60 NYT > Global Warming - Narrowed by 'TOADS' http://topics.nyti
mes.com/top/news/science/topics/globalwarming/index.ctx?s=newest
&field=des&match=exact&query=TOADS&&partner=rssnyt &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 are warming the