BAFFIN ISLAND, Nunavut, Jan. 19 Researchers are digging dozens of feet deep into mud in the Canadian Arctic to try and find out how severe global warming will get.Jason P. Briner, an assistant geology professor at the University of Buffalo, samples Arctic lake sediments and glaciers annually and analyzes them to reconstruct past climates.As paleoclimatologists, we want to study Earth under conditions similar to those we have today, what we call 'climate analogues,' which might tell us what to expect in the future, he said. Briner said the Arctic is a good indicator of future climate change because the clues that signify such changes are stronger there than elsewhere on the plant.Yet, even when we take that phenomenon into account, he noted, the signals we are finding on Baffin Island are huge, he said. The temperature records, that is, the 'signal' of warmth that we are reconstructing for this part of the Canadian Arctic over the past 10,000 years seems to be higher than the global average for that period and even higher than the Arctic average.He said the warming trend that began in the 20th century is more pronounced in the Arctic than it is in the rest of the globe.The magnitude of warmth over the past 100 years seems pretty exceptional in the context of the past 1,000 years, he said. Copyright 2007 by UPI
