Technical Report

Monitoring Climate Change in the Rio Grande Basin of New Mexico and Colorado Above Elephant Butte Reservoir New Mexico: Baseline Report

URL: https://webapps.usgs.gov/mrgescp/documents/Pinson_2013_Monitoring%20Climate%20Change%20in%20the%20Rio%20Grande%20Basin%20of%20NM%20and%20Colorado%20above%20Elephant%20Butte%20Reservoir%2C%20NM%20Baseline%20Report.pdf

Date: 2013/11/01

Author(s): Pinson A.O.

Publication: Prepared for Middle Rio Grande Endangered Species Act Collaborative Program and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 69 p.

Abstract:

Most climate models currently project temperature increases at the Earth’s surface by the year 2100 will average 3-4°C above the average temperature for the period 1950-1999, and that these temperatures will continue to increase in the following decades. The amount of warming depends on the rate of greenhouse gas (GHG) release into the atmosphere by human (anthropogenic) and natural sources above what can be removed by natural processes and, in the future, but novel technologies. Radical reductions in GHG emissions could restrain the temperature increase to about 2°C by 2100; continued accelerating emissions, potentially accompanied by changes in Earth surface processes could result temperature increases closer to 6°C by 2100, with more beyond (IPCC 2007b).