In a Thursday report published in the journal Science, an international team of researchers have revealed that Arctic temperatures in the present times have touched their highest levels in the last 2,000 years, largely due to the climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions.

The researchers elaborated that carbon dioxide and other gases that have been generating by human activities have vastly devastated a 21,000-year cycle connected with gradual changes in Earth's orbit around the Sun, and have reversed the Arctic's natural cooling movement that otherwise would have lasted at least four more millennia.

The findings of the scientists have been based on evidence from ice cores, tree rings and lake sediments, as well as a sample study of 23 Arctic sites for a decade-by- decade analysis of temperatures across the region.

Noting the Arctic's extreme sensitivity to both changes in solar heating and greenhouse warming, the scientists remarked that the "hockey stick"-like curve depicting the Arctic's temperatures over the 1998-2008 decade stands out as the 'warmest' thus far.

Detailing about the findings, lead researcher Darrell Kaufman - of Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, US -told BBC: "The 20th Century stands out in strong contrast to the cooling that should have continued. The last half-century was the warmest of the 2,000-year temperature record, and the last 10 years have been especially dramatic!"