C3

Global Warming Science Facts: Unprecedented Ocean Temperatures Prior To Modern Warming - No 'Hockey-Stick'

The 'hockey-stick' pseudo science that the IPCC attempted to fool the public with takes another hit - a new study concerning East China Sea temperatures confirms the known global warming science facts - unprecedented ocean temperatures were prior to modern era

(click on image to enlarge)

Read here. The IPCC's known political agenda requires it to publish "science" that purportedly establishes modern warming as unprecedented. One of the results of this agenda was the infamous and now discredited study known as the 'hockey stick'.

Unfortunately for the IPCC, the vast majority of scientific research confirms that ancient and historical global/regional temperatures do not resemble a hockey-stick with modern warming being higher than earlier periods. And now new Chinese research by Wu et al. has determined the same - there is no hockey-stick.

"The East China Sea SST reconstruction was developed by 5 researchers with various affiliations with several Chinese universities...collected a sediment core from the sea floor in the Southern Okinawa Trough (SOT) over which the warm Kuroshio current flows...The researchers analyzed the top 10 meters of the sediment core, corresponding to 2,700 years of sedimentation and from it were able to resolve 25-yr averages...shows a significant degree of long-term temperature variability...were able to identify the well-recognized climate periods of the past several millennia, including the Little Ice Age (LIA), Medieval Warm Period (MWP), Sui-Tang dynasty Warm Period (STWP), Dark Age Cool Period (DACP), and the Roman Warm period (RWP) along with the Current Warm Period (CWP) beginning in the mid-19th century...the temperatures at the end of the Current Warm period (CWP), are not the highest of the entire reconstruction. In fact, there are indications that there were 25-yr periods during nearly all of the previously identified warm periods in which the reconstructed temperature exceeded the recent average." [Weichao Wu, Wenbing Tan, Liping Zhou, Huan Yang, Yunping Xu 2012: Geophysical Research Letters]

Conclusions: The actual global warming science facts are again confirmed by the newest research. The IPCC's discredited 'hockey stick' was indeed bogus science. Unprecedented ocean temperatures (and regional/global) occurred prior to the modern era of growing consumer/industrial CO2 emissions.

Previous climate-history and peer-reviewed postings.

Global Warming Science Facts: New Study Confirms No Empirical Basis For CO2-Caused Climate Change

New research keeps being added to the global warming science facts as we know them - a new Siberian study finds that climate has had frequent severe changes in the past and that extreme warm periods can't be explained by greenhouse gases (CO2)

(click on image to enlarge - source)

Read here. The image on the left is Lake El'gygytgyn in Siberia. Scientists have been able to extract high resolution sediment cores from the lake that have recorded climate changes over the last 2+ million years.

From their analysis, a team of scientists (Melles et al.) have documented at least 8 significant warming periods in the past, with some exceeding modern temperatures by 5 degrees. The research indicates these warming periods can last for thousands of years without the aid (ie, cause) of increased levels of atmospheric CO2.

"Furthermore, the paper states, "Climate [model] simulations show these extreme warm conditions are difficult to explain with greenhouse gas [CO2] and astronomical forcing [solar insolation] alone." The paper also finds the Arctic warming occurred simultaneously with Antarctic warming, indicating an interconnected, global phenomenon. Implications of the paper include: 1) The globe has been much warmer without human influence during multiple periods over the past 2.8 million years, 2) IPCC climate models are incapable of reproducing past temps and therefore unable to project future temps, and 3) global warming far exceeding alarmist IPCC projections has occurred several times in the past without triggering any "tipping points."" [Martin Melles, Julie Brigham-Grette, Pavel S. Minyuk, Norbert R. Nowaczyk, Volker Wennrich, Robert M. DeConto, Patricia M. Anderson, Anthony Coletti,Timothy L. Cook, Eeva Haltia-Hovi, Maaret Kukkonen, Anatoli V. Lozhkin, Peter Rosén, Pavel Tarasov, Hendrik Vogel, Bernd Wagner 2012: Science]

Conclusions: This research finds that past extreme warming and climate change were not CO2 caused - the empirical observations from the past don't support the IPCC's version of the AGW theory. Extended warming periods do happen naturally without human contribution. Natural warming can be very dramatic. Those are the global warming science facts.

Previous climate-history and peer-reviewed postings. Historical temperature charts.

Extreme Climate Change: Asian Researchers Document Natural Global Warming & Global Cooling Cycle

The UN's IPCC and associated climate doomsday scientists attempted to convince policymakers and the public that extreme climate change was occurring in the modern world world and that it was "unprecedented" - the historical empirical evidence does not support that conclusion

(click image to enlarge)

Read here. The UN's IPCC is not a climate science research agency. Instead, it is a bureaucratic political agency charged with "proving" human greenhouse gases (ie, CO2 emissions) are causing "unprecedented" global warming and climate change.

It conducts no original research, instead relying on cherry-picked peer reviewed studies and non-peer reviewed reports from green activist organizations. It prefers research studies that happen to also rely on cherry-picked data and/or flagrantly absurd statistical methodoloiges that produce the infamous hockey-stick presentation of past temperatures. The classic case of this IPCC-style of science, that's since been discredited, is this study and the most recent hockey-stick fiasco that had to be withdrawn is this one.

Because of the easy access to knowledge and information that the internet now provides, we can also discover the past and more current peer reviewed studies that the IPCC chose to avoid, ignore or dismissed because they did not support the political objective of proving the climate evils of CO2 greenhouse gases. One such report from the past that was ignored was conducted by Japanese researchers, which confirmed that modern climate change was not unusual but part of a natural pattern.

"In the early 1990s, Japanese scientists Kitagawa and Matsumoto extracted eleven tree ring cores from cedars on the...Japan island of Yakushima. The cores contained tree-rings going back some 2000 years. The researchers determined the carbon 13 isotope values and found the delta-13-C values fluctuated in a characteristic manner...The results showed that temperatures over the previous 2000 years in South Japan fluctuated over a range of 5°C...A clear millennium cycle is depicted. The cold period of the Migration Period, the Medieval Warm Period, the Little Ice Age and the Modern Warm Period are clearly recognisable. Moreover, this climate development is well documented in Japanese historical records...They carried out a detailed frequency analysis of their data and found characteristic cycles with periods in the range of several decades and centuries. Among others, they discovered a period of 187 years, which coincides with the known Suess/de Vries solar activity cycle. In a similar manner the 70 and 89-year Gleissberg-cycle was identified." [Hiroyuki Kitagawa and Eiji Matsumoto 1995: Geophysical Research Letters]

Conclusion: Extreme climate change as represented by significant global cooling and global warming periods over the past 2,000 years, is a natural phenomenon. Thus, modern global warming that took place over the late 20th century is not "unprecedented."

Previous climate-history and peer-reviewed postings. Historical temperature charts.

Global Warming Science Facts: Medieval Period Warming Significantly Higher Than Modern Warming, Per New Ice Core Evidence

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

(click on image to enlarge)

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.

Natural Causes of Global Warming: New South American Peer Reviewed Study Confirms Natural Warming & Cooling

The evidence for natural causes of global warming, and cooling, far outweighs the empirical evidence for human CO2-induced warming - a remote Andes mountain region lake confirms an excessive natural warming of the climate during the Medieval Period

(source of image)

Read here. The IPCC continues to proclaim that modern warming (okay, the IPCC does concede that the "warming" has disappeared over last 15 years) is "unprecedented." This proclamation is made based on the UN's political agenda and not the actual empirical research and evidence.

A plethora of peer reviewed studies provide absolute confirmation that prior periods were indeed warmer than our modern era; that both warming and cooling affected the entire globe and not just the European/North Atlantic region; and, that the significant prior climate change was entirely natural, not from human CO2 emissions.

A new study by scientists Fletcher and Moreno provides proof from the Southern Hemisphere that natural global warming is a powerful climatic force that is empirically irrefutable.

"The authors did an analysis of pollen and charcoal from Laguna San Pedro, a small closed-basin lake located in the Andes of Chile. Their results reveal centennial-scale changes in vegetation, climate and fire regime since 1500 cal yr before present...According to the study’s abstract, they found periods of relatively low summer moisture and increased fire activity between 1500–1300 and 1000–725 cal yr BP. The period 1000–725 cal yr BP (i.e. Medieval Warm Period) is characterised by remarkably rapid bulk sediment accumulation, from which they infer prolonged annual sedimentation resulting from a decrease in the duration of lake freezing under a warmer climate. Before the Medieval Warm Period, i.e. 1300–1000, they found relatively moist conditions during summer and low fire activity. After the Medieval Warm Period, from 725–121 cal yr BP, there was slow bulk sediment accumulation implying a cool and wet climate." [Michael-Shawn Fletcher, Patricio Iván Moreno 2012: Quaternary Science Reviews]

Conclusions: Natural causes of global warming and cooling are well documented, not only by anecdotal evidence, but from global empirical research of peer reviewed studies, including evidence from the Southern Hemisphere. It is a scientific travesty that the IPCC rejects the findings of the vast majority of peer reviewed research and instead relies on a handful discredited hockey-stick papers that use the same proxies over and over, and then employ absurd statistical tecniques that can't withstand professional scrutiny. By denying the natural Medieval Warming, the IPCC clearly establishes that the UN political agenda supercedes the actual science.

Previous climate-history and peer-reviewed postings. Historical temperature charts.

Antarctica Global Warming: Advanced Science Methods Establish That Medieval Period Was Warmer

With constant frigid temperatures, the idea of modern Antarctica "global warming" that is "unprecedented" seems rather ludicrous - indeed it is ludicrous, as latest research again confirms Medieval Warming Period was hotter

(image source)

Read here. The reality is that climate change just happens normally as the world goes through its typical warming and cooling phases, including the Southern Polar regions. Yet climate doomsday scientists insist on claiming that modern Antarctica warming is "unprecedented" - but is that really true?

Another peer reviewed study, this one by Lu et al., has determined that present-day warming has not reached the levels of the Medieval Warming era, which confirms unprecedented warming is not happening.

