Was the Earth in a period of global warming or cooling before the 20th century? Attempting to answer this question has thrown up a conundrum for scientists, with some studies showing a warming trend, while others suggesting it cooled until humans intervened. Now a new study hopes to settle the issue by arguing that data points to the fact that Earth’s climate has been warming over the past 10,000 years – long before human activity is thought to have changed the climate. It argues that previous research that showed a cooling trend was wrong because it used contradictory ice core data. --Ellie Zolfagharfard, Daily Mail, 13 August 2014
