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Two global coupled climate models show that even if theconcentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere had been stabilizedin the year 2000, we are already committed to further global warming ofabout another half degree and an additional 320% sea level rise causedby thermal expansion by the end of the 21st century. Projected weakeningof the meridional overturning circulation in the North Atlantic Oceandoes not lead to a net cooling in Europe. At any given point in time,even if concentrations are stabilized, there is a commitment to futureclimate changes that will be greater than those we have alreadyobserved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the research about the world oceans. Basing on the observations, the world oceans have been warming for the past 50 years. The said findings are significant confirmations of global warming inferences based on surface atmospheric temperature measurements. Researcher John M. Lyman and associates have expanded its study to present a global temperature data set for the upper 750 meters of the world oceans. Their study uncovers a large cooling since 2003 which have implications beyond the pattern and extent of cooling.

The article presents information on an announcement made by a National Research Council panel that the last ten years of the 20th century were probably warmer than any comparable period in the past 1000 years. The outlines of the near-iconic "hockey stick" temperature curve is confirmed by this announcement. The temperature curve means a long cooling followed by a sharp warming during the past millennium. For greenhouse contrarians, the temperature curve become a favorite target. The proof in parts of the hockey stick is blurred than the public and many scientists might have thought. For most of the millennium, the resulting temperature curve sloped gently downward and then grew sharply into the 20th century. Later it peaked the relative warmth of 800 to 1000 years ago. Hence it means that humans have played a major role in the recent warming.