Carbon Dioxide the Warming Culprit Caught Red Handed for First Time

Making the strongest argument for climate change yet, researchers have demonstrated the increasing warming effects of carbon dioxide over the last decade.

According to Forbes, the study showed an increase in warming of 0.2 watt per square meter per decade or a 10 percent total increase, which can be correlated to a 22 parts per million rise in CO₂ ­levels attributed to burning fossil fuels.

"We see, for the first time in the field, the amplification of the greenhouse effect because there's more CO2 in the atmosphere to absorb what the Earth emits in response to incoming solar radiation," says Daniel Feldman, the study's lead author in a news release.

"Numerous studies show rising atmospheric CO₂ concentrations, but our study provides the critical link between those concentrations and the addition of energy to the system, or the greenhouse effect."

To arrive at their conclusions, researchers measured radiative forcing which is the effect of atmosphere on the balance between absorbed and reflect solar energy from Earth's surface. The measurements were made on daily basis at Oklahoma and Alaska from 2000 to 2010, Discovery News reports.

The measurements were made using spectrum measurement devices that can detect infrared rays, the warming component of Sun's energy that is trapped by greenhouse gases like CO₂.

Findings are in line with theory that predicts that carbon dioxide has caused the earth's surface to warm over the years and the causes are anthropogenic.