Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
• About 15 percent and 25 percent decreases in the extent of
annually averaged and September Arctic sea ice, respectively
For warming of 2 to 3°C, summers that are among the warmest recorded
or the warmest experienced in people's lifetimes, would become frequent.
For warming levels of 1 to 2°C, the area burned by wildfire in parts of west-
ern North America is expected to increase by 2 to 4 times for each degree
(°C) of global warming.
Many other important impacts of climate change are difficult to quantify
for a given change in global average temperature, in part because tempera-
ture is not the only driver of change for some impacts; multiple environmen-
tal and other human factors come into play. It is clear from scientific studies,
however, that a number of projected impacts scale approximately with
temperature. Examples include shifts in the range and abundance of some
terrestrial and marine species, increased risk of heat-related human health
impacts, and loss of infrastructure in the coastal regions and the Arctic.
°C
°F
10
18
9
16.2
8
14.4
FIGURE Syn.2 Illustration of how temperature
change in degrees Celsius (left side of thermom-
eter) relates to temperature change in degrees
Fahrenheit (right side of thermometer). For ex-
ample, a warming of 5°C is equal to a warming
of 9°C. In this report estimates of temperature
change are in made in degrees Celsius in accor-
dance with international scientific practice.
7
12.6
6
10.8
5
9
4
7.2
3
5.4
2
3.6
1
1.8
0
0