"...if collected and maintained at low temperatures, preserve hydration waters and their intact crystal structures, both of which have the potential to provide isotopic constraints on past climate change," after which they report on what they describe as "the first downcore δ18O record of natural ikaite hydration waters and crystals collected from the Antarctic Peninsula (AP)," which they say were "suitable for reconstructing a low resolution ikaite record of the last 2000 years." This record, as they continue, "qualitatively supports that both the Medieval Warm Period and Little Ice Age extended to the Antarctic Peninsula."...and they importantly indicate that "this climatic signature is not yet as extreme in nature as the MWP," suggesting that even the dramatic recent warming of the AP may not yet have returned that region to the degree of warmth that was experienced there during the MWP." [Zunli Lua, Rosalind E.M. Rickaby, Hilary Kennedy, Paul Kennedy, Richard D. Pancost,  Samuel Shaw, Alistair Lennie, Julia Wellner, John B. Anderson 2012: Earth and Planetary Science Letters]

Conclusions: The ruse of Antarctica "global warming" continues to be undercut by the empirical evidence, both historical and modern. As of 2012, the modern warming of the Antarctica Peninsula is not "unprecedented" no matter the claims of climate doomsday scientists.

Previous climate-history and peer-reviewed postings.

Extreme Climate Change: EU Scientists Discover That Modern Severe Weather Events Happen Less

Global warming alarmists claim that extreme climate change is producing an increased frequency of severe weather events - new EU research proves that claim to be false

(image source)

Read here. Global warming alarmists and hysterical pundits/reporters are now apparently turning every nasty weather event into "proof" that current global warming is causing extreme climate change. Unfortunately for said alarmists, the empirical evidence completely undercuts claims that warming causes bad weather - essentially, the claims are all hype for several reasons.

• One, there has been no global warming for the last 15 years - the climate observation datasets are unequivocal about this.
• Two, from the recent past, it is well documented that very severe weather has been part of our climate over the last 100 years, well before the modern warming from the late 1970's to the late 1990's.
  
• Three, EU scientists (Sabatier et al.) have now documented that severe weather was worst in the historical past when temperatures were colder, not warmer.

"The authors write that "the Mediterranean region is one of the world's most vulnerable areas with respect to global warming,"...they thus consider it to be extremely important to determine what impact further temperature increases might have on the storminess of the region...produced a high-resolution record of paleostorm events along the French Mediterranean coast over the past 7000 years...from the sediment bed of Pierre Blanche Lagoon [near Montpellier, France]...nine French scientists, as they describe it, "recorded seven periods of increased storm activity at 6300-6100, 5650-5400, 4400-4050, 3650-3200, 2800-2600, 1950-1400, and 400-50 cal yr BP," the latter of which intervals they associate with the Little Ice Age. And they go on to state, "in contrast," that their results show that "the Medieval Climate [global warming] Anomaly (1150-650 cal yr BP) was characterized by low storm activity." They further note that these changes in coastal hydrodynamics were in phase with those observed over the Eastern North Atlantic...and that the periods of increased storminess they identified seem to correspond to periods of Holocene cooling detected in the North Atlantic..." [Pierre Sabatier, Laurent Dezileau, Christophe Colin, Louis Briqueu, Frédéric Bouchette, Philippe Martinez, Giuseppe Siani, Olivier Raynal, Ulrich Von Grafenstein 2012: Quaternary Research]

Conclusion: The claimed extreme climate change and associated severe weather events over the last 15 years are not the result of "global warming." In addition, historical empirical evidence makes it clear that severe weather incidents increase as the climate cools, not when it warms. It is well established that the past cooler climates have had profound negative impacts on society whereas warmer climates have been more beneficent.

Previous climate-history, severe-weather and peer-reveiwed postings. Climate and temperature charts.

Global Warming Science Facts: Canada's Baffin Island Ice Core Proves Current Temperatures Not "Unprecedented"

The IPCC and related Climategate climate research agencies conveniently ignore empirical evidence that confirms today's temps are not unusual - data from the Penny ice cap is one such source

(click on image to enlarge)

Read here. Less than credible climate "science" sources, such as the IPCC, continue to claim today's temperatures are "unprecedented" or "unusual." These type of false statements firmly establish the anti-science stance of the political agenda the UN's IPCC agency is pursuing.

The recent global warming science facts from Canada's Baffin Island is another example of the overwhelming evidence that past global warming prior to industrial CO2 emissions was considerably higher.

A team of scientists, Zdanowicz et al., analyzing the summer water melt rate for the Penny ice cap determined its 2010 temperatures were consistent with temperatures of 3,000 years ago - meaning, that current temps are significantly below those of both the Roman and Minoan warming spans. [see their adjacent plot of ice core temps]

"A paper published today in the Journal of Geophysical Research shows that a large ice cap in the Canadian Arctic had surface temperatures higher than the present for the vast majority of the past 11,000 years. The paper also shows that the meltwater fraction in 2010 was slightly less than the vast majority of a 7000 year period from roughly 10,000 to 3000 years ago...At latitude 67°N, Penny Ice Cap on Baffin Island is the southernmost large ice cap in the Canadian Arctic, yet its past and recent evolution is poorly documented. Here we present a synthesis of climatological observations...Recent surface melt rates are found to be comparable to those last experienced more than 3000 years ago." [Christian Zdanowicz, Anna Smetny-Sowa, David Fisher, Nicole Schaffer, Luke Copland, Joe Eley, Florent Dupont 2012: Journal of Geophysical Research]

Conclusion: The global warming science facts are unforgiving - the actual empirical evidence refutes claims by the IPCC and its Climategate scientists that modern temperatures are unprecedented within the higher northern latitudes. To be factually correct, a startling large number of extended periods over the past 7,500 years had global warming in excess of modern warming.

Previous climate-history and peer-reviewed postings. Addtional 'C3' climate/temperature charts.

Climate Modeling Failure: Simulations Unable To Replicate Actual AMO Variability In Greenland

The IPCC often claims its climate models are infallible and all knowing when it comes to the climate - new study reveals major climate modeling failure as they are unable to accurately simulate Greenland's past climate accurately

(click image to enlarge - source here)

Read here. Greenland's current climate is heavily influenced by the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), which has a lengthy periodicity. The AMO is a natural climate variability phenomenon having a strong impact on North Atlantic's regional temperatures.

Recent analysis of the Greenland ice cores, by Chylek et al., has proven that the powerful AMO variability has been part and parcel of the Greenland climate for thousands of years, pushing temperatures higher and lower depending on the cycle point.

This natural, internal variability has no connection to external factors (forcings) such as the CO2 greenhouse gas.

In addition, the scientists determined that the climate models, favored by the IPCC and other non-empirical based scientists, are unable to faithfully mimic the ancient past AMO variability due to geographic differences (location differences) - a major climate modeling failure.

"...examine evidence of the AMO that is contained in several ice core records distributed across Greenland. The researchers were looking to see whether there were changes in the character of the AMO over different climatological periods in the past, such as the Little Ice Age and the Medieval Warm Period—periods that long preceded large-scale human aerosol emissions. And indeed they found some. The AMO during the Little Ice Age was characterized by a quasi-periodicity of about 20 years, while the during the Medieval Warm Period the AMO oscillated with a period of about 45 to 65 years...The observed intermittency of these modes over the last 4000 years supports the view that these are internal ocean-atmosphere modes, with little or no external forcing...However, the geographic variability of these periodicities indicated by ice core data is not captured in model simulations." [Petr Chylek, Chris Kenneth Folland, Leela Mary Frankcombe, Henk A. Dijkstra, Glen Lesins, Manvendra K Dubey 2012: Geophysical Research Letters]

Conclusion: The climate (ie, temperatures) of Greenland and other northern latitude areas has principally been driven by the periodicity of the Atlantic Multidecal Oscillation. The non-accurate simulation of this variability is another climate modeling failure that needs to be addressed.

Previous climate-history, climate-model and peer-reviewed postings.

Medieval Global Warming: Southern Hemisphere Research Documents Hotter Temps In Uruguay During MWP

A new study analyzing Uruguay's ancient mound settlements reveals the global medieval warming of the Southern Hemisphere - MWP temperatures warmer than those of present

(click on image to enlarge - image source)

Read here. The IPCC and Climategate scientists, such as Michael Mann, attempted to mislead the public and policymakers with claims that the Medieval Warming Period was an insignificant climate event only affecting the northern European areas. However, the empirical evidence continues to grow that the Southern Hemisphere experienced a global medieval warming climate also.

Analyzing sediment cores from the Merín Lagoon Basin, in the region of the ancient Uruguay 'Los Ajos' mound builders, it was determined from opal phytoliths that Uruguay's climate of 750 AD to 1350 AD was warmer and wetter than those of its current modern climate.

"Focusing on coastal lagoons within the Merin Lagoon Basin, which is located between 31-34°S and 52-54°W in the easternmost part of the South American plains, and working with phytoliths found within various sediment cores which they used to create a temperature index indicative of relative warmth, Bracco et al. discovered a period of time straddling the division of the last two millennia (AD 750-1350) that they identified as having "warmer and wetter conditions than those of the present."" [Roberto Bracco, Laura del Puerto, Hugo Inda, Daniel Panario, Carola Castiñeira, Felipe García-Rodríguez 2011: Quaternary International]

Conclusion: Medieval global warming was a significant climate phenomenon that empirically prevailed across the world and not just limited to the northern European/Atlantic region as fabricated by the IPCC.

Previous climate-history and peer-reviewed postings. Historical temperature charts.

Unprecedented Antarctica Climate Change: Polar Experts Document Large Climate Shifts Prior To 1850's

The IPCC and Michael Mann claimed that modern Antarctica climate change is "unprecedented' - new polar research demolishes that myth

Read here. Without doing any scientific field research, the IPCC and Climategate's Michael Mann chose to promulgate a non-scientific position that the Medieval Warming Period and the Little Ice Age were only local European phenomena. Their political agenda was to establish the myth that Antarctica climate change was unaffected by the MWP and the LIA.

That myth is no longer sustainable.

The team of Lu et al. published new research conclusively proving that the Antarctica continent also experienced both the MWP and LIA. In essence, the climate of previous centuries is similar to the climate Antarctica now has (as depicted in the adjacent image) - the modern South Pole climate is not "unprecedented."

