A Changing Global Temperature

A Changing Global Temperature

NASA has recently predicted global temperature changes into the future based on historical temperature records, a thousand years worth of tree rings data, and soil moisture records from 17 different climate models. The study is focused more on the United States but it is very likely that other parts of the world will face these same problems, but in different severities. According to their findings and using advanced climate models, the global temperature is predicted to continue rising, even if we attempted to drastically reduce the CO2 emissions that are helping to increase global temperatures, though they may be less severe.

Below is an estimated depiction of how the United States could be affected by drought by the year 2095. This is the prediction if we do not change our CO2 emissions. The expanse of drought would be crippling to our country. These would be longer droughts than what the United States has seen in the last thousand years, even including the historical Dust Bowl. In the case below, the risk of future droughts increases to 80% (NASA).

Picture source: http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/rcp8.5_soilmoisture.jpg

They expect that the oncoming future droughts, like the ones we're seeing in California currently, will last for up to 20-40 years (NASA). With these prolonged periods of drought, it is going to stress other factors like water usage and restriction, which will in turn have a drastic effect on agriculture. Ecosystems in these affected regions will also be negatively affected by the likely prolonged drought periods.

Source: http://climate.nasa.gov/news/2238/