of space because it traps heat like a blanket.
The greenhouse effect further increases the evaporation of the oceans, and in turn further increases the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere. Such a catastrophic spiral is rapidly escalating.
“There is a critical threshold for the amount of water vapor, beyond which the planet can no longer cool,” said the study’s lead author, Guillaume Chaverot from UNIGE, adding:
“That is until the oceans eventually completely evaporate and the temperature reaches several hundred degrees”.
With the new climate models, scientists have calculated that a very small increase in solar radiation would lead to an increase in the Earth’s global temperature of only a few tens of degrees. That would be enough to start an irreversible process on Earth and make our planet as inhospitable as Venus.
The researchers described a three-part process that they say is applicable to any planet with oceans, even those outside our solar system.
First, there is a phase of ocean evaporation, which enriches the atmosphere with water vapor. Second, when the ocean has completely evaporated, there is a ‘dry transition’ during which the surface temperature rises dramatically. And thirdly, the evolution ends with the hot and stable state Venus has been in for the past 700 million years, experts estimate.
The results of this study were published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, N1 writes.
E.Dz.