"At present the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) argues that the Medieval Warm Period was confined to Europe – therefore that the warming we’re experiencing now is a man-made phenomenon...However, Professor Lu has shown that this isn’t true – and the evidence lies with a rare mineral called ikaite, which forms in cold waters...The scientists were particularly interested in crystals found in layers deposited during the ‘Little Ice Age,’ approximately 300 to 500 years ago, and during the Medieval Warm Period before it...‘We showed that the Northern European climate events influenced climate conditions in Antarctica,’...They were able to deduce this by studying the amount of heavy oxygen isotopes found in the crystals." [Zunli Lu, Rosalind E.M. Rickaby, Hilary Kennedy, Paul Kennedy, Richard D. Pancost, Samuel Shaw, Alistair Lennie, Julia Wellner, John B. Anderson 2012: Earth and Planetary Science Letters]

Conclusion: Modern Antarctica climate change is not unusual; is likely to have nothing to do with CO2 emissions; and similar climate variation happened in the past.

Previous climate-history and peer-reviewed postings.

Facts About Droughts: Modern U.S. Southeastern Droughts Less Severe Than Those of Little Ice Age

For the global warming alarmist community, the inconvenient facts about droughts is that previous climate change produced more severe and longer lasting droughts

Read here. The historical evidence strongly supports that the severe climatic conditions of the Little Ice Age (pre-1850) produced extreme droughts  that often affected Georgia and other locations of the Southeast U.S.

A new study of the U.S. Southeast  confirms the known facts about droughts. Pederson et al. found that droughts during the end of the Little Ice Age were more severe and of longer duration than those of the 20th and 21st centuries. In essence, previous climate change, especially during cooler periods, produced more extreme climatic conditions in many parts of the world.

"A paper published today in Environmental Research Letters uses tree-ring proxies to reconstruct drought conditions of the American Southeast from 1665 to 2010. The authors find "The reconstruction shows that the recent droughts are not unprecedented over the last 346 years. Indeed, droughts of extended duration occurred more frequently between 1696 and 1820. Our results indicate that the era in which local and state water supply decisions were developed and the period of instrumental data upon which it is based are amongst the wettest since at least 1665." [N. Pederson, A. R. Bell, T. A. Knight, C. Leland, N. Malcomb, K. J. Anchukaitis, K. Tackett, J. Scheff, A. Brice, B. Catron, W. Blozan, J. Riddle 2012: Environmental Research Letters]

Conclusion: The empirical, inconvenient facts about droughts is that they have been found to be more frequent and more severe during cooler climate change regimes.

Previous drought-flood, climate-history, peer-reviewed postings.

Global Warming Scam: Arctic Experts Determine That Total of 72 Decades Had Polar Warming Greater Than Modern Era

With infamous science scandals like Fakegate and Climategate making constant headlines, the credence of an actual global warming scam is strengthened - and now, hysterical claims, such as of the modern polar warming "death spiral," are being exposed

(click image to enlarge - source)

Read here. Hysterical polar warming claims by "experts" has been pretty extraordinary over the last decade, including the idiotic sea ice "death spiral" prediction that is now being carefully retracted.

Unfortunately, the global warming scam requires a constant flow of hysterical claims, which more often than not, prove to be wrong.

A recent study by Kobashi et al. completely undermines the AGW claim that modern polar warming is unusual or "unprecedented." A key finding of their study is following:

"And, even more telling, prior to the last millennium they report "there were 72 decades warmer than the present one, in which mean temperatures were 1.0 to 1.5°C warmer." In fact, they found that "during two intervals (~1300 BP and ~3360 BP) centennial average temperatures were nearly 1.0°C warmer (-28.9°C) than the present decade."" [Takuro Kobashi, Kenji Kawamura, Jeffrey P. Severinghaus, Jean-Marc Barnola, Toshiyuki Nakaegawa, Bo M. Vinther, Sigfús J. Johnsen, Jason E. Box 2011: Geophysical Research Letters]

Conclusion: The hysterical polar warming claims are part and parcel to the basic propaganda of the catastrophic global warming scam. Although the globe has warmed over the last 150 years, the empirical science does not support the robust lying misinformation pushed by warmists.

Previous peer-reviewed and sea-ice postings.

Dust Storm Evidence Documents The Roman & Medieval Unprecedented Warming Scientists Say

The empirical evidence continues to mount that documents the Roman and Medieval unprecedented warming - dust storms from the Aral Sea is the latest empirical evidence

Read here. The adjacent image is a classic example of the extreme environmental devastation produced by progressive / left government regime scientists. Although scientific geo-engineering has destroyed the Aral Sea, its historical evidence still provides further proof that modern global warming is not unprecedented.

The Huang et al. peer reviewed research analyzed 2000 years of dust storm residue and unequivocally determined that both Roman and Medieval minimum temperatures were higher than modern minimum temperatures for this central Asia region - a clear indication of warmer climates during earlier historical periods.

"Noting that dust storms are common features adjacent to the Aral Sea, the authors investigated the grain-size distributions of wind-blown sediments found in a core retrieved from that water body...report that the history of dust deposition in central Asia can be divided into five distinct periods on the basis of their observations: "a remarkably low deposition during AD 1-350, a moderately high value from AD 350-720, a return to a relatively low level between AD 720 and AD 1400 (including the Medieval Warm Period), an exceptionally high deposition from AD 1400 to [the] 1940s and an abnormally low value since [the] 1940s."...coincides with the Roman Warm Period, the second with the Dark Ages Cold Period, the third (as Huang et al. make a point of noting) with the Medieval Warm Period, the fourth with the Little Ice Age, and the fifth with the Current Warm Period...with low/high annual temperature anomalies corresponding to high/low dust supplied in the Aral Sea sediments, respectively...the minimum value of this inverted measure of annual temperature during the Medieval Warm Period was approximately 13% more extreme than the minimum value so far experienced during the Current Warm Period, and that the minimum value during the Roman Warm Period was fully 70% more extreme than that of the present." [Xiangtong Huang, Hedi Oberhänsli, Hans von Suchodoletz, Philippe Sorrel 2011: Quaternary Science Reviews]

Conclusion: Historical climate change, as represented by the Roman and Medieval unprecedented warming documented in central Asia, was a global phenomenon that modern climate change has yet to rival.

Previous climate-history and peer-reviewed postings. Historical and modern temperature charts.

Peer Reviewed Research Confirms That Natural Climate Change Causes Unprecedented Warming

Climate science and consensus evidence is now moving to a position that natural climate change causes unprecedented warming (global and/or regional) - a major refutation of IPCC's denial of natural climate impacts

Read here and here. The IPCC's political agenda requires a denial dogma that is built on the concept that natural climate change is minor, thus the recent warming of the 1980's and 90's is a result of human CO2 emissions.

Of course, the lack of global warming over the last 17 years has made a shambles of the AGW hypothesis, plus new research continues to bolster the climate science thesis that natural climate change actually drives unprecedented temperature change. New research by Chen et al. confirms the power of natural climate forcings.

"...they state, in this regard, that "one of the most intriguing questions within the climate debate is if the present temperature rise is unique in the late Holocene or if there have been pre-industrial time intervals where comparable climatic perturbations occurred," noting that "one of these time intervals where historical records suggest that climate conditions might have been similar to today is the so called 'Roman Warm Period' (~200 BC - AD 400)."...developed high-resolution climatic and environmental reconstructions "based on a dinoflagellate cyst record from a well dated site in the Gulf of Taranto located at the distal end of the Po River discharge plume." ...determined that the dinoflagellate cyst warm/cold ratio suggests that sea surface temperature (SST) was "relatively high and stable between 60 BC and AD 200," which they say is suggestive of "slightly higher SST than today." In fact, they say that the association that is observed between 60 BC and AD 90 is equivalent to modern regions that are characterized by higher SST than those in the present day Gulf of Taranto. And noting that "Versteegh et al. (2007) showed that SST in the region is strongly related to local air temperature," they go on to suggest that the region's air temperature "might have been warmer during the Roman Period as well."" [Liang Chen, Karin A.F. Zonneveld, Gerard J.M. Versteegh 2011: Quaternary Science Reviews]

Conclusion: Paleo-climate empirical evidence from the Roman Period indicates that natural climate change causes unprecedented warming, which also may have been the dominant causal factor the modern warming during the 1980-1990's period.

Previous climate-history, unprecedented-temperatures and peer-reviewed postings. Historical temperature, modern temperature solar-cosmic charts. Source for above map.

Latest Research Shatters Urban Myth of "Unprecedented" Modern Warming: The 'Hockey Stick' Refuted

Climate 'urban myths' have plagued policymakers and the public for years - fortunately Michael Mann's "unprecedented" modern global warming myth is finally dying an empirical-death

(click on image to enlarge)

Read here. Urban myths of Hollywood celebrities, the mainstream press and coastal elites are often foisted on the public and policymakers as "consensus" science.

A recent example was the left/liberal urban legend that vaccines cause autism, which a scientist-fraud perpetrated. (As researchers have amazingly documented, scientific fraud is rampant.)

The classic climate "science" urban myth is that 20th century global warming was "unprecedented" when in fact empirical study after study proves that myth to be without scientific merit. And now a new study demolishes that myth conclusively - will the discredited 'hockey stick' caricature of past temperatures now finally die?

