Mar. 27, 2007 A new global warming study predicts that many
current climate zones will vanish entirely by the year 2100,
replaced by climates unknown in today's world. Global climate
models for the next century forecast the complete disappearance
of several existing climates currently found in tropical
highlands and regions near the poles, while large swaths of the
tropics and subtropics may develop new climates unlike anything
seen today. Driven by worldwide greenhouse gas emissions, the
climate modeling study uses average summer and winter
temperatures and precipitation levels to map the differences
between climate zones today and in the year 2100 and anticipates
large climate changes worldwide. The work, by researchers at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Wyoming,
appears online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences during the week of March 26. As world leaders and
scientists push to develop sound strategies to understand and
cope with global changes, predictive stu