"Aggressive and immediate investments in reducing carbon dioxide emissions are key for securing a tolerable climate for future generations," said Lead Author Prof. Jonathan Lamontagne, (former CEE Postdoc and CEE Alumn). CEE Prof. Patrick Reed also contributed to this article "Robust abatement pathways to tolerable climate futures require immediate global action" published in Nature, March 11, 2019.
A new comprehensive study of climate change has painted over 5 million pictures of humanity’s potential futures, and few foretell an Earth that has not severely warmed. But with immediate action and some luck, there are pathways to a tolerable climate future.
By adapting a popular climate change assessment model to better account for uncertainties in human activity and the atmosphere’s sensitivity to carbon dioxide levels, the researchers created a novel method for exploring the consequences of different climate change futures to better inform policy decisions.
“The consequences of severe warming can be dire. Given this potential for poor outcomes, it can be dangerous to consider only a few expert elicited scenarios,” said Lamontagne. “Planners need robust frameworks that broadly explore the uncertainty space for unforeseen synergies and failure mechanisms.”
Tiny plastic pieces are everywhere from the polar ice sheets to the deepest ocean canyons. Researchers at Cornell’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering are revealing how they got there. Read more about Microplastics in Motion
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