All doubts clear- Global warming is a result of human activities

All doubts clear- Global warming is a result of human activities
The Earth's temperature has increased over the last quarter of a century and it is hotter at this point than during the previous 400 years, according to a report released Thursday by the National Academy of Sciences. The eminent scientific body concluded that this development "is unprecedented for the last 400 years and potentially the last several millennia."

Also the blame was squarely laid on humans, "Human activities are responsible for much of the recent warming," the report said. The report was commissioned by the Congress about a year ago when Texas Congressman Joe Barton disagreed with the conclusions drawn by Michael Mann and two other researchers. The latter had stated that the North hemisphere was warmer during the late 20th century than at any point in the previous 1,000 years.

But the scientific panel said after releasing its report that its own findings were identical to Mann's findings. "It can be said with a high level of confidence that global mean surface temperature was higher during the last few decades of the 20th century than during any comparable period during the preceding four centuries," said committee chairman Gerald North, an atmospheric scientist at Texas A&M University. The panel also laid to rest charges that the upward swing in the global warming graph was caused by fraud and error.

Geophysicist Michael Mann of Pennsylvania State University, whose report created the entire furor said it's time "to put this sometimes silly debate behind us and move forward, to do what we need to do to decrease the remaining uncertainties." His chart was dubbed as "hockey stick" graph due to the sharp upswing. The report, which appeared in Nature had vindicated environmentalists, but had angered Barton as well as oil industry executives.

Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y., chairman of the House Science Committee agreed with Mr Mann's statements. "There is nothing in this report that should raise any doubts about the broad scientific consensus on global climate change ... or any doubts about whether any paper on the temperature records was legitimate scientific work," he said.