Temperature highest in 1,300 years

TEMPERATURES in the northern hemisphere have been warmer in the past decade than at any time in the past 1,300 years, researchers said yesterday.

With a lack of widespread climate records from thermometers before the mid 19th century, scientists have to use data from “natural climate archives” such as corals, tree-rings, sediment and ice core samples to work out temperatures in the past.

A new study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.