New research conducted by Australian and international experts shows that in recent decades the world has warmed faster than at any time in the past 2,000 years.

“This research uses new data sources and analyses to confirm what many of us have been saying.  Since the 1950s the world has been warming at a rate unprecedented for at least two thousand years and probably longer,” said Climate Councillor Professor Will Steffen.

In 19AD, the global population was just 4% of what it is now. There were fewer people on earth than the current population of the United States and most people lived an agrarian life. 

To understand what the global climate was like in the past, the researchers analysed corals, ice cores, tree rings, lake sediments and ocean sediment cores.  Their work provides a clear picture of the Earth’s average temperature over the past two millennia.

“This news should be ringing alarm bells in Canberra.  Australia is incredibly vulnerable to climate change and yet our greenhouse gas emissions have been rising for five years,” said the Climate Council’s CEO Amanda McKenzie. 

“This morning we’ve learned the Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor delayed releasing the latest greenhouse gas emissions data to the public.  Mr Taylor may need a new job title because our emissions are going up and up and up,” she said.

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