New research: ‘Glaring obvious explanation’ is warming from greenhouse gases

The Financial Times has covered a new report from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) which contains new research based on new data that was not available for the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report of 2007.

The Financial Times explains:

The NOAA study drew on up to 11 different indicators of climate, and found that each one pointed to a world that was warming owing to the influence of greenhouse gases, said Peter Stott, head of climate monitoring at the UK’s Met Office, one of the agencies participating.

Seven indicators were rising, he said. These were: air temperature over land, sea-surface temperature, marine air temperature, sea level, ocean heat, humidity, and tropospheric temperature in the “active-weather” layer of the atmosphere closest to the earth’s surface.

Four indicators were declining: Arctic sea ice, glaciers, spring snow cover in the northern hemisphere, and stratospheric temperatures.

Mr Stott said: “The whole of the climate system is acting in a way consistent with the effects of greenhouse gases…. The fingerprints are clear,” he said. “The glaringly obvious explanation for this is warming from greenhouse gases.”

In this brilliant graphic, NOAA show what they’ve found:

Despite this, as the blog, The Way Things Break, have highlighted, there’s a bias in the FT’s coverage – towards the denial community.

However, the fresh research prompted to The Observer to use its lead editorial yesterday to say:

“We must restart the fight against global warming.”

The editors wrote of the so-called climategate non-scandal:

“The emails proved at worst a cavalier and somewhat arrogant attitude on the part of scientists to critics of their work and a secretive, siege mentality in response to climate deniers. The actual scientific case for global warming was unscathed.”

This NOAA research follows Nature’s report that scientists may have found the most devastating impact yet of human-caused global warming – a 40 per cent decline in phytoplankton since 1950 linked to the rise in ocean sea surface temperatures.

As The Independent reported:

“The microscopic plants that support all life in the oceans are dying off at a dramatic rate…

“If the findings are confirmed by further studies it will represent the single biggest change to the global biosphere in modern times, even bigger than the destruction of the tropical rainforests and coral reefs.”