The new research does not address how human activity could add to or impact climate change. The cause of the apparently rapid change that ended the ice age is still largely unknown. A majority of climate scientists agree that industrialization could be accelerating the current warming trend. They say that current record temperatures are simply part of a centuries-long trend that is not a result of automobile and factory emissions. White said that global warming caused by man-made greenhouse gases may be very similar to warming that may occur naturally.
Humans add methane to the atmosphere.
We are simply doing it faster. For this reason, said White, studying natural climate change of the past may give a fundamental understanding of how human actions could change the climate in the future. The 15 warmest years on record have occurred since 1980, with 1998 on track for the highest average temperatures since record-keeping began twelve decades ago. Accompanying papers to be published in Friday's Science explore the role of the oceans' currents in climate change. The spacecraft will also fly by asteroid 1992 KD in July 1999.