The Earth Reaches Hottest Temperature in Centuries

AEN News

Washington - According to the National Academy of Sciences, the Earth is at its hottest temperature in 2,000 years. Mostly due to global greenhouse gas emissions, scientists say.

Scientists from the Acadamy said Thursday that the data collected over the last millenium shows that "human activities are responsible for much of the recent warming."

Atmospheric researchers also say that much of the hurricane activity in 2005 was due to global warming rather than naturally occurring climatic changes in Ocean current temperatures.

Congress has asked the National Acadeny of Sciences to show how it's drawing conclusions from periods where there were no records kept nor the scientific instruments used to gather them. The National Academy said it conviened a panel of 12 scientists to study tree rings, corals, marine and lake sediments, ice cores, boreholes and glaciers in order to compile accurate enough findings.

Chaired by Gerald North, a geosciences professor at Texas A&M University, the Academy's panel concluded that information gave the scientists a "high level of confidence" that the last few decades of the 20th century were warmer than any comparable period in the last 400 years. The panel said the "recent warmth is unprecedented for at least the last 400 years and potentially the last several millennia," though it was relatively warm around the year 1000 followed by a "Little Ice Age" from about 1500 to 1850.

Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY), chairman of the House Science Committee, had asked the academy for the report last year after the House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman, Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.) launched an investigation.

Barton's investigation centered around the findings of three climate scientists; Michael Mann, Raymond Bradley and Malcolm Hughes, who created the well-known "hockey stick" graph of climate changes. The National Academy's panel concluded that the hockey stick graph was fairly accurate.

The Academy considers the evidence reliable enough to conclude that there were sharp spikes in carbon dioxide and methane, the two major "greenhouse" gases blamed for trapping heat in the atmosphere, beginning in the 20th century, after remaining fairly level for 12,000 years.

The three scientists graph had compared the sharp curve of the hockey blade to the recent increase in temperatures - a 1 degree rise in global average surface temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere during the 20th century - and the stick's long shaft to centuries of previous climate stability.

"This report shows the value of Congress handling scientific disputes by asking scientists to give us guidance," Boehlert said Thursday. "There is nothing in this report that should raise any doubts about the broad scientific consensus on global climate change."

The Bush administration has been arguing against global warming saying it would cost up to five million Americans their jobs if the government were to impose stricter greenhouse gas emissions policies.