Ice chunks float in the Arctic Ocean as the
sun sets near Barrow, Alaska. The Arctic is a thermostat against
overheating and a barometer of change, but now its own protective ozone
layer that keeps out damaging ultraviolet radiation has thinned to
record levels, the U.N. weather agency has said.
A new climate study shows that since the mid-1950s, global
average temperatures over land have risen by 0.9 degrees Celsius (1.6
degrees Fahrenheit), confirming previous studies that have found a
climate that has been warming – in fits and starts – since around 1900.
Most climate scientists attribute warming since the mid-1950, at
least to some degree, to carbon dioxide emissions from human activities –
burning coal, oil, and to a lesser extent gas, and from land-use
changes.
The latest results mirror those from earlier, independent studies by
scientists at NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York,
the Hadley Center for Climate Prediction and Research in Britain, and
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
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