A new climate modeling study has identified regions of the world where greenhouse gas emissions during the next century are likely to cause the appearance of novel climates unlike anything that exists today, shown in yellow in this image created March 2007, and regions whose current climates will disappear completely by the year 2100, shown in blue. Novel climates appear throughout the tropics and subtropics, while the climates now found in tropical mountain ranges and near the poles may vanish. The work, led by University of Wisconsin-Madison geographer Jack Williams, suggests that climate change is likely to have serious ecological impacts, including increased risk of extinction.
Photo by: courtesy Jack Williams
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