Human activity the reason behind climate change, reveals study

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: A recent study has revealed that human activity is the main reason behind global warming for almost two centuries.

The study shows that warming began during the early stages of the industrial revolution and was first detected in the Arctic and tropical oceans around the 1830s, which was later spread to Europe, Asia and North America.

However, climate warming appears to have been delayed in the Antarctic, possibly due to the way ocean circulation is pushing warming waters to the North and away from the frozen continent, the researchers said.

"The climate warming we are witnessing today started about 180 years ago," said lead researcher Nerilie Abram Associate Professor at The Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, Australia.

"In the tropical oceans and the Arctic in particular, 180 years of warming has already caused the average climate to emerge above the range of variability that was normal in the centuries prior to the Industrial Revolution," Abram added.

Abram also found that the early warming was attributed to rising greenhouse gas levels.

Humans only caused small increases in the level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere during the 1800s.

"But, the early onset of warming detected in this study indicates the Earth's climate did respond in a rapid and measureable way to even the small increase in carbon emissions during the start of the industrial age," explained Helen McGregor from the University of Wollongong in New South Wales, Australia.

(With IANS inputs)