Observed Impacts of Anthropogenic Climate Change for the Period 1971-2010 (IMAGE)

DOE/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Observed Impacts of Anthropogenic Climate Change for the Period 1971-2010

Caption

This image shows confidence in attributing observed impacts to regional climate trends, irrespective of the cause for those climate trends. Blue symbols indicate impacts where the observed climate trend has been attributed to anthropogenic forcing with at least medium confidence in a major or minor role. The confidence bars indicate the combined confidence of the impact and climate attribution step, so confidence can be lower than medium for icons in color as a result of low confidence in impact attribution. The respective climate driver is indicated by the color of the confidence bars (red, atmospheric air temperature; violet, ocean surface temperature; blue, precipitation). Impacts corresponding to regional climate trends with no, very low or low confidence in attribution to anthropogenic forcing are shown in grey. A low confidence in climate attribution results mainly from lack of monitoring, lack of a clear precipitation response, and inconsistency between the direction of reported trends and trends documented in global observational products over the default period.

Credit

Gerrit Hansen, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research

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