Thursday, May 04, 2006

Study Reinforces Global Warming Evidence

Yesterday the Post reported on a government study that reconciled key pieces of evidence that the atmosphere is warming.

For years some global warming critics had pointed to the fact that satellite measurements had recorded very little warming in the lower atmosphere, while surface temperature readings indicated that the earth is heating up. Now the U.S. Climate Change Science Program, an interagency body, has concluded the two data sets match....

The report also concluded that humans are driving the warming trend through greenhouse gas emissions, noting in the official news release, "the observed patterns of change over the past 50 years cannot be explained by natural processes alone, nor by the effects of short-lived atmospheric constituents such as aerosols and tropospheric ozone alone."
There will continue to be skeptics - scientists paid by the energy industries and government officials influenced by their lobbyists - but the evidence has been strengthened with each report. We need action now to avert worse trouble down the road.