this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2023
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We do depending on the timescale. Sure the planet can naturally sequester carbon again just like before but that is over thousands of years. For people alive right now it is beyond repair because we will all be dead by the time carbon is sequestered faster than it is added.
We know that the planet is warming, we're setting records right now for it and we know why the planet is warming because we can measure the greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. The GHGs added to the atmosphere over my life so far will never be canceled out through the rest of my lifetime because the rate that we're adding them to the atmosphere.
We can take steps to lessen the impact and make it easier to overcome in the future but we've been doing almost everything in our power as a species to create this problem and we're casually toying with maybe doing something better but not reversing this.
We're looking at breaching the 1.5 degree limit here in the next few years and that is the start of permanent damage to certain ecosystems.