There is uncertainty about the response of the climate system to future trajectories of radiative forcing. To quantify this uncertainty we conducted face-to-face interviews with 14 leading climate scientists, using formal methods of expert elicitation. We structured the interviews around three scenarios of radiative forcing stabilizing at different levels.

Today coal mining causes ecosystem damage, soil erosion, dust and air pollution from surface activities, landscape disruption from surface mining, interruption of streams and aquifers with impacts on water availability, acidified water, subsidence and land instability from underground mining, and emissions of methane and other greenhouse gases.