Researchers from the University of Arizona led in reconstructing Earth's climate since the last ice age that highlights the main drivers of climate change and how human activities have increased the speed of global warming in the last 150 years. The team noted that the level of speed has increased since 24,000 years ago.

Human-caused global warming is one of the topics discussed during the recently concluded COP26 summit in Glasgow, Scotland where ambitious goals were presented although some nations disagreed.

Speed of Human-Caused Global Warming Over the Last 150 Years Has Increased at a Level Not Seen Since the Last Ice Age
(Photo : Unsplash)
Speed of Human-Caused Global Warming Over the Last 150 Years Has Increased at a Level Not Seen Since the Last Ice Age

Unprecedented Speed of Global Warming

The study, titled "Globally Resolved Surface Temperatures Since the Last Glacial Maximum" published in Nature, has three main findings after reconstructing Earth's climate:

  1. The main drivers of climate change since 24,000 years ago are increasing greenhouse gas concentrations that led to retreating ice sheets.
  2. There is general warming trending for over 10,000 years.
  3. The speed of global warming in the last 150 years far exceeded the rate of changes since the last ice age.

Study co-author Jessica Tierney said that reconstructing Earth's climate showed unprecedented speeds of human-caused global warming, suggesting that it is faster than in the last 24,000 years.

Science Daily reported that the findings of the study should be a cause for an alarm and should be a surprise to everybody given that the Earth today is so far out of bounds of what is considered to be normal.

The team's reconstruction improves on the available graph of global temperature change over time. their map shows global temperature changes for every 200 years since 24,000 years ago.

Matthew Osman, a co-author of the study, said that the maps made it possible for anyone to see how Earth's temperatures have changed over time. Researchers said that it enabled them to visualize a 24,000-year evolution of the planet's climate at the exact location where they are and helped ingrain how severe climate change is today.

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Reconstructing Earth's Climate

In reconstructing Earth's climate, researchers combined two independent datasets coming from marine sediments and computer simulations, according to an article in Fior Markets News Blog. Tierney emphasized the importance of creating models to reflect the situation of the planet.

After combining and analyzing the factors with the model, the team was able to get information about the past and future weather, including the humidity, temperature, pressure, wind direction, and others. They also pointed out that human activities have increased global warming at a level never been seen before.

They are concerned about the current climate situation and warn the world about the worsening global warming. Hopefully, this year's COP26 summit will inspire nations to take responsibility and all the necessary measures to prevent climate change by pledging against carbon emissions.

The team is now working on using their method to investigate further ancient climates that might be warmer than today because they believe that studying them is a window to Earth's climate future as greenhouse gas concentrations increase every year.

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