	Deep ice tells long climate story
Carbon dioxide levels are substantially higher now than at any time in the last 800,000 years, the latest study of ice drilled out of Antarctica confirms.
`Monday, 4 September 2006, 22:27 GMT 23:27 UK http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5314592.stm`
	The ice core..has been drilled out by the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica (Epica), a 10-country consortium. The in-depth analysis of air bubbles trapped in a 3.2km-long core of frozen snow shows current greenhouse gas concentrations are unprecedented. The East Antarctic core is the longest, deepest ice column yet extracted. 'Scary' rate - Earlier results from the Epica core were published in 2004 and 2005, detailing the events back to 440,000 years and 650,000 years respectively. Scientists have now gone the full way through the column, back another 150,000 years. "Ice cores reveal the Earth's natural climate rhythm over the last 800,000 years. When carbon dioxide changed there was always an accompanying climate change. Over the last 200 years human activity has increased carbon dioxide to well outside the natural range," explained Dr Wolff.
The "scary thing", he added, was the rate of change now occurring in CO2 concentrations. In the core, the fastest increase seen was of the order of 30 parts per million (ppm) by volume over a period of roughly 1,000 years. "The last 30 ppm of increase has occurred in just 17 years. We really are in the situation where we don't have an analogue in our records," he said.

30ppm in 17 yrs vs 30ppm in 1000 yrs; ratio: 1000/17≈ 59x faster than most rapid change during 800k yrs.
→ Not "merely" 59x faster than the "average" rate, but 59x faster than the (previously) maximal rate!

By now more well over 60x faster than the fastest-rate-of-those-800,000-years.