He noted that ongoing measurements of surface temperature, ice, and sea level provide “consistent signals that the planet is warming…. We need to keep watching the data. We’re confronted with a long-term issue that isn’t going to go away. We need to keep the focus on this issue.”
– Ralph Ciccerone
http://www.bishop-hill.net/blog/2010/11/12/ciccerone-circumspect.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Holocene_Temperature_Variations.png
http://www.globalwarmingart.com/images/1/1e/Holocene_Sea_Level.png
For the last 8,000 years, temperatures have been falling, while sea level has been rising. Rising sea level does not indicate that the planet is warming. Rather, it indicates that we are no longer in an ice age.
The world’s largest reservoir of sea ice (Antarctica) has been increasing for as long as records have been kept. Cicerone calls this a “consistent signal” that the planet is warming.
http://nsidc.org/data/seaice_index/images/s_plot.png
