Study: climate change really is happening

21 October 2011

Global warming is not a fantasy or a conspiracy, according to the most extensive research that has ever been carried out on the phenomenon. However, the researchers have been criticised by one professor for producing conclusions that "aren't exactly revolutionary".

The study, carried out at the University of California, Berkeley, is said to back up disputed claims made by the University of East Anglia (UEA) and the Met Office's Hadley Centre that the earth is definitely getting warmer.

The Berkeley Earth project analysed over 1bn temperature records dating back to the 1800s from around the world and found the average global land temperature had gone up by around 1 degree Celsius since the mid-1950s.

Richard Muller, who headed up the project, said:"My hope is that this will win over those people who are properly sceptical. Some people lump the properly sceptical in with the deniers and that makes it easy to dismiss them, because the deniers pay no attention to science. But there have been people out there who have raised legitimate issues."

Phil Jones, director of the Climatic Research Unit at UEA, said: "I look forward to reading the finalised paper once it has been reviewed and published. These initial findings are very encouraging and echo our own results and our conclusion that the impact of urban heat islands on the overall global temperature is minimal."

And Peter Cox, professor of climate system dynamics at Exeter University said: "These studies seem to confirm the global warming estimated from the existing datasets, which is pleasing but not exactly a surprise to those of us who know how carefully the existing datasets are put together. It is surprising, however, that the authors believe that this news is so significant that they can't wait for peer review, especially when their conclusions aren't exactly revolutionary."