Share this Post:

Print this page

Email this page

Evidence That Humans Caused Today's Global Warming

Facebook

Twitter

RSS

YouTube

SIGN-UP for our latest news and action alerts:

Regular Blog Features:

Scope of Science:

Understanding environmental issues with science

Blog Categories:

Facebook Fans

Related Blog Entries

by Ben Barron:

Birds of Paradise Lost in New Guinea?

Anyone who has seen the “Planet Earth” episode on jungles has witnessed the colorful plumes and remarkable displays of the Birds of Paradi...

by Jessica Knoblauch:

Friday Finds: Fox News Email Reveals "Shocking" Climate Bias

Leaked email reveals Fox News' climate change bias Nonprofit media research center Media Matters recently came across an email showing that a top Fox...

by Jessica Knoblauch:

Friday Finds: More Money, More Problems

BPA found in cash BPA, that ubiquitous, hormone-disrupting chemical that's made its way into everything from baby bottles to can liners, can now also...

Earthjustice on Twitter

Follow @Earthjustice

04 December 2009, 12:50 PM

Terry Winckler

Evidence That Humans Caused Today's Global Warming

Ice core samples clearly show link to our use of fossil fuels

Here's an interesting climate change observation reported by the BBC—over the last 800,000 years, up until industrial revolution times, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere never rose above 300 ppm. Since then, and particulary from the 20th century on, CO₂ concentration has steeply climbed to where it is today, nearing 400 ppm. Many scientists believe significant global warming consequences are inevitable above 350 ppm.

The historical data cited by the BBC come in part from ice core samples taken in Antarctica and Greenland. Bubbles of air trapped in the ice show cycles of 100,000 years, during which air temperatures and CO₂ levels fluctuate in parallel. As humankind grew in population and started heavily relying on fossil fuels, the cyclical pattern was broken. Now, CO₂ and temperatures are simply going up.

This bad news is actually good news of a sort as the world prepares to meet next week in Copenhagen to deal with climate change. The recent hacked email scandal is being used by deniers and contrarians to weaken the chances of getting anything done at the conference. A good dose of solid science like this could help keep things on track.