60 NYT > Global Warming - Narrowed by 'BALIUNAS, SALLIE' http://
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&lt;p&gt;On Feb. 2, 2007, the United Nations scientific panel
studying climate change declared that the evidence of a warming
trend is "unequivocal," and that human activity has "very
likely" been the driving force in that change over the last 50
years. The last report by the group, the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change, in 2001, had found that humanity had "likely"
played a role.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The addition of that single
word "very" did more than reflect mounting scientific evidence
that the release of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases
from smokestacks, tailpipes and burning forests has played a
central role in raising the average surface temperature of the
earth by more than 1 degree Fahrenheit since 1900. It also added
new momentum to a debate that now seems centered less over
whether humans ar