“You can try to ignore reality, but you can't avoid the consequences of doing so.”
CO2 levels have doubled and are now at 400 ppm. Even if all fossil fuel consumption ended abruptly today, the rate of ice cap melting would remain constant, ocean acidification would not decrease, etcetera. CO2 absorption by the ocean has slowed to the point that such can no longer cushion our excessive carbon dioxide release. The carbon dioxide in the air today will be there for a long, long time.
Currently, we are adding 2 ppm of CO2 yearly; but even if CO2 release levels remained constant, the percentage of atmospheric greenhouse gases will increase beyond that because it's no longer being as readily soaked up by the oceans. The only rational choice is to drastically cut fossil fuel consumption now, not later.
If the human race became very proactive suddenly, we could likely avoid the worst effects of "anthropogenic global warming", even though it's already too late to avoid a lot of the climate change effects.
