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Not a cool thing

PHOTO: AFP

ALARMING: High concentration of carbon-dioxide and methane.

Carbon-dioxide levels are substantially higher now than at any time in the last 8,00,000 years, confirms the latest study of ice drilled out of Antarctica. The in-depth analysis of air bubbles trapped in a 3.2km-long core of frozen snow shows concentrations of carbon-dioxide and methane — the two principal human-produced gases — now blamed for global warming. "My point would be that there's nothing in the ice core that gives us any cause for comfort," says Dr. Eric Wolff from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). "There's nothing that suggests that the earth will take care of the increase in carbon-dioxide. The ice core suggests that the increase in carbon-dioxide will definitely give us a climate change that will be dangerous."

COMPILED BY SUBAJAYANTHI B.

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