"Working with the GISP2 ice core from the Summit region of central Greenland, Kobashi et al. reconstructed Greenland surface snow temperature variability over the past 4000 years with a method that utilizes nitrogen and argon isotopic ratios..."The estimated average Greenland snow temperature over the past 4000 years was −30.7°C with a standard deviation of 1.0°C and exhibited a long-term decrease of roughly 1.5°C, which is consistent with earlier studies. The current decadal average surface temperature (2001–2010) at the GISP2 site is −29.9°C. The record indicates that warmer temperatures were the norm in the earlier part of the past 4000 years, including century-long intervals nearly 1°C warmer than the present decade (2001–2010). Therefore, we conclude that the current decadal mean temperature in Greenland has not exceeded the envelope of natural variability over the past 4000 years..."" [Takuro Kobashi, Kenji Kawamura, Jeffrey P. Severinghaus, Jean-Marc Barnola, Toshiyuki Nakaegawa, Bo M. Vinther, Sigfús J. Johnsen, Jason E. Box 2011: Geophysical Research Letters]

Conclusions:

• Arctic Greenland was warmer than modern warming during the Bronze, Roman and Medieval periods - ergo, modern warming not unprecedented
• Despite massive industrial/consumer human CO2 emissions, modern warming is easily within natural climate variation
• Scientists claiming that modern warming is "unprecedented" are simply lying (or, amazingly ignorant of the plethora of actual empirical evidence)

Additional peer-reviewed postings. Historical, modern and fabricated-fake temperature charts. Source of above image.

Scientists Discover That Frequency of Super Hurricanes Has Declined Significantly Over Last 600 Years

Super hurricane frequency was greater thousands of years ago when CO2 levels were low - new evidence shows modern global warming has not caused an increase

Read here. Image source here.

The IPCC and other global warming alarmists predicted that the frequency of extreme hurricanes would increase because of CO2-induced global warming. At least that's what their theory told them.

Recently, climate researchers analyzed a large Florida sinkhole that had hurricane evidence going back some 4,500 years. This new empirical evidence now establishes that super hurricane frequency was much greater thousands of years ago, and that the modern era has experienced far fewer of these monster storms despite human CO2 and warming.

"Lane et al. developed a 4500-year record of intense hurricane-induced storm surges based on data obtained from "a nearly circular, 200-m-diameter cover-collapse sinkhole...reconstructed record of intense hurricanes revealed that the frequency of these "high-magnitude" events "peaked near 6 storms per century between 2800 and 2300 years ago." Thereafter, it suggests that they were "relatively rare" with "about 0-3 storms per century occurring between 1900 and 1600 years ago," after which they state that these super-storms exhibited a marked decline, which "began around 600 years ago" and has persisted through the present with "below average frequency over the last 150 years when compared to the preceding five millennia."" [Philip Lane, Jeffrey P. Donnelly, Jonathan D. Woodruff, Andrea D. Hawkes 2011: Marine Geology]

Previous severe-weather and peer-reviewed postings. Severe-weather charts.

Subarctic Seas: Latest Study Confirms Modern Temperatures Well Below Roman & Medieval Temps

Experts reconstruct sea surface temperatures off of Norway - evidence confirms this subarctic region was warmer during Roman and Medieval times

Read here. It's another peer reviewed study published that refutes Mann's 'hockey stick' caricature of past temperatures over the last 2000 years. (click image to enlarge)

Modern warming is not unprecedented as claimed by the IPCC's Climategate "scientists."

"Sejrup et al established exceptionally accurate chronologies for two marine sediment cores raised from the same location on the Norwegian continental margin...they developed the δ¹⁸O history depicted in the figure [adjacent], which they use as a proxy for what they call "near surface water summer temperature." And as this history clearly shows, the peak warmth of the Medieval Warm Period was significantly greater than the peak warmth of the Current Warm Period has been to date." [H.P. Sejrup, H. Haflidason, J.T. Andrews 2011: Quaternary Science Reviews]

Additional climate-history and peer-reviewed postings. Historical and modern temperature charts.

New Unequivocal Empirical Evidence: Antarctica's Past Climate Warmer Than Modern, Over Last 450 Years

New Antarctica evidence conclusively refutes IPCC global warming scientists' speculation that modern temperatures are "unprecedented" and "accelerating" higher

Read here. The UN's IPCC attempted to convince the public and policymakers that there was a scientific "consensus" that the last 150 years have witnessed "accelerating" global warming that is "unprecedented."

Instead, the evidence now points to the IPCC and its Climategate scientists conspiring to mislead. Thankfully, the vast majority of the world's scientists do not believe in the IPCC's climate political-science proclamations and thus continue performing/producing empirical research to determine the science truth.

The non-IPCC research team of Thamban et al is an example of this and the adjacent chart (click to enlarge) is a product of their research: Antarctica's modern temperatures are not unusual, nor are they rapidly warming versus what has occurred naturally in the historical past. As the evidence clearly shows, a natural warming has been taking place over the last 400+ years.

"Working with an ice core (IND-22/B4) that had been extracted during the austral summer of 2003 from the coastal region of Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica... -- the authors developed 470-year histories of δ18O and δD that "showed similar down core fluctuations with [an] excellent positive relationship (R2 = 0.9; n = 216) between the two."..."the estimated surface air temperature at the core site revealed a significant warming of 2.7°C with a warming of ~0.6°C per century for the past 470 years."..."...Thamban et al.'s results clearly indicate that all three of these climate-alarmist claims are false in regard to this portion of the planet's southern polar region." [Meloth Thamban, C. M. Laluraj, Sushant S. Naik and Arun Chaturvedi 2011: Journal of the Geological Society of India]

Previous climate-history and peer-reviewed postings. Historical and modern temperature charts.

Current North Atlantic Ocean Temperatures Well Below Those of Medieval Warming Period, New Study Finds

Latest scientific research completely debunks Michael Mann's bogus hockey stick chart - North Atlantic ocean temperatures warmer during Medieval Warming

Read here. As the adjacent chart reveals, both the Roman and Medieval periods included significantly warmer sea surface temperatures in the North Atlantic region.

Around 1250 AD, the Little Ice Age started a cooling process of the sea surface temperatures, which modern warming has yet to recover from.

There is no hockey stick as claimed by Michael Mann. There is no "unprecedented" and "accelerating" warming as claimed by the IPCC. The empirical evidence does not support the left / liberal / progressive / Democrat claim of dangerous climate change due to CO2 warming.

"A paper published today in the journal Paleoceanography finds that Atlantic Ocean surface temperatures have significantly cooled over the past millennium, since the Medieval Warming Period from about 950-1200 AD...Cooling by ∼0.5°C takes place between about AD 1250 and AD 1500; while this corresponds to the inception of the Little Ice Age (LIA), the end of the LIA is not reflected in our record and SST remains relatively low. This transition to cooler SSTs parallels the previously reconstructed shift in the North Atlantic Oscillation toward a low pre-20th century mean state and possibly reflects common solar forcing." [Henning Kuhnert, Stefan Mulitza 2011: Paleoceanography]

Previous climate-history and peer-reviewed postings. Historical and modern temperature charts.

Mann's Discredited Hockey Stick Takes Another Huge Hit: South America's Hot Medieval Temperatures

New research determines that South America did experience the Medieval Warming and temperatures were higher during MWP, contrary to Michael Mann's hockey stick "science"

Read here. As hundreds of scientists have discovered and published, the Medieval Warming (MWP) climate was global in nature, with temperatures that in many areas of the world were higher than today's temperatures.

Contrary to Michael Mann's now widely discredited hockey stick "science," the Neukom et al research found the MWP was a significant high temperature event in South America. This team of 18 highly qualified researchers came from 7 countries; they chose the best 22 climate proxies to reconstruct a thousand+ year temperature series. (click to enlarge chart)

"The international research team — composed of scientists from Argentina, Chile, Germany, Switzerland, The Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States — write that their summer temperature reconstruction suggests that “a warm period extended in SSA from 900 (or even earlier) to the mid-fourteenth century,” which they describe as being temporally located “towards the end of the Medieval Climate Anomaly as concluded from Northern Hemisphere temperature reconstructions.” And as can be seen from the figure below, the warmest decade of this Medieval Warm Period was calculated by them to be AD 1079-1088, which as best as can be determined from their graph is about 0.17°C warmer than the peak warmth of the Current Warm Period." [Neukom, R., Luterbacher, J., Villalba, R., Kuttel, M., Frank, D., Jones, P.D., Grosjean, M., Wanner, H., Aravena, J.-C., Black, D.E., Christie, D.A., D'Arrigo, R., Lara, A., Morales, M., Soliz-Gamboa, C., Srur, A., Urritia, R. and von Gunten, L. 2011: Climate Dynamics]

Previous climate-history and peer-reviewed postings. Historical and modern temperature charts.

New Chinese Research: More Proof That Mann's Hockey Stick Was Bogus Science

New research continues to break Michael Mann's discredited hockey stick - individual proxy studies invalidate Mann's claims

Michael Mann concocted the infamous hockey stick temperature chart in an attempt to overturn known, well established paleo-temperature history. His research was soon after discredited by expert statisticians when it was found that Mann had over-weighted a single American tree some 390 times in order to produce his desired result.

The hockey stick was so thoroughly discredited that the IPCC had to quit using it in their PR "science" literature.

Read here. Most individual climate proxy studies are unable to reconstruct a temperature series that resembles the infamous Mann research. The newest study unable to do so is the Liu et al peer-reviewed research.

(click on image to enlarge)

As the 2,485 year old tree ring chart depicts, modern warming is well within the natural variability that the Tibet Plateau has experienced. As with so many independent studies, the hockey stick statistical fabrication is non-repeatable - it solely exists in the bowels of the Climategate conspirators and their bizarre methodologies.

"A blockbuster Chinese study of Tibetan tree rings by Liu et al 2011 shows, with detail, that the modern era is a dog-standard normal climate when compared to the last 2,500 years. The temperature, the rate of change — it’s all been seen before. Nothing about the current period is “abnormal”...these climate cycles have nothing to with human civilization. Their team finds natural cycles of many different lengths are at work: 2-3 years, 100 years, 199 years, 800 years, and 1,324 years. The cold periods are associated with sunspot cycles...The results showed that extreme climatic events on the Plateau, such as the Medieval Warm Period,  Little Ice Age and 20th Century Warming appeared synchronously with those in other places worldwide. The largest amplitude and rate of temperature change occurred during the Eastern Jin Event (343–425 AD), and not in the late 20th century..." [Yu Liu, QiuFang Cai, HuiMing Song, ZhiSheng An, Hans W. Linderholm 2011: Chinese Science Bulletin]

Previous climate-history and peer-reviewed postings. Historical and modern temperature charts.

