Modern temperatures have been claimed to be "unprecedented" yet the global warming science facts keeps intervening - a new ice core analysis from Svalbard reveals the Medieval Period to be much warmer
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Read here. New study documents Medieval Period winter temperatures that are significantly higher than those of the modern global warming.
This latest evidence comes from the Svalbard archipelago - Longyearbyen is on the peninsula of Spitsbergen, the largest island of the Svalbard archipelago. It is the world's northern-most town, with all settlements further north being research or meteorological outposts.
From the Divine et al. research:
"Working with ice cores extracted from Svalbard at Lomonosovfonna in 1997 and at Holtedahlfonna in 2005,...used the δ18O data derived from them to reconstruct a 1200-year winter...the 11-year running-mean peak winter temperature of the Medieval Warm Period was approximately 9°C greater than the end-of-record 11-year running-mean peak winter temperature." ["Working with ice cores extracted from Svalbard at Lomonosovfonna in 1997 and at Holtedahlfonna in 2005,...used the δ18O data derived from them to reconstruct a 1200-year winter...the 11-year running-mean peak winter temperature of the Medieval Warm Period was approximately 9°C greater than the end-of-record 11-year running-mean peak winter temperature." [Dmitry Divine, Elisabeth Isaksson, Tonu Martma, Harro A.J. Meijer, John Moore, Veijo Pohjola, Roderik S.W. van de Wal, Fred Godtliebsen 2011: Polar Research]
Conclusion: Modern global warming is not "unprecedented." The Medieval Period was a hotter era than our current climate. These are the simple global warming science facts that the empirical evidence corroborates.
Previous climate-history and peer-reviewed postings. Historical temperature charts.