NASA Study Finds on Global Warming

A NASA Study lead by James Hansen has revealed that the world's temperature is reaching a level that has not been seen for thousands of years. Mr Hansen, NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, along with Scientists from other organizations concludes that; 'because of the rapid warming trend over the past 30 years, the Earth is now reaching and passing throught the warmest levels in the current interglacial period, which has lasted for approximately 12,000 years. An interglacial period is a time in the Earth's history when the area of Earth covered by glaciers was similar or smaller than at the present time.'

The study used temperatures around the world taken during the last century. The study concluded that the Earth has been warming at a rapid temperature of approximately .36 degrees Farenheit (0.2 degrees Celsius) per decade for the past 30 years. "The evidence implies that we are getting close to dangerous levels of human-made pollution", Hansen stated. Human-made pollution includes greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and ozone depletion.

The most important results found by researchers is that global warming in the past few decades has brought global temperatures to a level within about 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees F) of the maximum temperature of the past million years.

The Researchers state, "If further global warming reaches 2 to 3 degrees Celsius, we are likely to see changes that will make Earth a different planet than the one we know now. The last time it was this warm was in the middle Pliocene, about three million years ago, when the sea level was estimated to be 25 meters (80 feet) higher than today."

Global warming has already had noticeable effects in nature. Plants and animals can only survive within certain temperature levels. Hansen added, "If we do now slow down the rate of global warming, many species are likely to become extinct. In effect, we are pushing them (plants and animals) off the planet."