WASHINGTON — A new report links three out of four very hot days to man’s effects on climate. And as climate change worsens around mid-century, that percentage of extremely hot days being caused by man-made greenhouse gases will push past 95 percent, according to the study published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change.
The Swiss scientists who did the study calculated that 18 percent of extreme rain events are caused by global warming. But if the world warms another 2 degrees Fahrenheit — expected to happen around mid-century — about 39 percent of the downpours would be attributed to humanity’s influence, according to the study. That influence comes from greenhouse gases, mostly carbon dioxide from the burning of coal, oil and gas.
Lead author Erich Fische and colleague Reto Knutti examined just the hottest of hot days, the hottest one-tenth of one percent. Using 25 computer models. Fischer and Knutti simulated a world without human-caused greenhouse gas emissions and found those hot days happened once every three years.
