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Top U.S. panel affirms global warming trend

June 22, 2006
Minneapolis Star Tribune

 

WASHINGTON - An independent scientific panel largely ratified the findings of a controversial climate study Thursday, saying the last few decades amount to the hottest period in the last 400 years.

 

But the National Academy of Sciences report on the so-called hockey stick graph -- a much-discussed chart showing a sudden rise in temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere since the Industrial Revolution began -- voiced less confidence about the graph's conclusion that the climate is hotter now than it has been in 1,000 years. As a result, the Academy report is not likely to resolve the fierce debate over the extent to which human-generated greenhouse gas emissions are responsible for warming the Earth.

 

The new 141-page report, written by a dozen prominent scientists, provides ammunition to those who say the evidence is overwhelming that industrial activity is transforming the planet by spewing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, as well as to those who see it as confirmation that significant uncertainty still exists in climate change science.

NASA scientists have concluded from direct temperature measurements that 2005 was the hottest year on record, with 1998 as a close second.

 

WASHINGTON POST