The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its updated consensus on climate change in February 2007. The Summary for Policy Makers is available now at the IPPC web site, with the full report to follow. Because this is a consensus document, it should be considered a conservative estimate on climate change.
"Global atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide have increased markedly as a result of human activities since 1750 and now far exceed pre-industrial values determined from ice cores spanning many thousands of years (see Figure SPM-1). The global increases in carbon dioxide concentration are due primarily to fossil fuel use and land-use change, while those of methane and nitrous oxide are primarily due to agriculture...Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global average sea level (see Figure SPM-3).
Commentary:
Ira Flatow of Science Friday interviewed one of the authors, Kevin E. Trenberth, in a podcast dated 02 Feb 2007. I have a copy, but can't seem to find the link now on the web.
Scientific American magazine 07 Feb 2007 has a story in the first 00:14:35 of a podcast interview of one of the editors covering the climate change meeting, available at the iTunes web store (free).
