[Texgreen] Earth hotter than it's been for thousands of years

[Roger Baker]

Fortunately, TXU just got permission to build dozens of coal-fired =20
power plants; it sure looks like we're going to need them to keep our =20=

air conditioners working full blast. -- Roger

                   ********************************************

<http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4212987.html>
Sept. 25, 2006, 3:58PM
Earth hotter than it's been for thousands of years

Associated Press

WASHINGTON =97 Mother Earth is beginning to resemble a Peggy Lee song =97 =
=20
"fever in the morning, fever all through the night."

The planet's temperature has climbed to levels not seen in thousands =20
of years, warming that has begun to affect plants and animals, =20
researchers report in Tuesday's issue of Proceedings of the National =20
Academy of Sciences.

The Earth has been warming at a rate of 0.36 degree Fahrenheit per =20
decade for the last 30 years, according to the research team led by =20
James Hansen of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York.

That brings the overall temperature to the warmest in the current =20
interglacial period, which began about 12,000 years ago.

The researchers noted that a report in the journal Nature found that =20
1,700 plant, animal and insect species moved poleward at an average =20
rate of about 4 miles per decade in the last half of the 20th century.

The warming has been stronger in the far north, where melting ice and =20=

snow expose darker land and rocks beneath allowing more warmth from =20
the sun to be absorbed, and more over land than water.

Water changes temperature more slowly than land because of its great =20
capacity to hold heat, but the researchers noted that the warming has =20=

been marked in the Indian and western Pacific Oceans. Those oceans =20
have a major effect on climate and warming that could lead to more El =20=

Nino episodes affecting the weather.

"This evidence implies that we are getting close to dangerous levels =20
of human-made pollution," Hansen said in a statement.

Few scientists doubt that the planet has warmed, though some question =20=

the causes of the change.

Hansen, who first warned of the danger of climate change decades ago, =20=

said that human-made greenhouse gases have become the dominant =20
climate change factor.

The study said the recent warming has brought global temperature to a =20=

level within about one degree Celsius =97 1.8 degree Fahrenheit =97 of =20=

the maximum temperature of the past million years.

"If further global warming reaches 2 or 3 degrees Celsius, we will =20
likely see changes that make Earth a different planet than the one we =20=

know. The last time it was that warm was in the middle Pliocene, =20
about 3 million years ago, when sea level was estimated to have been =20
about 25 meters (80 feet) higher than today," Hansen said.=