Posted on 06/22/2006 10:26:18 PM PDT by familyop
THE world is hotter than it has been for four centuries - and probably the hottest for 2,000 years - the United States' most prestigious scientific organisation said yesterday.
In a report to the US Congress, the National Academy of Sciences reported 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 politicians that the Earth is heating up 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 1F during the 20th century.
This is shown in boreholes, retreating glaciers and other evidence found in nature, said Gerald North, a geosciences professor at Texas A&M University who chaired the academy's panel. The report was requested in November by the chairman of the House science committee, Republican Sherwood Boehlert, to address those who question whether global warming is a major threat.
Mr Boehlert said the report shows the value of having scientists advise Congress: "There is nothing in this report that should raise any doubts about the broad scientific consensus on global climate change."
The Bush administration has maintained that the threat is not severe enough to warrant new pollution controls that the White House says would have cost five 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.
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 Nineties research "are very close to being right", and are supported by even more recent data, Mr Wallace said.
Overall, the panel agreed that the warming in the last few decades of the 20th century was unprecedented over the past 1,000 years.
The earth is a cinder bathed in the flames of solar radiation. A flicker in its magnetic field would have more effect than all the activities of man.
Man, it must have been seriously cold back then!
I thought it was 400 years.
I guess they decided that if they were going to lie, might as well go big.
And the Sun's activity has absolutely nothing to do with it? I think they ought to just shut their boreholes;)
I guess the heat 2000 years ago was from all those Roman orgies? Rome would last another 470 years so the extra heat back then didn't affect civilization so much did it?
Yeah? Well what explains why Mars' icecaps are disappearing?
Bush's fault!
If they can;t get that right, guess what? Probably don't have the other right either.
Even if you give them the benefit of the doubt...they are saying now that 2000 years ago it was hotter. How? and if it was...well, it sure looks like the earth and mankind all survived it somehow.
A panel of top climate scientists told politicians that the Earth is heating up and that "human activities are responsible for much of the recent warming".
Including anthropologists, botanists, zoologists, entymologists, oceanologists...everthing but meteorologists and actual climatologists who do not yet share this "overwhelming" consensus.
Another triumph of junk science. Global warming, DDT, breast implants, Sen. John Edwards' legal career, the list goes on;)
But I suppose the satellite data from the last 2000 years has to be believed, er I mean the study of the way the ice melted in the last few years projecting minute changes in the climate backwards...is really solid science...no really...er uhm...we need more funding for research...yeah that's the ticket...or else your all gonna die...after all we are...uhm...err..."scientists"...yeah that's the ticket, we specialize in making it look real technical...yeah...
Just for fun let's say we did that and went back to the 18Th. century, anything that we would acomplish would be wiped out by third world growth as they spend so much on keeping their countries clean, Junk Science.
Well assuming they are right, the earth survived being this hot 2000 years ago. I think it will manage now.
Morons. How are we going to cool the Sun? Did they even mention this:
The Sun is getting hotter.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/07/18/wsun18.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/07/18/ixnewstop.html
Heresy.
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