Jan 21, 2008, 10:02 GMT
Geesthacht, Germany - A German study of a century of temperature readings has confirmed that the Baltic Sea climate is getting warmer than other parts of the world heated up by the current climate change.
Hans von Storch, who set up the Assessment of Climate Change for the Baltic Sea Basin study, also said Monday that average air temperatures in places on the Scandinavian side of the sea were rising faster than on the German and Polish side.
The upwards trend has already been reported in studies of water temperature, a key influence on the weather. The global climate is currently getting warmer, with human carbon-dioxide emissions seen as one of several causes.
Storch's study, published on Monday at Geesthaacht near Hamburg, showed average temperatures had risen 0.85 of a degree Celsius in the basin regions over the past century. The mean average rise worldwide had been 0.75 of a degree.
Storch, who heads the Institute for Coastal Research within the GKSS Research Centre, said air temperatures in the northern part of the basin rose 1 degree and those in the southern part 0.7 of a degree.
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