Global warming rate discovered
By Tim Radford
The Guardian
"They calculated the radiation from the sun, the heat reflected back into space, and the rising temperature of the seas, and say the extra warmth is equivalent to a 1 watt lightbulb shining constantly over an area of 1 sq metre everywhere on the planet.
"That would raise average temperatures by 0.6C before the end of the century, they report in Science today. Warming at that level, maintained over 10,000 years, would melt enough ice to raise sea levels by a kilometre.
"'This energy imbalance is the smoking gun that we have been looking for,' said James Hansen, director of Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies. 'It shows that our estimates of the human-made and natural, climate-forcing agents are about right, and they are driving the Earth to a warmer climate.'
"Most of the world -- with the exception of the US and Australia -- has signed up to the Kyoto protocol to limit greenhouse gas emissions and [increased] global warming. The US government has repeatedly argued that scientific opinion about global warming is divided. With this new research, US government-funded scientists have once again told the US administration that they believe global warming is real, and inexorable."
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