Launch of Most Comprehensive Database on Past Global Temperature Changes

(University of Bern, July 11, 2017)

Past Global Changes (PAGES), an international climate change research organization affiliated to and having its main office at the University of Bern, recently made its database on past global temperature through climate reconstructions available online. Temperature estimations based on the analysis of biological and geological sources, such as tree rings, corals, glacier ice, or sediments, help to indirectly approach past temperatures before routine measurements were made. The database is the most comprehensive one on past global temperature patterns and allows to investigate the development as well as the causes of temperature changes in the past, also in order to predict the future. It is publicly available to anybody. In this international effort, the University of Bern was one of a few institutions being involved in all steps from the data collection to editing and the work coordination. Furthermore, the database was initiated by six climate researchers in Bern whose main contribution also was to include data on the Southern hemisphere, as a lot of their projects are undertaken there.