CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: A new report is certain to turn up the heat on the issue of global warming. A blue-ribbon panel of the National Academy of Sciences says, yes, the Earth is heating up. It's a complicated and controversial issue, so we'd like to welcome environmental correspondent Natalie Pawelski to sort of straighten all of this out. Hi, Natalie.</s>NATALIE PAWELSKI, CNN ENVIRONMENTAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi. Thanks a lot. It is confusing, isn't it? Carol, for years scientists have pointed to rising temperatures at the Earth's surface as the clearest evidence that global warming is happening. But for the past couple of decades, data gathered from satellites and weather balloons seem to contradict that theory. It showed that the Earth's lower atmosphere is not heating up. The National Academy of Sciences convened a panel of researchers representing a wide spectrum of opinion on global warming to look into this apparent contradiction. The scientists' conclusion: The Earth is warming, even if the atmosphere around it doesn't seem to be.</s>ROY SPENCER, NAS PANEL MEMBER: Some people had been using the satellite record, which shows essentially no global warming in the last 20 years, to cast a doubt on the theory of global warming, or on even whether the surface is warming, like maybe there's something wrong with the surface measurements. And we came to the consensus conclusion that the satellite data shouldn't used to cast doubt on the surface warming that has occurred in the surface measurements.</s>PAWELSKI: Now, the scientists did not make any conclusions about what is causing Earth to heat up, and they didn't make any predictions about the future, but their findings do knock down one of the most common arguments against global warming, and Carol, that could end up changing the terms of the scientific debate.</s>LIN: The scientists aren't coming to any conclusions, but do they have any theories about why the Earth is warming but the atmosphere is not?</s>PAWELSKI: Right. They think other factors may explain it, like the inter -- like the eruption of Mount Pinatubo volcano back in 1991, or they say it could even be side effects from air pollution.</s>LIN: Still studying the problem. All right, thanks, Natalie.
Blue-Ribbon Scientific Panel Says Earth's Surface Warming Despite Cooler Atmosphere