New EU Research Confirms Roman Warming Period In Arctic Regions Warmer Than Modern

Empirical evidence from Arctic-region waters near Greenland establish robust warming of the Roman Period

Read here. Map source (click to enlarge).

Despite the bogus claims of the UN's bureaucrats and the IPCC Climategate "scientists," the polar areas of the Northern Hemisphere have had warmer climates prior to the 20th and 21st centuries.

There is a vast body of research and empirical evidence confirming that the Arctic regions, and other parts of the globe, were indeed warmer during both the Roman and Medieval eras. In fact, global warming, cooling and climate change are natural events that never cease - that is irrefutable, unequivocal climate reality.

A peer-reviewed study by Perner et al. just added to that mountain of evidence confirming the robust warming of the Greenland area prior to the the modern era.

"The six researchers -- hailing from Denmark, Germany, Norway, Poland and the United Kingdom -- say that their new high-resolution benthic foraminiferal record from Disko Bugt "documents a marked long-term cooling trend over the last 3.6 ka BP," but they state that superimposed on this longer-term late Holocene cooling trend, there is evidence of millennial to centennial scale variability. This variability begins with what they describe as "a pronounced cooling event" at c. 2.5 ka BP, after which "a warm phase in bottom waters is recorded at c. 1.8 ka BP, which corresponds to the 'Roman Warm Period' and is seen to represent the warmest bottom water conditions recorded in Disko Bugt during the last 3.6 ka BP." This unique warm period was in turn followed by a cooler period (which would obviously be the Dark Ages Cold Period), after which they identify a warming of the subsurface waters during the 'Medieval Climate Anomaly'," which was followed (from 0.9 ka BP) by "pervasive and even harsher environmental conditions" that ultimately culminate at 0.3 ka BP in what they say is the Little Ice Age, and from which the region has yet to recover to Medieval Warm Period conditions." [K. Perner, M. Moros, J.M. Lloyd, A. Kuijpers, R.J. Telford, J. Harff 2011: Quaternary Science Reviews]

Previous peer-reviewed postings.

New EU Research: Medieval Unprecedented Warming Period Temps Robustly Higher - By 1.2 Degrees

Another study disproves Penn State's Michael Mann global warming hockey-stick "science"

Read here. With the advancement of paleo-climate science in recent years, the empirical evidence clearly indicates that Penn State's Michael Mann 'hockey stick' temperature graph to be without merit. The hockey-stick scenario was so discredited that even the IPCC eliminated it from their 2007 report.

Yet the hockey-stick myth continues to survive as a green legend despite the mounting empirical evidence that the Medieval Global Warming remains unprecedented.

Indeed, as the adjacent chart indicates, the Medieval Warming was significantly higher than the current warming.

Abrantes et al. just published research revealing the persistent high Medieval temperatures of coastal waters off the Portugal coast. Their analysis (from 900 AD to year 2002) is based on a sediment core from the Atlantic Ocean seabed.

As can be seen, levels of atmospheric CO2 have had little, if any, impact on sea surface temperatures. And this specific research clearly indicates that as CO2 levels rose, the SSTs declined - opposite of IPCC's climate model predictions.

"Abrantes et al. reconstructed a sea surface temperature (SST) history for waters off the coast of Porto, Portugal covering the past thousand years...revealed the occurrence of the Little Ice Age, as well as what they describe as the "persistently higher temperatures registered in the AD 960-1300 interval that we identify as the MWP [ed: Medieval Warming Period]." And from a graph of their SST history, one can see that the peak warmth of the MWP was about 1.2°C greater than the peak warmth of the CWP during the late 20th century." [F. Abrantes, T. Rodrigues, B. Montanari, C. Santos, L. Witt, C. Lopes, A. H. L. Voelker 2011: Climate Research]

Previous unprecedented-warming, climate-history and peer-reviewed postings. Additional Medieval unprecedented warming graphs.

Latest Research Disproves IPCC's Climategate Hockey-Stick: Antarctica Was Warmer During Medieval Period

Read here. The Climategate scandal was the door opening that revealed a cadre of IPCC "scientists" conspiring to push their rendition of crop circle pseudoscience. A key component of that effort was the infamous "hockey-stick" that purported to show modern era temperatures to be unprecedented, and the climates of the Medieval Warming (MWP) and Little Ice Age (LIA) to be minor blips of no significance. The IPCC's crop circle scientists also claimed that the MWP and LIA only existed in the small regional area of the north Atlantic/European geography. Subsequent studies and a mountain of empirical evidence refutes the IPCC pseudoscience.

A new peer-reviewed paper by Bertler et al., using the latest deuterium and temperature-isotope science, constructed temperatures going back 1,100 years. The new temperature dataset (see adjacent chart - click to enlarge) clearly shows the LIA in Antarctica to be massively cooler than modern temperatures; the dataset establishes that the modern warming is not "unprecedented" as the MWP is slightly warmer.

"The researchers obtained new deuterium (δD) data from the Ross Sea region of Antarctica that they acquired via analysis of the top fifty meters of a 180-meter-long ice core that had been extracted from the ice divide of Victoria Lower Glacier...work revealed three climatically-distinct time periods: the last 150 years of the Medieval Warm Period (MWP, AD 1140 to 1287), the Little Ice Age (LIA, AD 1288 to 1807), and the Modern Era (ME, AD 1808 to 2000)...authors report that "the final 150 yrs of the MWP were ... about 0.35 °C warmer than the ME,"" [N.A.N. Bertler, P.A. Mayewski, L. Carter 2011: Earth and Planetary Science Letters]

Additional climate-history and peer-reviewed postings. Historical and modern temperature charts.

Southern Hemisphere Glaciers Provide Proof That Medieval Warming & Little Ice Age Were Global

Read here. Map source. The Mannian style of climate science was established to fabricate a scenario that the Medieval Warming (MWP) and Little Ice Age (LIA) periods were insignificant weather blips, primarily felt in the northern Atlantic/European region. A vast amount of both anecdotal and paleo-climate empirical evidence refutes Mann's contentions that the MWP and LIA were insignificant and only regional. Another peer reviewed study adds to the refutation.

Researchers Rivera et al. determined that the current terminus position of the Chilean glacier Jorge Montt is the same as the terminus position prior to the onset of the LIA, some 450 years before present (~1550 AD). Dendrochronology analysis established that the maximum extent of the glacier was achieved around 1750 AD.

"A team of scientists studied tree rings...recently exposed by the retreating Patagonian glaciers....trees were dated using radiocarbon methods, yielding burial ages between 460 and 250 years ago...study confirms that the Little Ice Age existed in Chile too. Now remember how the high-sticking hockey team kept trying to have us believe that the Medieval Warm Period-Little Ice Age thing was a local phenomena, and not global?...No misprint there. It’s correct. Before the LIA the Chilean glaciers were at the same spot as the present position. Send a copy of that paper to Michael Mann..." [A. Rivera, M. Koppes, C. Bravo, J. C. Aravena 2011: Climate of the Past]

Additional climate-history and peer-reviewed postings. Historical and modern temperature charts.

Abrupt, Severe Climate Change Over Past 3,000 Years Recorded By Iceland Glacier Lake, Scientists Discover

Read here. Map source. Modern climate alarmists, such as Joe Romm, Michael Mann, Jeff Masters, Al Gore and Kevin Trenberth, commonly deny or lie about significant climate change that took place over the last 5,000 years. Reflecting on their denial of the overwhelming empirical evidence, if they were to admit to the reality of past climate change then that would be a tacit approval that abrupt climate change is natural and does not require high atmospheric levels of CO2. Adding to their woes of gross misrepresentation of past climate history, comes another new study that confirms the reality of past abrupt climate change, further denigrating the position of all past climate change deniers.

Larsen et al. performed multiple analysis of sediment cores of an Iceland glacial lake. The analysis clearly documents the robust climate change during the periods of the Dark Ages,the Medieval Warming and the Little Ice Age. The empirical evidence points to the extreme warmth of Iceland's climate during the MWP and the extreme cold of the LIA.

"A suite of environmental proxies in annually laminated sediments from Hvítárvatn, a proglacial lake in the central highlands of Iceland, are used to reconstruct regional climate variability and glacial activity for the past 3000 years...Varve thickness is controlled by the rate of glacial erosion and efficiency of subglacial discharge from the adjacent Langjökull ice cap...ice-cap expansion is punctuated by notable periods of rapid ice cap growth and/or landscape instability at ca 1000 BC, 600 BC, 550 AD and 1250 AD. The largest perturbation began ca 1250 AD, signaling the onset of the Little Ice Age and the termination of three centuries of relative warmth during Medieval times.Consistent deposition of ice-rafted debris in Hvítárvatn is restricted to the last 250 years, demonstrating that Langjökull only advanced into Hvítárvatn during the coldest centuries of the Little Ice Age." [Darren J. Larsena, Gifford H. Millera, Áslaug Geirsdóttirb, Thorvaldur Thordarsonc 2011: Quaternary Science Reviews]

Additional climate-history and peer-reviewed postings. Historical and modern temperature charts.

Swiss Alps: Latest Study Confirms Pre-Medieval's Unprecedented Warming - Modern Temps Pale In Comparison

Note: Additional historical temperature charts

Read here. The paleo-climate empirical evidence continues to grow that documents the unequivocal, unprecedented warming of pre-industrial periods in many parts of the world. Thousands of researchers have now demonstrably proven that the recent IPCC Climategate science flim-flam and hockey-stick statistical bogosity claims, purporting to prove that higher levels of CO2 during industrial times have led to "unprecedented" warming, are without empirical merit.

The new Stewart et al. research clearly shows (click on image to enlarge) that the Lake Silvaplana, Switzerland region had robustly higher temperatures well prior to the modern industrial/consumer atmospheric levels of high CO2. During Roman and the pre-Roman iron age eras, peak summer temperatures would be considered unnaturally extreme by today's global warming alarmists.

