PREDICTED CHANGE

The Future is Inherently Uncertain. But Far from Unknown.
Explore Climate Change in the 21st Century.

The future is inherently uncertain, but far from unknown. In this activity you will be able to explore the trends in atmospheric CO₂ concentration and temperature over the coming century, both through line graphs and time-varying temperature maps of the world.

21st Century CO₂ and Temperature Projections

The red lines on the graph shows globally averaged temperature for each year; the blue line shows the level of atmospheric CO₂.

Different computer models project somewhat different climate trends; the two maps show two of these models, one from GFDL (The Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory), and the other from NCAR (The National Center for Atmospheric Research).

The maps are color keyed to show average temperatures for each year.

Globally averaged temperature projections from two state-of-the-art climate models driven by the same scenario of the future CO₂ concentrations give similar results.

• Both show that warming will increase in the next century as greenhouse gas levels rise.
• Both show that warming will be greatest in the northern regions close to the pole.
• Both show that warming will tend to be greater over land than over the ocean.

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