The article states:
"Not long ago we thought that previous ice studies which go back about 500,000 years might be the best we could obtain," said Brook, who is also the co-chair of the International Partnerships in Ice Coring Sciences, a group that's helping to plan future ice core research efforts around the world.
"Now we have a glimpse into the past of up to 650,000 years, and we believe it may be possible to go as much as one million years or more," Brook said. "This will give us a fuller picture of Earth's past climates, the way they changed and fluctuated, and the forces that caused the changes. We'll be studying this new data for years."
As the data become more solid about the atmospheric conditions of the past, it's becoming increasingly clear that the current conditions of the past 200 years are a distinct anomaly, Brook said.
"The levels of primary greenhouse gases such as methane, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide are up dramatically since the Industrial Revolution, at a speed and magnitude that the Earth has not seen in hundreds of thousands of years," Brook said. "There is now no question this is due to human influence."
Now let me get this straight. Because they have found an ice core from 500,000 years ago to 650,000 years ago, there is "no question" that current global warming is due to human activity. How can this sample tell us that?
You're right, it can't. But that is not what this is all about. From the article:
According to Brook, continuing research will help to address many of these questions.
This translates as: "Give me more money!"
That's the real point. The crises change from year to year, but the solution is always the same.
The comment was about changes in atmospheric gases (CO2 and methane), not global temperature.