Weather Forecast Warm for the Next 15,000 Years

[CShine]

Weather for about the next 15,000 years should be warm and stable -- barring human interference -- according to scientists on Wednesday. They have drilled three km (1.8 miles) into the Antarctic ice to produce the oldest-ever continuous climate record, from an ice core dating back 740,000 years. It shows eight ice ages, or glacials, followed by shorter interglacial periods and changing concentrations of gases and particles in the atmosphere.

The period that corresponds most to the present interglacial period, which started 12,000 years ago, was about 400,000 years ago and lasted roughly 28,000 years.

"Our data say we won't go into another ice age. We have 15,000 years before that is coming," Dr Eric Wolff, of the British Antarctic Survey, told a news conference.

But concentrations of greenhouse gases such as methane and carbon dioxide (CO2) today are the highest seen in the last 440,000 years.

"We have no experience of (this) in the past," said Wolff.


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