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The global warming news just got worse.
A new study that included the University of Hawaii has estimated that temperatures by the year 2100 will increase 10.5 degrees over pre-industrial levels.
That’s because warmer climates are more sensitive than cool climates to increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide, the scientists concluded in a study that looked back over 784,000 years using ice cores and seafloor sediments.
“Currently, our planet is in a warm phase — an interglacial period — and the associated increased climate sensitivity needs to be taken into account for future projections of warming induced by human activities,”said Tobias Friedrich, a researcher at UH-Manoa.
The study was published this week in the journal Science Advances.
The 10.5-degree figure is near the upper range of estimates by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
“Our study also allows us to put our 21st century temperatures into the context of Earth’s history,” said Manoa professor Axel Timmermann, a co-author of the study.
The results demonstrate that greenhouse gas emissions are likely to push Earth’s climate out of the envelope of temperature conditions that have prevailed for 784,000 years, the scientists said.
“The only way out is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible,” Friedrich said.
