Proof of warming in Antarctica gives more credibility to suspected human impact

Changes to the climate due to human activity can now be detected on every continent, following a study showing that temperature rises in the Antarctic as well as the Arctic are the result of man-made emissions of greenhouse gases.

The study, led by the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia and published in the journal Nature Geoscience, marks the first time scientists have been able to prove the link between human activity and temperature changes in both polar regions, and it also undermines climate skeptics’ claim that the warming trend seen in the Arctic in recent decades is part of natural climatic variability.

The findings contradict the 2007 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which said that Antarctica was the only continent where the human impact on the climate had not been observed. The new study shows that Antarctica has been caught up in the changes to the global climate over the past 60 years and that this warming cannot be attributed to natural variations. Full Story: The Independent