Ten key indicators show global warming 'undeniable'

* Heat effects show up in glaciers, oceans, high humidity * Report considered global climate data for last decade * No cause offered for documented climate change By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent WASHINGTON, July 28 (Reuters) - Melting glaciers, more
humid air and eight other key indicators show that global
warming is undeniable, scientists said on Wednesday, citing a
new comprehensive review of the last decade of climate data. Without addressing why this is happening, the researchers
said there was no doubt that every decade on Earth since the
1980s has been hotter than the previous one, and that the
planet has been warming for the last half-century. This confirms the findings of the U.N. Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change, which reported in 2007 with 90 percent
certainty that climate change is occurring. The IPCC also said
that human activities contribute to this phenomenon. The new report was released after U.S. Senate Democrats
delayed any possible legislation to curb climate change until
September at the earliest. Prospects for U.S. climate change
legislation this year are considered slim. Released by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration as "The 2009 State of the Climate Report," the
new report draws on the work of 303 scientists from 48
countries, including data from last year. The 10 key planet-wide indicators of a warming climate
identified by the report are: -- Higher temperatures over land -- Higher temperatures over oceans -- Higher ocean heat content -- Higher near-surface air temperatures (temperatures in
the troposphere, where Earth's weather occurs) -- Higher humidity -- Higher sea surface temperatures -- Higher sea levels -- Less sea ice -- Less snow cover -- Shrinking glaciers The seven indicators expected to rise in a warming world
rose over the last decade, the report said; the three
indicators expected to decline did so over that same period. With an almost daily flood of data on climate change, Peter
Thorne of the Cooperative Institute for Climate and Satellites
in Asheville, North Carolina, saw the need for a comprehensive
look at the information to pick the most obvious signs of
planetary warming. "These are indicators from the top of the atmosphere to the
bottom of the ocean that we would expect to be changing in a
warming world," Thorne said at a telephone briefing for
reporters. "Each indicator is changing as we would expect if the world
truly were warming," he said. "Not a single analysis disagrees
that the global climate is changing. The bottom line conclusion
that the world's been warming is simply undeniable." The entire report can be seen online here The report is being published in the Bulletin of the
American Meteorological Society. (Editing by Eric Walsh)
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