Global warming is a big issue that has no end in sight unless the world comes together to help put it under control. This problem has been around for quite some time, and humans are one of the main reasons why it has become so prevalent.
Nearly 200 years ago, as early as 1830, during the time of the Industrial Revolution, humans were moving away from the old and into a new world, one where life is much better than it was in the past.
Researchers who have been seeking to find a date of when humans truly began to shape the world found evidence among 500 years of tree rings, ice cores and corals to create a natural archive of the Earth's historical temperatures.
Much of what researchers have learned about climate change comes from data collected from instruments designed to monitor temperatures during the time of the 1800s onward.
Still, while these instruments are capable of capturing the many changing conditions in the 20th century, they tend to miss the beginning of the warming trend.
"A lot is known about the climate record for the time when we have instrumental records," said Nerilie Abram, a climate scientist at the Australian National University. "We wanted to look at whether these records give us the full picture."
Scientists managed to figure out that air in the northern hemisphere and temperatures in the tropical oceans began to rise during the 1830s. This was during the time greenhouse gas emissions began to rise at an alarming rate. Researchers first thought that they were looking at the planet rebounding after a period of cooling, but such wasn't the case.
The warming observed was due to the rise of greenhouse gases during the Industrial Revolution, and humans were to blame.
South America, Australia and some parts of Asia began to heat up at around 50 years later. Interestingly enough, Antarctica at the time appeared to have been free from this shift in events.
These results are very important if researchers are to understand the temperature of the Earth before humans began to directly influence the direction of climate change.
A maximum of 25 scientists from across Asia, Europe, the United States and Australia have taken part in this study. Their work was published online in the journal Nature on Aug. 24.
Reading University meteorologist Ed Hawkins said the results gathered in the research show how much information can be gathered from tree rings, corals and other natural material on the planet to help determine past activities regarding climate change.
"This is further evidence that the climate has already changed significantly since the pre-industrial period," said Hawkins.
Photo: Kevin Gill | Flickr
