Western Europe hit by record heat wave

The speed and extent of current global warming exceeds any similar event in the past 2,000 years, a new study says. Scientists say it shows many of the arguments used by climate sceptics are no longer valid.

During the past two millennia, the planet has experienced several episodes of extreme warming and cooling as a result of natural changes to the climate.

The new research confirms, however, that these climate events were patchy — impacting different parts of the world at different times. By comparison, human-caused climate change affected 98 percent of the globe simultaneously through the 20th century, the research says.