The leaked draft climate assessment compiled by researchers at 13 US federal agencies spells out scientific evidence that the world has warmed. It puts the Trump administration under pressure to reconsider its strategy of rolling back existing policies to curb carbon dioxide emissions and abandoning the Paris accord. "Evidence for a changing climate abounds, from the top of the atmosphere to the depths of the oceans (JFI Dec.19'16). Thousands of studies conducted by tens of thousands of scientists around the world have documented changes in surface, atmospheric, and ocean temperatures, melting glaciers, disappearing snowcover; shrinking sea ice; rising sea level; and an increase in atmospheric water vapor. Rainfall patterns and storms are changing and the occurrence of droughts is shifting," the document states. The draft report was produced as part of a research program initiated in 2001 under President George W. Bush and published last Monday by the New York Times. Climate researchers pinned a "very high confidence" level to the conclusion, adding that there are "no alternate explanations" that can explain the drastic changes in climate in recent decades. Among the draft findings are estimates that put the "likely range of human contribution" to global average temperature increases from 1951-2010 at 1.1°F to 1.3°F - hovering near the observed warming of 1.2°F.
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