If the current models/predictions/data is correct regarding climate change, I have a few questions:
How long will it take for the sea levels to rise high enough to drown New York City? I mean by what point - 2100? Later? Earlier?
What will the climate (in terms of temperature, heat, humidity) be like in the Northeastern US by around 2100? The predicted average temperatures per season?
Are there any areas of the world outside of the Poles that will remain either temperate in climate or cold? Will there be any lands where snows still fall?
Barring any nuclear exchange, what species are likely “safe” from the worst effects of climate change? For example I have read that most ocean life as we know it will die out because of climate change - that is inevitable - polar bears and other such species are screwed - but what about say, birds, dogs, cats, monkeys/apes, turtles, lizards, tigers, lions, etc? What species should be able to survive?
There’s no specific answers to these questions … as it all depends on which of the many many “current models/predictions/data” … the IPCC uses four, so there will be four different answers …
For the conservative outlook:
1} Seas rise only three feet by 2117, New York City gets splashed in the worst storms, but no drowning …
2} New York City’s current climate using the Köppen climate classification is “humid continental climate with no specific dry season and average summer high temps above 22ºC” … so no changes by 2117 …
3} The temperate zone may shrink a tiny bit, just the semi-arid fringes of the pole-ward edge of the desert belt will dry up to fully arid, and the equator-ward edges will become less semi-arid … snow is a dynamic phenomena, so any place it snows now will continue to get snowstorms, just not quite as often by 2117 …
4} Species that are very specialized and non-mobile will have a very tough time of it (like polar bears) … whereas the generalized and mobile species will be fine (like swallows) …
Now, if you had asked about 2217 or 2317 … then things could be much more dire … unfortunately these numerical models run on computers tend to deviate too much to get any sensible data from them when run for too long a time frame … how dire is an unanswerable question, but I think it’s fair to say NYC will be drowned by then …
And please note, these are conservative answers … based on what appears to be the most likely … as with anything dealing with probabilities, final results may differ …
It might be worthwhile noting that no GCM, for obvious reasons, takes into account the possibility that humans will figure out how to remove atmospheric greenhouse gases effectively.
The further out one projects, the weaker this assumption is, IMHO.
I’ll bet against NYC getting rinsed by 2200. We have a horrible track record of predicting the future…
If the bet is NYC getting rinsed at least once by 2200, I’ll stake the second w in my username … if the bet is NYC under the waves, then I want odds, your i, d and n against my w …
And microbes. We already know they can evolve with extreme rapidity, so there’s no doubt they will be able to adapt to climatic changes that will wipe out most multicellular organisms.