Last 100 years reverse 1400 years of global cooling

Rebecca Scott - Media Officer - University of Melbourne - +613 83440181 Alvin Stone - Media and Manager - Centre of Excellence Climate System Science, UNSW - +612 9385 8953 The first continental-scale reconstruction of temperatures over the past 2000 years has found 20th Century warming was a global event that has produced the hottest global average temperature in 1400 years. The study by 78 scientists from 24 countries was published and combined Northern and Southern Hemisphere temperature reconstructions has highlighted the unusual nature of the 20th century warming. The findings are in stark contrast to the Mediaeval Warm Period and Little Ice Age, which the study revealed did not occur simultaneously across the globe. The international study led by the Past Global Changes (PAGES) network in Switzerland, included Australian scientists from the University of Melbourne, the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science at the University of New South Wales and the Australian Antarctic Division. Co-author of the paper from the University of New South Wales' ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science, Dr Steven Phipps said the striking feature about the sudden rise in 20th Century global average temperature is that it comes after an overall cooling trend that lasted more than a millennium. "This work has transformed our understanding of temperatures over the past 2000 years," he said "This research shows that in just a century the Earth has reversed 1400 years of cooling.