Posted on 06/22/2006 8:28:41 AM PDT by Semus Dynnen
Study Says Earth's Temp at 400-Year High Jun 22 11:10 AM US/Eastern
By JOHN HEILPRIN Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON
The Earth is the hottest it has been in at least 400 years, probably even longer. The National Academy of Sciences, reaching that conclusion in a broad review of scientific work requested by Congress, reported Thursday that the "recent warmth is unprecedented for at least the last 400 years and potentially the last several millennia."
A panel of top climate scientists told lawmakers that the Earth is running a fever and that "human activities are responsible for much of the recent warming." Their 155-page report said average global surface temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere rose about 1 degree during the 20th century.
The report was requested in November by the chairman of the House Science Committee, Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., to address naysayers who question whether global warming is a major threat.
Last year, when the House Energy and Commerce Committee chairman, Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, launched an investigation of three climate scientists, Boehlert said Barton should try to learn from scientists, not intimidate them.
The Bush administration also has maintained that the threat is not severe enough to warrant new pollution controls that the White House says would have cost 5 million Americans their jobs.
Climate scientists Michael Mann, Raymond Bradley and Malcolm Hughes had concluded the Northern Hemisphere was the warmest it has been in 2,000 years. Their research was known as the "hockey-stick" graphic because it compared the sharp curve of the hockey blade to the recent uptick in temperatures and the stick's long shaft to centuries of previous climate stability.
The National Academy scientists concluded that the Mann-Bradley-Hughes research from the late 1990s was "likely" to be true, said John "Mike" Wallace, an atmospheric sciences professor at the University of Washington and a panel member. The conclusions from the '90s research "are very close to being right" and are supported by even more recent data, Wallace said.
The panel looked at how other scientists reconstructed the Earth's temperatures going back thousands of years, before there was data from modern scientific instruments.
For all but the most recent 150 years, the academy scientists relied on "proxy" evidence from tree rings, corals, glaciers and ice cores, cave deposits, ocean and lake sediments, boreholes and other sources. They also examined indirect records such as paintings of glaciers in the Alps.
Combining that information gave the panel "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 academy said.
Overall, the panel agreed that the warming in the last few decades of the 20th century was unprecedented over the last 1,000 years, though relatively warm conditions persisted around the year 1000, followed by a "Little Ice Age" from about 1500 to 1850.
The scientists said they had less confidence in the evidence of temperatures before 1600. But they considered it reliable enough to conclude 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.
Between 1 A.D. and 1850, volcanic eruptions and solar fluctuations were the main causes of changes in greenhouse gas levels. But those temperature changes "were much less pronounced than the warming due to greenhouse gas" levels by pollution since the mid-19th century, it said.
The National Academy of Sciences is a private organization chartered by Congress to advise the government of scientific matters.
It's the demise of the pirates I tell ya !!!
Kind of like "Most men beat up their wives after the Super Bowl".
Nice. Is the material in your post your own summary of what's in those links?
The scientists said they had less confidence in the evidence of temperatures before 1600.
Hmmm. So they have "less confidence" in temps before the "Little Ice Age"; an age which lasted for 250 of the last 500 years where temps were below normal.
And they are basing global warming on that.
They must think we're really stupid.
It's cut and pasted from the shown links
Bush driving a Chevy Suburban of course...
or maybe it is becuase they only invented the thermometer 400 years ago!
http://www.brannan.co.uk/thermometers/invention.html
1612
Santorio Santorio - the first thermometer
The Italian, Santorio Santorio (1561-1636) is generally credited with having applied a scale to an air thermoscope at least as early as 1612 and thus is thought to be the inventor of the thermometer as a temperature measuring device. Santorio's instrument was an air thermometer. Its accuracy was poor as the effects of varying air pressure on the thermometer were not understood at that time.
You caught the "ELEPHANT in the ROOM" that will be completely IGNORED by the MSM, politicians on the left and all the environ whackos.
So the bottom line is that we seem to have fixed the ice age problem, no?
You could turn off every combustion engine and coal fired power plant in the world, and the global climate of the Earth would continue to change. Global climate is affected by volcanic gasses and ash, ocean CO2, continental geography, solar output, the cycle of the earth's orbit, the cycle of the earth's axis wobble.
Historically over the life of the planet the Earth has been a much warmer place.
"Their 155-page report said average global surface temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere rose about 1 degree during the 20th century."
oh noooooo 1 degree in one hundred years
i'm melting melting what a world what a world
LOL!!!Correct sir!!
BTW
The reason there was a land bridge from Asia to the US allowing for Americna Indians and Central/South American population was global climate. When the Earth was cooler, ocean water was locked up in glaciers and land bridges were created.
as per Wikipedia's entry for 1606.... January 27 - Gunpowder Plot: The trial of Guy Fawkes and other conspirators begins.
SEE?! This horrendus plot against thine own Crown, doth bringeth us to a new Age of Witchcraft, which shall surely raise global temperatures over the next ten thousand fortnights, and make England most foul, and as warm as the Hell you conspirators are all destined for!
Cannst thou not see good folke? Only gunowners most foul, would stockpile such stores of gunpower. It is the Devil's Powder, and cannst NOT be in the hands of mere subjects of the Crown, lest we have ANOTHER incident like this!
So, let's **suppose** these guys are right, that humans are warming the earth.
WHAT, specifically do they propose we DO, really?
All I hear is crisis mongering.
If humans were cooling the earth, would they be equally alarmed?
Are they really just climatic xenophobes?
Looking at your charts and trying to reconcile your data against the statements in article which says: "The Earth is the hottest it has been in at least 400 years, probably even longer ... said average global surface temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere rose about 1 degree during the 20th century."
1. First they say it's the hottest it has been in 400 years which doesn't seem to agree with your charts which show that it was hotter in the medieval warm period around 1200 AD.
2. They say surface temps only rose 1 degree in 20th century. Is a 1 degree increase that significant and how much of that 1 degree do they estimate is caused by humans vs natural causes?
3. Their estimation of temps longer ago than 150 yrs is based on tree rings and other inferences. If temp only increased 1 degree in the last 100 years, how do we know with any measure of precision what the temps were hundreds of years ago. Seems those temps could be off by at least a degree or two - therefore how do we know it is the hottest in last 400 years?
Meanwhile, I have to wear a coat during the summer at work and on the commuter train. You could hang meat in those places and it would never spoil.
So here's the POLITICAL question:
Why is a House REPUBLICAN jumping on the environwhacko bandwagon? Who is the chairman of the House Science Committee, Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., and is he a RINO?
I can see DUmmies falling for this tripe, but not our party, too! That's what ticks me off. We control both houses of Congress and the Presidency, so why do we have to act like democrats? Surely Republicans do not get elected by promoting Left wing environmental causes and disparaging our businesses and American way of life?
A panel of top climate scientists told lawmakers that the Earth is running a fever... and the only cure is more cowbell.
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