• New! The last decade of the 20th Century was the warmest of the entire gobal instrumental temperature record, starting in the mid-19th century. All 10 years rank among the 15 warmest and include the 6 warmest years on record, which makes these high temperatures unusual for the past century. But what about in the context of past centuries or millennia? How unusual are modern temperatures compared to those of the past? It is only through the reconstruction of past climate that we can truly evaluate the magnitude of this warming...(more)
  
  

• Ocean heat store makes climate change inevitable
• Only huge emissions cuts will curb climate change

The science is clear

Scientists are no longer debating the basic facts of climate change. In February 2007, the thousands of scientific experts collectively known as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that there is greater than 90 percent likelihood that people are causing global warming. (IPCC, 2007)

These latest findings amplify what other highly respected science organizations say:

* In a joint statement with 10 other National Academies of Science, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences said:

"The scientific understanding of climate change is now sufficiently clear to justify nations taking prompt action. It is vital that all nations identify cost-effective steps that they can take now, to contribute to substantial and long-term reduction in net global greenhouse gas emissions." —Joint Statement of Science Academies: Global Response to Climate Change, 2005

* The American Geophysical Union, a respected organization comprising over 41,000 Earth and space scientists, wrote in its position on climate change that "natural influences cannot explain the rapid increase in global near-surface temperatures observed during the second half of the 20th century."

The following figures are taken directly from the Geological Society of America journal "GSA Today" Volume 18, Issue 2 February, 2008, article " Are We Now Living in the Anthropocene? "
The period covered by these graphs (15,000 years) is roughly the same as the latest warming period shown in the 650,000 year ice core plots further down this page.

The following figures are taken directly from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) website.
Click the graphs to see them full screen.

Notice that the bottom plot in the first figure (deuterium) represents temperature because climate scientists use deuterium in the ice cores to measure past atmospheric temperature. The close correlation of greenhouse gases to temperature is very obvious. The exponential spike in the plots at the right indicates the recent increase in greenhouse gases way beyond anything in the past 650 thousand years. Deuterium does not yet show the exponential rise in temperature we will soon experience as a result of the greenhouse gas increase.

Unlike the above, these graphs show only the most recent 10,000 years for clarity. It's obvious from the inset graphs that in the 19th and 20th centuries greenhouse gases have reached extreme concentations.