A new study from five scientists at United States and German institutions found that global temperatures could actually raise by around 7 degrees Celsius, which would wreak havoc on our planet. In light of the new study, renowned climatologist Michael Mann said a Donald Trump presidency – should he follow up on promises to jerk the United States out of the Paris agreement – could mean “game over for the climate.”
The new scientific study, published the day after the United States election by the journal Science Advances, says as the Earth warms, it responds even more to greenhouse gas emissions, further raising temperatures. So instead of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s estimate that by 2100 temperatures will rise between 2.6 and 4.8 degrees Celsius, should we continue to burn fossil fuels as we have, the scientists paint a far more drastic picture in the new study. They say by 2100 temperatures could rise by 4.78 and 7.36 degrees Celsius.
Related: The window for averting disastrous climate change has probably closed
Prominent climatologist Michael Mann told The Independent the study seemed “sound and the conclusions quite defensible.” He said the new paper could back up the idea that a Trump presidency might mean “game over for the climate,” saying, “By ‘game over for the climate,’ I mean game over for stabilizing warming below dangerous (i.e. greater than 2C) levels. If Trump makes good on his promises, and the U.S. pulls out of the Paris [climate] treaty, it is difficult to see a path forward to keeping warming below those levels.”
Lead author on the paper Tobias Friedrich of the International Pacific Research Center at the University of Hawaii at Manoa told The Independent, “The only way out is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible.”
Via The Independent
Images via glasseyes view on Flickr and Tobias Friedrich, Alex Timmermann, Michelle Tigchelaar, Oliver Elison Timm, and Audrey Ganopolski
