Study finds Earth temperature 'skyrocketing'
By Leigh Dayton
January 27, 2005
from The Australian
THE largest ever climate-change experiment reveals that scientists may have dramatically underestimated the threat of global warming.
The study by British scientists, which is published today, found the planet's global temperature could climb by between 2C and 11C because of skyrocketing levels of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. That more than doubles the current prediction of a 1.4C to 4.5C rise this century.
"When we started out we didn't expect anything like this," said Oxford University's David Stainforth, chief scientist for climateprediction.net.... "If this is the case, it's very dramatic and very scary," Mr Stainforth said.
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According to Neville Nicholls, head of climate forecasting at the Bureau of Meterology in Melbourne, climateprediction.net is a "terrific project" that tackles the uncertainty of climate predictions. He agreed with CSIRO climate modeller Tony Hirst that: "This may mean that the world could warm up faster than most of us are happy anticipating."
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,12065009-2,00.html