Venn Diagram: Climate Change in the AmericasUse Figures 17.18, 17.19, and the Venn diagram...

Venn Diagram: Climate Change in the Americas

Use Figures 17.18, 17.19, and the Venn diagram provided here to compare and contrast the predicted climate changes in North America with those in South America by 2100.

Figure 17.18 Projected annual mean surface warming for the scenarios B1 (top), A1B (middle), and A2 (bottom) for time periods 2046–2065 (left) and 2080–2099 (right). Temperature changes are relative to the average of the period 1980–1999. A warming effect is least for sections of the Southern Ocean and the northern Atlantic Ocean, and greatest for northernmost latitudes. Predicted temperature increases for the United States are between 2 and 6 C° (4 and 11 F°) except for Alaska, where temperatures may increase by 10 C° (18 F°) or more.

Figure 17.19 Modeled changes in global average precipitation for the period 2090–2099 relative to 1980–1999. Left, changes for the interval December–February; right, changes for July–August. Changes for scenario A1B only. White areas indicate regions where different models do not agree on predictions. Precipitation increases are greatest at equatorial latitudes and for high latitudes. A drying trend is evident for midlatitudes. How will precipitation change over North America?