http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article1362736.ece

The rapid rise in greenhouse gases over the past century is
unprecedented in at least 800,000 years, according to a study of the oldest
Antarctic ice core which highlights the reality of climate change.


Scientists at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) in Cambridge have found there
have been eight cycles of atmospheric change in the past 800,000 years when
carbon dioxide and methane have risen to peak levels.


Each time, the world also experienced the relatively high temperatures
associated with warm, inter-glacial periods, which were almost certainly linked
with levels of carbon dioxide and possibly methane in the atmosphere.


The core shows that carbon dioxide was always between 180 parts per million (ppm)
and 300 ppm during the 800,000 years. However, now it is 380 ppm. Methane was
never higher than 750 parts per billion (ppb) in this timescale, but now it
stands at 1,780 ppb.


But the rate of change is even more dramatic, with increases in carbon dioxide
never exceeding 30 ppm in 1,000 years -- and yet now carbon dioxide has risen by
30 ppm in the last 17 years.

So are we hang glider pilots interested in climate or is it
weather? Or is it both?