Global Warming-NASA

In your Journal, write a brief, one to two page report (300 to 400 words) giving your views on the following topic: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimates that Earth will warm between two and six degrees Celsius over the next century. The range in estimate comes from running different emission scenarios through several different global climate models. Scenarios that assume that people will burn more and more fossil fuel provide the estimates in the top end of the temperature range, while scenarios that assume that greenhouse gas emissions will grow slowly give lower temperature predictions. The lower range provides an estimate of what global temperatures would have been if greenhouse gases had stayed at year 2000 levels. Referring to the Global Surface Warming graph under How Much More Will Earth Warm on the NASA – Earth Observatory Web Site on Climate Change, which path do you think the world will follow and why: constant CO2 growth, low growth, moderate growth or high growth? And do you think that, if the world population (political leaders, industry leaders and citizens) had a better understanding of the potential tipping elements and their consequences, they would make the necessary changes to reduce their CO2 emissions? Give reasons for your predictions. The NASA graph is copied below (©2007 IPCC WG1 AR-4.): IPCC