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New Study Shows Fast Pace Of Global Warming

AIR DATE: Tuesday, March 12th 2013
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This ice core sample from West Antarctica provides information on historic temperatures recorded in that location.
Photo credit: photo courtesy of Oregon State University
This ice core sample from West Antarctica provides information on historic temperatures recorded in that location.

A new study by Oregon State University scientists used fossils to reconstruct approximate global temperatures going back to the end of the last ice age (about 11,300 years ago). The data, which was recently published in the journal Science, show that the current global temperature is warmer than it's been in the past 4,000 years. The study also shows that recent global warming has been unusually fast: it's taken just 100 years for the planet to warm by the same amount that previously took 5,000 years. 

Geologist Shaun Marcott, the study's lead author says an increase in CO2 emissions is "the only variable that can best explain the rapid increase in global temperatures.”

What questions do you have about this study?

Tagged as: climate change · environment · global warming · science

Photo credit: photo courtesy of Oregon State University

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