"Working with a piston core that was extracted during the winter of 2005-2006 from Lake Silvaplana in the eastern Swiss Alps, the authors developed a June-July-August (JJA) temperature history of the surrounding region...report that "temperatures reconstructed from ca. 570 BC to AD 120 were warmer than today (AD 1950-2000; 9.8°C)," with the JJA temperatures of the warmest portion of this interval (ca. 570-351 BC) being approximately 11.2°C, after which they say they also "found moderately warm temperatures for the Roman Period (11°C, ca. 15 BC to AD 120)."...which yields a peak Current Warm Period temperature of 10.3°C. And thus we see that the peak temperature of the Roman Warm Period (11°C) was about 0.7°C warmer than the peak temperature of the Current Warm Period, while the peak temperature of the earlier 570-351 BC period (11.2°C) was approximately 0.9°C warmer than the peak temperature of the Current Warm Period." [Monique M. Stewart, Isabelle Larocque-Tobler, Martin Grosjean 2011: Journal of Quaternary]

Additional climate-history and peer-reviewed postings. Historical and modern temperature charts.

New Research From Middle East: Scientists Confirm Medieval Period Temperatures Were Warmer Than Current Temps

Read here. The vast majority of new scientific research continues to document that the modern era's warming barely rivals what was experienced during the Medieval Period.

Other than the widely discredited hockey-stick style of temperature reconstructions, the empirical evidence continues to expand, supporting the well known historical anecdotal information about the Medieval Warming.

A new peer-reviewed study by Kaniewski et al. provides important evidence of the Medieval Warming Period (MWP) in the Middle East region of the world. An analysis of pollen from a Syrian sediment core confirms an extended state of higher temperatures during the MWP's low atmospheric CO2 environment.

"Based on analyses of pollen found in a 315-cm-long sediment core retrieved from alluvial deposits within the floodplain of the River Rumailiah in the coastal Syrian lowland, Kaniewski et al. were able to identify key plant functional types that allowed them to construct pollen-derived Biomes (PdBs) similar to those employed by Tarasov et al. after which they were able to relate "the ratio of PdB warm steppe (WAST) divided by PdB cool steppe (COST) to local temperature...The end result of this endeavor was their identification of the timeframe of the MWP (AD 1000-1230) and their finding that at approximately AD 1130, the MWP exhibited "warmer temperatures compared to AD 2000,..." [D. Kaniewskia, E. Van Campoa, E. Paulissend, H. Weisse, J. Bakkerc, I. Rossignola, K. Van Lerberghef 2011: Global and Planetary Change]

Additional climate-history and peer-reviewed postings.

German Peat Bog Study Verifies Extreme Warm Temperatures of Medieval Period - Modern Warming Less

Read here. It's been well documented that global warming ideologists will always make every attempt to slant paleo-climate research in such a way that modern warming appears to be "unprecedented." This built-in research bias is very prevalent in tree-ring studies, which the infamous 'hockey-stick' fraud is the classic example - e.g., over-weighting a single tree species by 390 times in the hockey-stick study revealed how desperate researchers have been to create a warming bias.

Despite the efforts of some researchers, more objective and impartial scientists are conducting peer-reviewed studies that avoid the significant problems (flim-flam) of tree-ring analysis. The vast preponderance of these studies reveal the wide natural variations in both temperatures and climates over thousands of years. In addition, most establish that the Medieval Warming Period (MWP) was indeed warmer than our modern warming (but not always).

As an example, the recent Moschen et al. German peat bog research confirms that area of the world had considerably higher temperatures for an extended period during the MWP.

Their research also provided a unique indicator for the extreme temperatures of natural climate - varying without any industrial/consumer CO2 emission impact. As the adjacent chart shows, there is a large, multi-century gap with no peat bog data recorded (where the bold blue curve goes missing). That's when the post-Medieval Warming era became so freaking cold the natives actually dug up (The 'Big Dig') the bog's empirical evidence to burn in their homes to keep warm.

"A new paper by Moschen et al appearing in the journal Climate of the Past presents a high resolution reconstruction of local growing season temperature (GST) anomalies at Dürres Maar, Germany over the last two thousand years...In 2007, a 5.5 m long core was recovered from the centre of Dürres Maar peat bog in the mountainous West Eifel Volcanic Field in southwestern Germany...I got a copy of the paper from a source, who wrote: “The ex-hockey team will hate it”.  The paper’s Figure 6 tells quite the story. Indeed there was a lot of climate change in the past when CO2 was more or less stagnant." [R. Moschen, N. Kuhl, S. Peters, H. Vos,  A. Lucke 2011: Climate of the Past]

Additional climate-history and peer-reviewed psotings. Historical and modern temperature charts.

Peer Reviewed Study Establishes Unprecedented Medieval Warming On Tropical Island In Southern Hemisphere

Read here. Map source.

A growing library of peer reviewed studies provides mounting empirical evidence that the medieval warming was also experienced in the Southern Hemisphere. The latest study that discredits the 'hockey stick' bogosity comes from scientists analyzing past climate conditions on New Caledonia.

Wirrmann et al. confirmed that the peak mangrove growth was during the 950 to 1250 AD period, which would conform to the approximate Medieval period in the Northern Hemisphere. The tropical mangrove plant prospers in warmer climates.

"Based on their multi-proxy approach to climate evaluation, the authors determined that between ca. 2640 and 2000 cal yr BP, conditions were "drier and cooler," while subsequent observations linked wetter with warmer. More specifically, they report that "between ca. 1250-500 cal yr BP the higher % of Rhizophoraceae and their peak around ca. 1080-750 cal yr BP underscore a mangrove belt development along the coastline." And they state that this episode must be related to a wetter period and "may be related to a more global phenomenon such as the MWP in the Northern Hemisphere." [Denis Wirrmanna, Anne-Marie Sémaha, Jean-Pierre Debenayb, Magali Chacornac-Raultc 2011: Quaternary Research]

Additional climate-history and peer-reviewed postings. Historical temperature charts.

Mann's Discredited 'Hockey Stick' Suffers Another Major Blow: New Study Confirms Unprecedented Warming Pre-20th Century

Read here. Another major study affirms that pre-modern temperatures were unprecedented in terms of warming. The widely discredited Mann hockey-stick study, which even the IPCC 2007 report abandoned, has another stake driven through it as more complete research is being accomplished and published.

Scientist Fredrik Ljungqvist analyzed 60 different proxy reconstructions of annual mean temperatures. The reconstructions were from both the Northern and Southern hemispheres, and they represented both marine and terrestrial reconstructions. This is the broadest and largest study of its kind.

Ljungqvist determined that the vast number of reconstructions showed unprecedented warming from the the start of the Mid-Holocene Thermal Maximum period (approximately 8,000 years prior) to the onset of the Little Ice Age. Most of the reconstructions do not have current, modern warming coming close to rivaling the excessive 2°C warming that occurred for thousands of years. His study strongly indicates that this warming took place globally, with the high northern (polar) latitudes experiencing the greatest warming.

"A paper recently published in the journal Geographie examines 60 temperature proxies from around the globe and finds that the vast majority show the Earth was at least 1-2 C hotter than the pre-industrial period during the Holocene Climate Optimum from approximately 9000 to 5000 years ago. The warming of both the Holocene Climate Optimum and the Medieval Warming Period (~1000 years ago) are robust findings from the large number of proxies studied and refutes claims of the IPCC and Mann et al that the Medieval Warming Period was limited to Europe, finding that both were present in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres and were relatively synchronous." [Fredrik C. Ljungqvist 2011: Geografie]

Previous climate-history, unprecedented-temperatures and peer-reviewed postings. Additional historical and modern temperature charts.

7,000 Year Study of Mediterranean Storms: Global Warming Decreases Severe Storm Activity

Read here. (h/t Greenie Watch) The Mediterranean Sea basin is considered one ot the more vulnerable to climate change, which is a major concern since the IPCC climate models predict that global warming will result in more frequent storm activity. To test this prediction, EU researchers analyzed 7,000 years of data from sediment cores from southern France's coastal region.

Sabatier et al. analysis establishes the history of severe storm activity, which firmly indicates that severe stroms were more frequent during global cooling (ie. The Little Ice Age) than during global warming spans, such as the Medieval Warming Period.

As is often the case, the empirical evidence refutes the IPCC climate model predictions.

"This paper present a high resolution record of paleostorm events in the French Mediterrannean coast over the past 7000 years based on a long sediment core from lagoonal environment in Gulf of Lions...we have recorded seven periods of increase in storm activity at 6200, 5400, 4600-4200, 3600-3100, 2600, 1900-1500 yr cal B.P. and over the Little Ice Age...Whereas the Medieval Warm Period (1200-700 yr cal B.P.) is characterized by a low storm activity. These evidences of changes in coastal hydrodynamic are in phase with those observed over the North Atlantic and correspond to Holocene cooling evidenced associated to decreases of SST in the North Atlantic." [Pierre Sabatier, Laurent Dezileau, Christophe Colin, Louis Briqueu, Philippe Martinez,  Giuseppe Siani, Frédérique Bouchette, Olivier Raynal, Ulrich Von Grafenstein 2011: International Union for Quaternary Research]

Previous failed-prediction, severe-weather and peer-reviewed postings.

Modern Drought Pales To Medieval Drought Across Southwest U.S. & Mexico Scientists Conclude

Read here. Droughts are a frequent visitor to the southwest U.S. and Mexico regions. The current drought that this area is experiencing is bad but in no way is it as extreme as the droughts that took place during the Medieval era.

As the chart reveals, both the Medieval and modern periods share a characteristic of high incoming solar irradiance. With the increase of incoming solar energy, the result is time spans of frequent and more intense droughts. These more extreme droughts occur naturally and have nothing to do with greenhouse gases, including CO2 emissions.

There are some scientists who predict we are entering a stage where 60-year droughts, like those during the Medieval Period, could occur but no one knows for sure. If solar irradiance falls (as it seems to be doing most recently), the modern drought cycle may end.

