Climate Commission Responds to Sceptics' Claims

摘要

In response to claims by sceptics that the Earth is not warming, the Climate Commission has released a briefing paper that confirms that the Earth continues to warm at an alarming rate. Professor Will Steffen, author of the paper, says, "The most common error is looking at either a short timeframe, or just one indicator of warming. What climate scientists do is look at the big picture and the long term to understand what is going on. When we put together all of the evidence, the heating ocean, air and land over the last 50 years, we can clearly see that Earth has been warming strongly." The briefing paper makes the following core points: (1) The Earth continues to warm strongly. Scientists assess this based on long-term observations of the heat content of the ocean, the air temperature (an indicator of the heat content of the atmosphere), and the amount of heat absorbed by the land, glaciers, ice sheets, and sea ice. (2) Understanding changes in climate requires data over long time periods, at least 30 years and preferably much longer.