By Brian Vastag/The Washington Post Climate scientists agree the
Earth will be hotter by the end of the century, but their
simulations don’t agree on how much. Now a new study suggests
the gloomier predictions may be closer to the mark. “Warming is
likely to be on the high side of the projections,” said John
Fasullo of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in
Boulder, Colo., a co-author of the report, which was based on
satellite measurements of the atmosphere. That means the world
could be in for a devastating increase of some eight degrees
Fahrenheit by 2100, resulting in drastically higher seas,
disappearing coastlines and more severe droughts, floods and
other destructive weather. Such an increase would substantially
overshoot what the world’s leaders have identified as the
threshold for triggering catastrophic consequences. In 2009,
heads of state agreed to try to limit warming to 3.6 degrees,
and many countries now want a tighter limit. Climate scientists
around the world use supercomputers to si