Woodhouse et al. published this 1,200 year perspective of Southwestern North America droughts:

"The medieval period was characterized by widespread and regionally severe, sustained drought in western North America. Proxy data documenting drought indicate centuries-long periods of increased aridity across the central and western U.S...The recent drought, thus far, pales hydrologically in comparison... Spatially, the mid-12th century drought covers all of the western U.S. and northern Mexico...whereas the 21st century drought has not impacted parts of the Pacific Northwest...The 21st century drought has lasted about a decade so far, whereas the 12th century medieval drought persisted with an extent and severity...for two decades, 1140–1159 [AD]...In both instrumental and paleoclimatic records, periods of sustained drought in the Southwest have often been concurrent with elevated temperatures. The warmest such episode, in the mid-12th century, was more extensive and much more persistent than any modern drought experienced to date..." [Connie A. Woodhouse, David M. Meko, Glen M. MacDonald, Dave W. Stahle, Edward R. Cooke 2009: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences]

Previous drought/flood and peer-reviewed postings. List of severe weather events. Severe weather charts.

Melting Mountain Ice Provides Actual Evidence That Medieval Warming Was Unprecedented

Read here. (h/t Tom Nelson) Archeologists are finding human artifacts that were buried under snow and ice hundreds of years ago. The discoveries clearly indicate that temperatures in this region were significantly warmer 1,000 years ago, thus allowing humans to thrive before the Little Ice Age cold made that impossible.

This actual evidence refutes the infamous hockey-stick portrayal that only modern temperatures are "unprecedented."

Previous climate-history postings. Map source here.

Asian Temperatures During Medieval Period Were Unprecedented New Research Determines

Read here. (click on image to enlarge)

L. Tan et al. authored a new peer-reviewed study that found higher temperatures existed between 1,000 and 1,200 years ago in the Asian region of north central China. The study also reconstructed precipitation levels for that area over the 1,800 years.

This study's temperature reconstruction shows higher temperatures in the past that can can clearly be labeled as unprecedented. Late 20th century temperatures were well under the Medieval era temperatures.

"A paper published examines the climate of central China over the past 1800 years using two different types of proxies. The paper finds higher temperatures and precipitation were present during the Medieval Warming Period (960-1100 AD) than at the end of the 20th century. This paper adds to the published work of 986 scientists who have documented that the Medieval Warming Period was as hot or hotter than the present and was a global phenomenon. This study also shows both the rate and magnitude of the rise in temperature from the year ~ 700- 880 AD were much greater than over a comparable period including the 20th century." [L.Tan, Y.Cai, Z.An, L.Yi, H.Zhang, Qin 2011: Climate of The Past]

Additional climate-history and peer-reviewed postings. Other historical temperature charts.

Sea Levels Higher During Medieval Warming Period - Research Shows Current Sea Level Rise Began By 1750 AD

Read here and here. There is an excellent and fascinating post over at Judith Curry's site regarding historical sea levels. It's part 1 of a series by Tony Brown. From one of his linked documents comes the chart on the left, and the chart on the right from a previous C3 post on sea levels. (click on images to enlarge)

 

Tony does an analyisis of sea levels prior to the pre-Medieval Period, pulling information from a wide assortment of historical resources. Per the documentation he reviewed, there is strong evidence that both the Roman/Byzantine and prior periods had sea levels that exceeded the current level.

 

"“The North Sea had a nasty little jump between 350 and 550AD, flooding the coasts of northern Europe with an extra 2 feet of water and sending its inhabitants — folk known as Angles and Saxons — fleeing (although “conquering” might be the better word) into ill-prepared Roman territories. At the start of this rise, the areas we know as the Fens were a well-settled part of Roman Britain ruled from the town of Duroliponte (Cambridge) by its native people, the Christianized Romano-Celtic Iceni. Then the sea level rose, and history’s curtain went down for two centuries.”.....At the old shore the Etang of Vendres, near the mouth of the Aude, are the ruins of a Roman Therme of the 1st or 2nd century A.D. (locally called the temple of Venus). There the walls have been washed out by waves so that they now have a deep double notch about 1.80 m above present sea level..."

"So notwithstanding the statements of the IPCC AR4 who assert a sea level status quo from ancient until modern times, there are many studies that point to a picture of relatively static sea levels after the initial Holocene rise. These then show that some 3000 years ago there was a further inundation (think Lyonesse in Cornwall) and in early Roman times levels were somewhere around current levels. Levels then rose significantly through the Roman period peaking around the 700 AD Byzantine period at levels higher than today..."

At the end of part 1 on Curry's site, Tony makes reference to how Science Daily edited out key information from a study they reported on thus leaving their readers with an impression that previous sea levels were not higher. Interesting. Confirms why today's science journalists are no longer easily trusted.

Additional sea level postings. Sea level charts here.

New Peer-Reviewed Study: Al Gore & 97% of Climate Scientists Wrong About CO2-Warming Caused Droughts

Read here. It has been well established by the left/liberal lamestream media that 97% of "climate scientists" (that's all of 75 people) take their science lessons from Al Gore, the AGW Nobel prize winner. During 2007 Congressional testimony, Al Gore claimed that "droughts are becoming longer and more intense." As a result, a team of scientists decided to do a fact-check on Mr. Gore's (and his renowned 75 disciples) AGW-science claims. (Okay, okay.....probably Stambaugh et al. didn't give a hoot about Al Gore and the 97%-team.)

This new research determined that the 20th and 21st century droughts have been of little significance when compared to both the Medieval Warming and Little Ice Age droughts that were incredibly severe.

"The six scientists report that "20th century droughts, including the Dust Bowl, were relatively unremarkable when compared to drought durations prior to the instrumental record." They note, for example, that the 19th century was the driest of the past millennium, with major drought periods occurring from about 1816 to 1844 and 1849 to 1880, during what they describe as the transition out of the Little Ice Age...write that "the approximately 61-year drought in the late 12th century (ca. AD 1148-1208) appears to be the most significant drought of the entire reconstruction," noting that it "corresponds to the single greatest megadrought in North America during the last 2000 years (Cook et al., 2007), as well as "unmatched persistent low flows in western U.S. river basins (Meko et al., 2007)." And this drought, as they describe it, occurred during the middle of the Medieval Warm Period..." [Michael C. Stambaugh, Richard P. Guyette, Erin R. McMurry, Edward R. Cook,  David M. Meko, Anthony R. Lupo 2011: Agricultural and Forest Meteorology]

Additional drought-flood, severe-weather, climate-history and peer-reviewed postings.

Chinese Research Discovers There Was Historical "Unprecedented Warming" Before There Was Modern "Unprecedented Warming"

Read here. Depending on the information source, modern "unprecedented" warming is an increase of +0.5 to 0.7 degrees Celsius. Despite the hysteria expressed about this increase by the media and alarmists, in both the historical and ancient past there have been warmings that exceeded the modern warming.

Recently, a prominent climate scientist came across a long forgotten study published back in 1973 that documents the large warmings and coolings that took place in China thousands of years ago. As an example, the long ago Shang Dynasty, which had its capital approximately at the red spot on the map, experienced extended warming that was found to be 2 degrees higher than modern temperatures. The Shang dynasty existed at this location from 1400 BC to 1050 BC. (map source here)

Other warming/cooling phases affecting the Chinese civilization were documented to range from 2 to 3 degrees over multiple periods.

“The world climate during the historical times fluctuated. The numerous Chinese historical writings provide us excellent references in studying the ancient climate of China. The present author testifies, by the materials got from the histories and excavations, that during Yin-Hsu at Anyang, the annual temperature was about 2℃ higher than that of the, present in most of the time. After that came a series of up and down swings of 2—3℃ with minimum temperatures occurring at approximately 100 B. C. (about the end of the Yin Dynasty and the beginning of the Chou Dynasty), 400 A. D. (the Six Dynasties), 1200 A. D. (the South Snug Dynasty), and 1700 A. D. (about the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Ching Dynasty). In the Han and the Tang Dynasties (200 B. C.—220 A. D. and 600—900 A. D.) the climate was rather warm." [Chu Ko-Chen 1973: China National Knowledge Infrastructure]

Additional climate-history postings.

Canadian Lake's Past Water Levels Refutes Both Mann's 'Hockey-Stick' Climate & IPCC's "Unprecedented" Modern Warming

Read here. The IPCC claims that modern "unprecedented" global warming has caused glaciers and snowpack to shrink, and mountainous areas to become more arid, thus diminishing/eliminating essential alpine river discharges. Whether it's the Himalayas or other mountainous regions though, the empirical evidence does not support the claims of modern warming being "unprecedented," nor the convenient disappearing of the Medieval Warming and Little Ice Age climates of Mann's 'hockey-stick.' 

A new peer-reviewed study by Wolfe et al. found that a Canadian lake's modern water level, which is fed from Rocky Mountain water runoff, is significantly higher than during the Medieval Warming Period and higher than lake levels prior to the extended Medieval span. This is an unequivocal indicator that modern warming is not "unprecedented." (click on image to enlarge)

"A peer-reviewed paper published online today in the journal Geophysical Research Letters shows that drought of Western North America was considerably worse during the Medieval Warming Period than at the end of the 20th century. The paper also shows much more variation and extremes in the drought record over the past 5200 years than since the advent of industrialization and rising CO2 levels in the latter 20th century. The proxy records clearly show no correlation of drought with the claimed steady CO2 levels...""a new 5200-year record of Lake Athabasca water-level variations, which serves as a sensitive gauge of past changes in alpine-sourced river discharge, reveals that western Canadian society has developed during a rare period of unusually abundant water ‘subsidized’ by prior glacier expansion."" [Brent B. Wolfe, Thomas W. D. Edwards, Roland I. Hall, John W. Johnston 2011: Geophysical Research Letters]

Additonal climate-history and peer-reviewed postings. Historical temperature charts.

Analysis of Sediment Cores From Arctic Circle Region Determines Medieval Era Warmer Than Modern Period

Read here. Image source here. (click image to enlarge)

The discredited, bogus 'hockey stick' temperature reconstruction has motivated hundreds to conduct new research on the paleo-climate, utilizing valid scientific and statistical methods. The vast majority of these new studies confirm the anecdotal historical evidence that the Medieval Period was the warmest extended time span over the last 2,000 years.

Velle et al. recently published a peer-reviewed analysis of sediment cores from the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic. The analysis revealed the Medieval Warming in a polar Arctic area to be approximately 0.3°C higher than modern temperatures.

