Figure 2-6b: A consistent,
large-scale warming of both the land and ocean surface occurred over the last
quarter of the 20th century, with largest temperature increases over the mid-
and high latitudes of North America, Europe, and Asia. Large regions of cooling
occurred only in parts of the Pacific and Southern Oceans and Antarctica.
The warming of land faster than ocean surface is consistent both with the observed
changes in natural climate variations such as the North Atlantic and Arctic Oscillations
and with the modeled pattern of greenhouse-gas warming. As described in the text,
warming in some regions is linked with observed changes in biological systems
on all continents.
