Characterizing transient temperature trajectories for assessing the value of achieving alternative temperature targets.

Trajectories of policy-driven transient temperatures are reported here for four different maximum temperature targets through 2100 and a 'no-policy' baseline because it is they, and their associated manifestations in other impact and risk dimensions, that natural and human and natural systems see in real time as their common future unfolds. It follows that it is they that inform both the reactive and (for human systems) anticipatory responses that embedded decision-makers would contemplate in the future. Median pathways as well as 5th and 95th percentile alternatives for each set of scenarios are reported in decadal increments from 2010 through 2100. Two illustrations (agricultural yields and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 'reasons for concern') are presented to provide provocative context within which to begin to see their potential value across a wide range of applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]