Sunday, September 30, 2012

Unsure about climate change?

Recently, the Bay Area's own Berkeley Lab completed the most comprehensive study of climate change to date.  Using 1.6 billion reports, they have pieced together a global temperature record dating back 250 years, which is a hundred years more than any other study.  What they have found is that "rise in average world land temperature globe is approximately 1.5 degrees C in the past 250 years, and about 0.9 degrees in the past 50 years."  Here's what that looks like:
The cause?  Their study proves that humans and volcanoes are the definite causes of all this temperature variation.  After taking into consideration everything from urban heat islands to solar variation, poor station quality to the effects of the Gulf Stream, the impact of our greenhouse gases has been shown to be undeniable.  If you need more proof, check out data, summaries, graphs, and results by location here on their fascinating website.