Global temperatures to rise 9 degrees by 2100

Global Temperatures to Rise 9 Degrees by 2100, New Study Says May 26, 2009 · Print This Article As if the warnings about global warming weren’t already sobering enough, a new report indicates that it will actually be twice as severe as previously thought. The research, conducted by MIT and published in the Journal of Climate, predicts a 90% probability that that worldwide surface temperatures will rise 9 degrees by the year 2100, compared to the previous MIT study that predicted a rise of just over 4 degrees. From USA Today: The projections in the MIT study were done using 400 applications of a computer model, which MIT says is the most comprehensive and sophisticated climate model to date. The model looks at the effects of economic activity as well as the effects of atmospheric, oceanic and biological systems. The improved economic modeling and newer economic data (which gives a lower chance of reduced emissions) are among the major changes from the 2003 model application. Unless greenhouse gas emissions are reduced, “there is significantly more risk than we previously estimated,” says study co-author Ronald Prinn of MIT. “There’s no way the world can or should take these risks.” “The results appear to be credible and quantify a certain unease many scientists have on the real magnitude of the climate problem ahead of us, one that is not adequately appreciated by most politicians,” writes Kevin Trenberth, a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and an IPCC lead author, in an e-mail. Holy crap. A nine degree rise in global temperatures within less than one century would have a cataclysmic impact on the world. Life as we know it would certainly be over. Interesting how the more complex the methods of assessing climate change risk, the scarier the news, isn’t it? Link [USA Today] Photo credit: azrainman