“Our study convinced us that current choices regarding carbon dioxide emissions will have legacies that will irreversibly change the planet,” wrote NOAA senior scientist Susan Solomon for the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

She and her team found that even if atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide were to decline, the oceans, which have slowed down climate change by absorbing heat, would achieve equilibrium with the atmosphere by releasing it back into the air.

Solomon told the Washington Post that you should “think about this stuff more like nuclear waste than acid rain,” since radioactive materials take centuries to decay while acid rain disappears not long after its polluting source has stopped.

But that doesn’t mean that governments and industry should stop attempts to curb greenhouse emissions, according to the report.

It warns that if CO2 is allowed to peak at 450-600 parts per million (the current level is about 385 ppm), it will result in persistent drought comparable to the 1930s Midwest Dust Bowl in areas of southern Europe, northern Africa, the American Southwest, southern Africa and western Australia.

“I guess if it’s irreversible, to me it seems all the more reason you might want to do something about it,” Solomon told National Public Radio.

The report was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and came as President Obama announced a review of vehicle emission standards and promised the government will no longer ignore the facts when it comes to climate change.

Illustration: NASA's Big Blue Marble stylized by Adam Korzekwa - iStockphoto