11,000-Plus Years Of Evidence Says Yes, It’s Our Fault
What’s the Latest Development?
A new study in the latest issue of Science states that due to human activity in the last century, the world is warmer now than at almost any other time since the end of the last ice age. Unlike other studies, which went back about 2,000 years, this one covers most of the current Holocene geological era — about 11,300 years — and uses terrestrial data gathered from all over the world. According to the data, the planet had been cooling down for approximately 5,000 years until about a century ago, when it began experiencing the dramatic rise seen today.
What’s the Big Idea?
Climate change skeptics who claim that there’s no link between human-powered activity and the change in global temperatures may want to hear what Candace Major of the US National Science Foundation says about it: “This research shows that we’ve experienced almost the same range of temperature change since the beginning of the industrial revolution as over the previous 11,000 years of Earth history – but this change happened a lot more quickly.” On top of this, if something isn’t done about it soon, by 2100 temperatures will surpass levels ever experienced by humans during this era.
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