GOP Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, who chairs the House Science Committee, requested that the National Academy of Sciences conduct a review of the evidence on global warming. The request was triggered by wingnut Rep. Joe Barton launching an
investigation into the research of leading scientists in the field.
The NAS report is in.
The academy had been asked to report to Congress on how researchers drew conclusions about the Earth's climate going back thousands of years, before data was available from modern scientific instruments. The academy convened a panel of 12 climate experts, chaired by Gerald North, a geosciences professor at Texas A&M University, to look at the "proxy" evidence before then, such as tree rings, corals, marine and lake sediments, ice cores, boreholes and glaciers.
Combining that information gave the panel "a high level of confidence that the last few decades of the 20th century were warmer than any comparable period in the last 400 years," the panel wrote. It said the "recent warmth is unprecedented for at least the last 400 years and potentially the last several millennia," though it was relatively warm around the year 1000 followed by a "Little Ice Age" from about 1500 to 1850.
... it considered the evidence reliable enough to conclude there were sharp spikes in carbon dioxide and methane, the two major "greenhouse" gases blamed for trapping heat in the atmosphere, beginning in the 20th century, after remaining fairly level for 12,000 years.
In response to the findings, Boehlert responded remarkably sanely, for a Republican.
"This report shows the value of Congress handling scientific disputes by asking scientists to give us guidance," Boehlert said Thursday. "There is nothing in this report that should raise any doubts about the broad scientific consensus on global climate change."
One wonders how long he's going to be able to keep his chairmanship, given this betrayal of the Rubber Stamp.
Update [2006-6-23 15:33:33 by mcjoan]: And we have our answer. LarryInNYC reminds me that he has annouced his retirement. One more moderate Republican down the drain. They've become an endangered species, if you believe in such things.