A new National Academy of Sciences report may have confirmed a disputed 1998 climate change study showing that the last few decades were the warmest ever recorded; yet it hasn't settled the issue as to whether man's activity is causing the change.
"An independent scientific panel largely ratified the findings of a controversial climate study yesterday, saying the past few decades amount to the hottest period in the last 400 years."
The National Academy of Sciences was chartered to advise the government on scientific issues. The report was commissioned by retiring House Science Committee Chairman Sherwood L. Boehlert (R-NY) in response to global warming skeptic, Joe Barton's, Energy and Committee Chairman (R-Tex.), questioning the conclusions of the 1998 study by Penn State University climatologist Michael Mann and two colleagues.
"NAS Panel member Kurt M. Cuffey, a geography professor at the University of California at Berkeley, said at a news briefing that the report 'essentially validated' the conclusions Mann reported in 1998 and 1999 using temperature records."
"But the National Academy of Sciences report on the '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 report 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."
Thanks to Darrell Waller
FULL STORY: Study Confirms Past Few Decades Warmest on Record
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