WASHINGTON – The Arctic was cooling for 1,900 years because of a natural change in Earth’s orbit until greenhouse gas accumulation from the use of fossil fuels reversed the trend in recent decades, according to a study published Thursday in Science magazine.

Scientists reconstructed the temperature record of the past 2,000 years, using evidence from tree rings, ice cores and lake sediment, and found a steady cooling trend in Arctic summer temperatures of about 0.9 degrees Fahrenheit during the first 1,900 years. The cooling was caused by a slow natural cycle in Earth’s orbit that continues in this century.

“The summer cooling would likely be continuing today were it not for the increase of greenhouse gases from fossil fuel burning,” said David Schneider, a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and one of the authors of the study.

Darrell Kaufman, a professor of geology and environmental science at Northern Arizona State University and the lead author of the study, put it this way: “The warmth in the Arctic during the second half of the 20th century, combined with the last decade, is striking against the backdrop of the previous 1,900 years.”

Further, 1999 to 2008 was the warmest decade in the Arctic of any in that period, the report in Science said. Temperatures were about 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit higher than would have been expected if the natural cooling trend had continued.