---
title: "New Research: Global Temp Rising at Fastest Rate in 2,000 Years"
description: "According to new research, global warming in the 20th century happened more quickly and pervasively than at any other time in the past 2,000 years."
date: "2019-07-26"
modified: "2019-07-26"
authors:
  - name: "Kristin Houser"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/kristin"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/global-warming-temperature-rising-fastest-rate"
categories:
  - "Climate Change"
  - "Environment"
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "climate change"
  - "climate skeptics"
  - "global warming"
  - "the digest"
---

# New Research: Global Temp Rising at Fastest Rate in 2,000 Years

![According to new research, global warming in the 20th century happened more quickly and pervasively than at any other time in the past 2,000 years.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/global-warming-temperature-rising-fastest-rate.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Tag Hartman-Simkins\</em\>*

## Clap Back

One of [climate skeptics'](<https://futurism.com/senators-opposing-green-new-deal-fossil-fuel-cash>) favorite arguments for doing nothing about global warming is the idea that what's happening on Earth right now [isn't unusual](<https://www.npr.org/2018/12/12/676198899/climate-scientist-says-argument-the-climate-is-always-changing-is-wrong>).

The planet is always going through cycles of warmer and cooler weather, they argue, and eventually temperatures will swing back down.

But [new research](<https://www.unibe.ch/aktuell/medien/media_relations/medienmitteilungen/2019/medienmitteilungen_2019/klima_erwaermt_sich_so_schnell_wie_nie_in_den_letzten_2000_jahren/index_ger.html>) indicates that what's happening on Earth right now is unlike anything the planet has experienced in the past 2,000 years — potentially putting an end to the "business as usual" argument once and for all.

## Double Whammy

On Wednesday, researchers published two new papers in the journals *Nature* and *Nature Geoscience*.

In the *Nature* [paper](<https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-019-1401-2>), they detail how they used 700 [proxy records](<https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/news/what-are-proxy-data>) of temperature changes to recreate Earth's climate conditions over the past 2,000 years. Meanwhile, in the *Nature Geoscience* [paper](<https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-019-0402-y>), they focused on charting the planet's average temperature.

This allowed them to analyze several extended periods of warming and cooling often cited as examples of Earth's penchant for cycling through temperatures, including the Roman Warm Period from 250 to 400 and the Little Ice Age from 1300 to 1870.

## Vicious Not-a-Cycle

The *Nature* paper found that no historic period of warming or cooling affected more than half the Earth at any one time — a stark contrast to 20th century warming, which affected more than 98 percent of the planet.

"This paper should finally stop climate change deniers claiming that the recent observed coherent global warming is part of a natural climate cycle," University College London climatology professor Mark Maslin, who wasn't involved in the studies, [told the *BBC*](<https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-49086783>).

The *Nature Geoscience* article, meanwhile, revealed that this warming has never happened so quickly — meaning we literally don't have time to argue about it anymore.

**READ MORE:** [Climate change: Current warming 'unparalleled' in 2,000 years](<https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-49086783>) \[*BBC*\]

**More on climate change:** *[Scientists Are 99.9999 Percent Sure Humans Caused Climate Change](<https://futurism.com/climate-change-caused-humans>)*

### Author social links  
[LinkedIn](<https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristinjhouser>)