Posted: 11 Jan 2013 02:34 PM PST
The
rule in Washington, DC is if you want to bury news, release it late on a
Friday afternoon. So one can only assume the climate silence crowd
prevailed in the release this afternoon of the draft U.S. Climate Assessment.
Perhaps
it’s this chart they don’t want folks talking about, from the “Newer
Simulations for Projected Temperature” in Chapter 2:
Projected rise in average U.S. surface air temperature 2071-2099 relative to 1971-2000. This is RCP 8.5, “a scenario that assumes continued increases in emissions,” with CO2 levels hitting about 940 parts per million. It is close to the emissions path we are currently on — but not the worst-case scenario and not where still-rising temperatures would end up post-2100.
The
Assessment, put together by dozens of the country’s top climate
experts, makes clear that if we stay anywhere near our current emissions
path, we are headed towards a devastating 9°F to 15°F warming over most
of the United States (this century), with ever-worsening extreme
weather, heat waves, deluges and droughts. As the report notes
“generally, wet [areas] get wetter and dry get drier.” Future
generations will be wishing for the boring “moist” and “cool” days of
2012 (when they aren’t cursing our names).
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