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The ice-core record: climate sensitivity and future greenhouse warming

Nature volume 347, pages 139–145 (1990)Cite this article

Abstract

The prediction of future greenhouse-gas-induced warming depends critically on the sensitivity of Earth's climate to increasing atmospheric concentrations of these gases. Data from cores drilled in polar ice sheets show a remarkable correlation between past glacial–interglacial temperature changes and the inferred atmospheric concentration of gases such as carbon dioxide and methane. These and other palaeoclimate data are used to assess the role of greenhouse gases in explaining past global climate change, and the validity of models predicting the effect of increasing concentrations of such gases in the atmosphere.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Geophysique de I'Environment, BP96, 38402, St Martin d'Heres Cedex, France

    C. Lorius & D. Raynaud

  2. the Laboratoire de Geochimie Isotopique, CEA/DSM Centre d'Etudes Nucleaires de Saclay, 91191, Gif sur Yvette Cedex, France

    J. Jouzel

  3. the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center's Institute for Space Studies, 2880 Broadway, New York, New York, 10025, USA

    J. Hansen

  4. the Laboratoire de Meterologie Dynamique, 24 Rue Lhomond, 75234, Paris Cedex, France

    H. Le Treut

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  1. C. Lorius
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  3. D. Raynaud
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  4. J. Hansen
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  5. H. Le Treut
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Lorius, C., Jouzel, J., Raynaud, D. et al. The ice-core record: climate sensitivity and future greenhouse warming. Nature 347, 139–145 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1038/347139a0

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