Study: Temperatures at 4,000-year High, Earth Simmers as Plant and Animal Life Struggle to Adapt

The findings of a new study indicate global temperatures are at a 4,000-year high and will keep rising to a level not seen since before the ice age.

According to a study to be published in the journal Science, Oregon State University earth scientist Shaun Marcott and his fellow researchers used data from ocean creatures  to determine the temperature for the last 11,300 years, The New York Times reports.

The study supports earlier findings that show changes in sunlight distribution were caused by a change in the Earth's orbit which led to increased temperatures that after thousands of years began to slowly cool down, the report says. Scientist say if the trend was to continue it could lead to another ice age.

But high emissions of greenhouse gases are bound to prevent such a scenario from ever unfolding. The study finds that modern temperature increases have risen at a far greater amount than temperatures measured over the time span of the modern geological era.

Michael E. Mann, a researcher at Pennsylvania State University, told The New York Times that plant and animal life adapted to the gradual temperature growth measured in the study but added that the recent high temperature increase may be too much this time around.

"We and other living things can adapt to slower changes," he said. "It's the unprecedented speed with which we're changing the climate that is so worrisome."