Climate Change Map Reveals How Temperatures are Impacted by CO2 Emissions

A new study reveals exactly how much temperatures have been influenced by CO2 emissions. Scientists have examined carbon dioxide emissions and have finally put them on the map.

In this latest study, the researchers used simulation results from 12 global climate models. This allowed the researchers to create a map that shows how the climate changes in response to cumulative carbon emissions around the world.

"This provides a simple and powerful link between total global emissions of carbon dioxide and local climate warming," said Damon Matthews, one of the researchers, in a news release. "This approach can be used to show how much human emissions are to blame for local changes."

The researchers also analyzed the results of simulations in which CO2 emissions caused the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere to increase by 1 percent each year until it reached four times the levels recorded prior to the Industrial Revolution.

Globally, the researchers saw an average temperature increase of 1.7 plus or minus .4 degrees Celsius per trillion tons of carbon in CO2 emissions. This is consistent with reports from the IPCC.

More specifically, the researchers found that equatorial regions warmed the slowest and the Arctic warmed the fastest. This is consistent with what researchers have already seen, as well.

"To date, humans have emitted almost 600 billion tons of carbon," said Matthews. "This means that land areas on average have already warmed by 1.3 degrees Celsius because of these emissions. At current emission rates, we will have emitted enough CO2 to warm land areas by 2 degrees Celsius within 3 decades."

The findings are published in the journal National Climate Change.

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