Scientists Map Historical Climate Trends, Show Cooling from AD 1580-1880, Warming from 1971-2000

As the theory of global warming continues to incite intense debate between clean energy activists and the vanguards of entrenched industries, a group of scientists have embarked on a study to set the facts straight. Using a recreation of weather patterns "for seven continental-scale regions during the past one to two millennia," the team discovered a thread of long-term cooling, which illustrated "generally cold conditions" from AD 1580 to 1880. Yet, between 1971 and 2000, research yielded a warming trend with higher temperature "than any other time in nearly 1,400 years."

So, what does this all mean? NASA climatologist Gavin Schmidt explains, "What matters is this decade is warmer than the last decade, and that decade was warmer than the decade before. The planet is warming. The reason it's warming is because we are pumping increased amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere."(via RedOrbit)

Notably, the data shows that regional conditions account for variations in temperature conditions, but despite the lack of a "synchronous" global climate trend, the Earth cooled down within between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Goddard Institute for Space Studies Director James Hansen adds, "The climate dice are now loaded. Some seasons still will be cooler than the long-term average, but the perceptive person should notice that the frequency of unusually warm extremes is increasing. It is the extremes that have the most impact on people and other life on the planet."

Although the study, which was originally published in Nature Geoscience, will not likely sway the climate change conversation in any definitive direction, it provides meaningful context to a complex scientific question.