NEWS
Scientists solve a major climate mystery , confirming Earth is hotter than it ’ s been in at least 120 centuries
Scientists have resolved a controversial but key climate change mystery , bolstering climate models and confirming that Earth is hotter than it ' s been in at least 12,000 years , and perhaps even the last 128,000 years , according to the most recent annual global temperature data .
This mystery is known as the " Holocene temperature conundrum ," and it describes a debate that has gone on over how temperatures have changed during the Holocene , an epoch that describes the last 11,700 years of our planet ' s history . While some previous proxy reconstructions suggest that average Holocene temperatures peaked between 6,000 and 10,000 years ago and the planet cooled after this , climate models suggest that global temperatures have actually risen over the past 12,000 years , with the help of factors like rising greenhouse gas emissions and climate change .
This " conundrum " has " cast doubts among skeptics about the efficacy of current climate models to accurately predict our future ," lead author Samantha Bova , a postdoctoral researcher associate at Rutgers University , told Space . com in an email .
The new research puts this uncertainty to rest , however , demonstrating that current climate projections are right on the money .
Chelsea Gohd
Current Address : Space . com Reprinted From : http :// bit . ly / 3rqIFSg
The study " eliminates any doubts about the key role of carbon dioxide in global warming and confirms climate model simulations that show
Figure 1 : Scientists have resolved a controversial but key climate change mystery , bolstering climate models and confirming that Earth is hotter than it ' s been in at least 12,000 years , and perhaps even the last 128,000 years , according to the most recent annual global temperature data . ( Image credit : NASA )
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