U.S. Government Finally Faces Facts
A new government report calledOurChanging Planet says people are responsible for the globalwarming of the past 30 years. This idea has long beenaccepted by scientists, but has been resisted by bigbusiness interests in the White House who don’t want toforce industries to curb their greenhouse gas emissions orproduce low-emission cars.
Maggie McKee writes in New Scientist that the report, whichsummarizes recent computer simulations by 13 governmentagencies, reports that global warming in the first half ofthe 20th century “was likely due to natural climatevariation,” including increased solar activity. But thetemperature rise over the second half of the century,especially in the last 30 years, can only be explained byhuman activity.
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