A 2°C World

A 2 to 3°C warmer world will look significantly different from the world we see around us today. With this level of warming, there will be no more polar bears and some species of arctic seals will disappear.

In a 2 to 3°C warmer world there will be 30% less snow pack in the Rocky Mountains and 60% less water content in that snowpack. The Maple forests of New England will move into northern Maine and Southern Canada.

Scientists are also linking hurricane intensity and water content to climate change. Forest fires in the west are expected to double or even quadruple the number of acres burned between these two temperatures, as soils dry out more quickly.

Coral Reefs, home to 25% of all marine species, will begin to disappear with temperature increases between 2 and 3°C. Two recent studies project that by 2050, 25% of all plant and animal species on earth will be become extinct.

Huge coastal population centers may also be affected in the US and around the world. We know that during the last interglacial period (approximately 125,000 years ago), when the poles were 3°C warmer, sea level was four to six meters higher than today.

Just a one meter rise would displace millions of people living along coastlines across the globe. In New Orleans, where we are spending 200 - 300 billion dollars putting the city back together, a 1-meter sea level rise would be catastrophic.