Yes, It's Been Getting Warmer in Here Since the CO 2 Began to Rise

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The last decades of the 20th century were most likely warmer than any comparable period in the past 1000 years, a National Research Council (NRC) panel announced* at a press briefing here last week. The expert committee thus confirms the outlines of the near-iconic “hockey stick” temperature curve—a long cooling followed by a sharp warming during the past millennium—that had become a favorite target of greenhouse contrarians. But the committee also says the evidence in parts of the stick is fuzzier than the public and many scientists might have thought.