Originally published July 30 2005
Climate scientist issues statement on the human causes of global warming
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
A climate scientist said Tuesday that all global warming is caused by humans.
Global warming is caused primarily by humans and "nearly all climate scientists today" agree with that viewpoint, the new head of the National Academy of Sciences _ a climate scientist himself _ said Wednesday.
Ralph Cicerone's views contrasted with Bush administration officials' emphasis on uncertainty about how much carbon dioxide and other industrial gases warm the atmosphere like a greenhouse.
"Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is now at its highest level in 400,000 years and it continues to rise," said Cicerone, an atmospheric scientist who left as chancellor of University of California-Irvine to become academy president this month.
"Nearly all climate scientists today believe that much of Earth's current warming has been caused by increases in the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, mostly from the burning of fuels."
Cicerone, testifying before a Senate Commerce subcommittee on global climate change, cited data from weather stations and ships indicating the surface of the Earth is generally hotter by about seven-tenths of 1 degree Fahrenheit just since the early 1970s.
"We see economic growth, addressing the climate change problem and energy security as integrally related," said Daniel Reifsnyder, director of the State Department's Office of Global Change.
All three shared concerns about coastlines disappearing.
Cicerone also bolstered a 2004 Pentagon report that two private consultants prepared on potential global impacts of an abrupt and severe change in the world's climate.
They saw possible "mega-droughts" in southern China and northern Europe.
Last month, the National Academy of Sciences _ an independent organization chartered by Congress to advise the government on scientific matters _ joined with similar groups from 10 other nations in calling for prompt action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Bush said earlier this month he recognizes that human activity contributes to a warmer Earth.
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