Katharine Hayhoe: Here's How Long We've Known About Climate Change

http://www.ecowatch.com/katharine-hayhoe-climate-change-2103671842.html

One of the biggest myths about climate science—a myth that has been deliberately fostered, for decades—is that we just don't know that much, yet.

The field is still in its infancy, people argue and a lot more is needed before coming to consensus. After all, aren't scientists always changing their minds? Just a few decades ago, they were predicting an ice age, not global warming!

Even for those of us on board with the scientific consensus that climate is changing and humans are responsible, might be hard pressed to pick a year when climate science really began. Surely before 1990, when the first Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change assessment was published? Maybe in 1988, when Jim Hansen testified to Congress? Or in 1981, when he published his first paper on the greenhouse effect of trace gases?

Good guesses—but all wrong. The field of climate science stretches back almost 200 years. That's right: Scientists have been studying our planet for that long.

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So, does that explain what's happening right now? No, because the warming after the last ice age peaked between four to eight thousand years ago. Today, according to natural cycles, we should be gradually and slowly cooling, in preparation for the next ice age. But, thanks to all the coal, oil and gas we've burned since the Industrial Revolution, that's no longer the next event on our geological calendar. Instead, we're heading into unknown territory—unknown, that is, since the time of the dinosaurs, when there weren't any ice sheets, when the sea level was more than 300 feet higher than today and when the land where a third of the people on this planet currently live would've been under water.