Editorial: New facts on global warming

Monday, Nov. 28, 2005 | 9:16 a.m.

A study published last week in the journal Science contained more evidence that not only is global warming real, but also that it is caused by relatively recent human activity, such as driving automobiles and powering manufacturing plants.

The study rebuts skeptics who say that measurable global warming is cyclical, that it has been occurring naturally throughout the Earth's history.

The study was based upon findings made by scientists who bored deep into the Antarctic ice and analyzed trapped air dating back 650,000 years.

The scientists discovered carbon dioxide (which occurs naturally but is emitted in great quantity when fossil fuels are burned) in the ancient air at levels far below what is in the air today. Just in the past two centuries the carbon dioxide level has increased 35 percent, the scientists found.

This could explain why the Earth's temperature has increased 1 degree over just the past century (scientists say that small increase has raised sea levels 4 to 8 inches).

Greenhouse gases accumulate in the atmosphere, and act exactly as their namesake. They allow the sun's heat to reach Earth, but block the reflection of much of it back to space, heating the planet and making life possible. Too many greenhouses gases, however, cause too much warming.

Scientists believe global warming affects weather patterns, such as hurricanes and rainfall. They also say global warming might be responsible for some glacial melting, which in any significant amount could drastically raise sea levels and consequently threaten coastal areas with flooding.

The Environmental Protection Agency says about 82 percent of excess greenhouse gases are created by burning fossil fuels to power automobiles and to generate electricity. Edward Brook, of Oregon State University, one of the scientists who studied the ancient air, said the findings of his team should lead people to worry about the planet's temperature change.

Another team member, Thomas Stocker, of the University of Bern, Switzerland, said the ancient air revealed that greenhouse gases are currently increasing a hundred times faster than those produced over the millennia by natural cycles.

There are alternatives to fossil fuels, and the United States, the world's leader in greenhouse gas production, should lead the way in bringing them to market.