Federal report: Climate change could raise temperatures by 10 degrees

“We can start with strict carbon pollution standards for power plants and we must significantly expand investments in community resiliency to protect people and the economy from the gathering storms — and floods, droughts, wildfires, and heat waves,” said Browner, who is now a senior fellow with the liberal Center for American Progress.

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The report finds that U.S. temperatures will continue rising 2 degrees F to 4 degrees F in most areas in the coming decades, and calls for effort to increase resilience to changes that cannot be avoided.

But it’s unclear how high temperatures will climb. The report provides a range of 3 degrees F to 5 degrees F by century’s end if global emissions are reduced sharply after 2050, and up to 10 degrees F if they’re not.

Average U.S. temperatures have risen roughly 1.5 degrees F since 1895, and more than 80 percent of that increase has occurred since 1980, the report concludes.

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