"Working with two short gravity cores and two long piston cores of sediments obtained from the deepest part of Lake Skardtjorna, Velle et al. reconstructed histories of chironomid types and concentrations over the past 2000 years, which they translated into mean July air temperatures based on a modern mean July air temperature calibration data set...in the words of the two researchers, a "warming that occurred at 1000 to 830 BP," where BP = 2003, that "may correspond to what is known as the 'Medieval Warm Period'." And based on their graphical representation of that record, we estimate that the peak warmth of the MWP (~ AD 1000-1170) was about 0.3°C greater than the peak warmth of the Current Warm Period. [Gaute Velle, Katrine Kongshavn, H. John B. Birks 2011: The Holocene]

Additonal climate-history and peer-reviewed postings. Historical temperature charts.

EU Scientists: The Alps Big Glacier, Despite Modern "Unprecedented" Global Warming, Was Smaller In The Past

Read here. The IPCC and climate alarmists have become well known for their hysterical and failed glacier catastrophe prognostications. To add to the IPCC's growing embarrassment, new research indicates that the Rhône Glacier is currently larger than in previous times, which doesn't lend much credence to their claims of the supposed "unprecedented" warming of the 20th/21st centuries.

Interestingly, due to the glacier's melting, it has actually revealed how warm it really was in the not too distant past - under the glacier were remains of human settlements and forests that are now seeing the light of day, again. Obviously, much to the chagrin of the IPCC's Climategate scientists, the human past has experienced a much warmer climate.

Using novel techniques involving measurement of isotopes Carbon 14 and Beryllium 10, Goehring et al. were able to analyze past glacier growth and shrinkage over the past 11,500 years.

"Until now, scientists have had no accurate way of knowing the long-term history of the glacier. Local records of the ice date back to 1602, and it is clear that the Rhone, like other glaciers in the Alps, has retreated dramatically in the past 150 years. This melting has exposed intriguing clues – remnants of trees from once-forested land, and artifacts of human settlements dating back thousands of years, to times when even more of the land was uncovered and green...the researchers said that their more robust history of the Holocene glacier fluctuations reflects how sensitive glaciers are to small changes in climate...said he was surprised by the evidence of exposure revealed by the isotopes. The amount of Beryllium 10 and Carbon 14 they found "told us that not only were the surfaces exposed for significant periods of time, meaning the Rhone Glacier was smaller than today..." [Brent M. Goehring, Joerg M. Schaefer, Christian Schluechter, Nathaniel A. Lifton, Robert C. Finkel, A.J. Timothy Jull, Naki Akçar, Richard B. Alley 2011: Geology]

Additional glacier-ice sheet and peer-reviewed postings.

Latest Data From EU Scientists: Medieval Warming In Switzerland Was Unprecedented Versus The Current Lukewarm Temperatures

Read here. Map source here.

Magny et al. utilizing advanced scientific techniques, reconstructed 1,000 years of past summer (July) temperatures for the Swiss Jura Mountains region. Unequivocally, they found that July temperatures during the Medieval Period were significantly warmer than modern summer temps.

"Working at Lake Joux in the Swiss Jura Mountains...employed a multi-proxy approach with pollen and lake-level data to develop a 1000-year history of the mean temperature of the warmest month of the year (MTWA), which was July...based on the Modern Analogue Technique. This work revealed what they describe as an "MWP between ca. AD 1100 and 1320," during which time the MTWA at Joux Lake exceeded that of the 1961-1990 reference period by fully 2.0°C....Thus, it would appear that the peak warmth of the MWP at Lake Joux exceeded that of the CWP at that location by something on the order of 0.4-1.0°C." [Michel Magnya, Odile Peyrona, Emilie Gauthiera, Boris Vannièrea, Laurent Milleta, Bruno Vermot-Desroches 2011: Quaternary Research]

Additonal climate-history and peer-reviewed postings. Historical temperature charts.

New Refutation of Mann's 'Hockey Stick' Science: Medieval Warming Prosperity Collapsed Due To Devastation of Rapid Climate Cooling

Read here. In peer-reviewed research published by the influential  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), scientists reconstructed 5,600 years of climate conditions in Greenland. This new reconstruction confirmed the warm and optimum climate conditions of the Medieval Warming and the rapid onset of the frigid Little Ice Age.

In the case of Greenland's flourishing Viking settlements, the climate change to a cold phase meant total destruction of their existing society and settlements.

This new PNAS study totally refutes Michael Mann's entirely bogus 'hockey stick' portrayal of climate being benign and unchanging prior to the 20th century.

"What climate scientists have been able to ascertain is that an extended cold snap, called the Little Ice Age, gripped Greenland beginning in the 1400s. This has been cited as a major cause of the Norse’s disappearance. Now researchers led by Brown University show the climate turned colder in an earlier span of several decades, setting in motion the end of the Greenland Norse...The Vikings arrived in Greenland in the 980s...The arrival coincided with a time of relatively mild weather, similar to that in Greenland today. However, beginning around 1100, the climate began an 80-year period in which temperatures dropped 4 degrees Celsius (7 degrees Fahrenheit), the Brown scientists concluded...“You have an interval when the summers are long and balmy [Editor: yes, Greenland summers "long and balmy" during the Medieval period] and you build up the size of your farm, and then suddenly year after year, you go into this cooling trend, and the summers are getting shorter and colder and you can’t make as much hay. You can imagine how that particular lifestyle may not be able to make it,”...[William J. D’Andreaa, Yongsong Huanga, Sherilyn C. Fritz, N. John Anderson 2011: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences]

Additonal climate-history and peer-reviewed postings. Historical temperature charts.

2011 Icelandic Study Refutes Bogus "Unprecedented" Modern Temperature Claim: Medieval Warming Was Hotter

Read here. Map source here.

As so many past studies have documented, the Medieval Warming Period was indeed hotter than our current climate, especially in the extreme north and polar regions, such as Greenland and Iceland. The empirical evidence from past research, using a wide variety of scientific techniques, confirms the anecdotal information that was written in the historical past. A newly published study again confirms both the past scientific efforts and historical writings.

Ran et al. performed a diatom-based reconstruction of sea surface temperatures from waters of northern Iceland. Their analysis found that temperatures were approximately 0.6°C higher during the AD 940-1300 period versus modern temperatures. In addition, a strong solar radiation influence was noted in the data. (click on image to enlarge)

"Ran et al. reconstructed summer sea surface temperature (SST) on the North Icelandic shelf for the period AD 940-2006, based on their high-resolution and precisely dated diatom records, along with the help of "a modern diatom-environmental dataset from around Iceland...In the words of the four researchers, their diatom-based SST record indicates that the sea surface on the North Icelandic shelf "was not as warm during the last century as during the Medieval Warm Period (MWP)." More specifically, they write that "warm and stable conditions with relatively strong influence of the Irminger Current on the North Icelandic shelf are indicated during the interval AD 940-1300, corresponding in time to the MWP," and that "a considerable cooling at ~AD 1300 indicates the transition to the Little Ice Age (LIA) with increased influence of Polar and Arctic water masses deriving from the East Greenland and East Icelandic currents."...they end by stating that "the data suggest that solar radiation may be one of the important forcing mechanisms behind the palaeoceanographic changes."" [Lihua Ran, Hui Jiang, Karen Luise Knudsen and Jón Eiríksson 2011: Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology]

Additional climate-history and peer-reviewed postings. Historical temperature charts.

Global Cooling Brings Miserable, Wet Summer Weather To China: 500 Years of The Little Ice Age

Read here. Map source here. Wet, cold, stormy, miserable, severe weather can be an indicator of a global cooling climate phase. As past empirical evidence well documents, the climate makes swings from warmer to cooler phases, which impacts local and regional weather patterns.

New research (Griessinger et al.) from China confirms that global cooling can cause weather to become wetter and soggier even in semi-arid areas during the hot summer months of the Northern Hemisphere. (click on images to enlarge)

"Based on correlations they exhibited with climate data, tree-ring δ18O measurements of high-elevation Tibetan junipertrees...state that the 800-year annually-resolved oxygen isotope series they developed reflects long-term variations in Asian summer monsoon (ASM) activity in that part of the world. And this history, as they describe it, reveals an "ASM minimum during the Medieval Warm Period (around 1200-1400) and moister conditions during the Little Ice Age (1400-1900),"...This close but inverse correspondence between centennial-scale precipitation anomalies and similar well-known global temperature anomalies (the MWP, LIA and CWP) provides further evidence for the historical reality of the MWP on the Tibetan Plateau,..." [Jussi Grissinger, Achim Bräuning, Gerd Helle, Axel Thomas, Gerhard Schleser 2011: Geophysical Research Letters]

Additonal severe-weather, climate-history and peer-reviewed postings. Severe-weather charts.

EU's Superstorms Not A Result of CO2 or Global Warming New Peer-Reviewed Study Finds

Read here. Map source here.

In Europe's past there have been severe superstorms (category 3 intensity or more) that have struck the Mediterranean coast of Europe. By analyzing sediment cores, Dezileau et al. were able to determine that all the catastrophic storms struck before 1900, primarily during the coldest periods of the Little Ice Age and the onset of the cooler Dark Ages.

The evidence shows that periods of global cooling trends, not global warming phases, are when Europe is at its most vulnerable for Mediterranean superstorms striking.

"With respect to extreme weather events, the authors write that the major question of the day is: "are they linked to global warming or are they part of natural climate variability?"...because "these extreme events are inherently rare and therefore difficult to observe in the period of a human life."...Dezileau et al. assessed "the frequency and intensity of these events during the last 1500 years," as well as "links between past climatic conditions and storm activities."...report they found evidence of four "catastrophic storms of category 3 intensity or more," which occurred at approximately AD 455, 1742, 1848 and 1893...all four of the storms "can be called superstorms."...Dezileau et al. suggest that "extreme storm events are associated with a large cooling of Europe,"..." [L. Dezileaua, P. Sabatiera, P. Blanchemanchec, B. Jolyd, D. Swingedouwe, C. Cassoue, J. Castaingsa, P. Martinezf and U. Von Grafensteing 2011: Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology]

Additional severe-weather and peer-reviewed postings.

When Did Hottest Sea-Surface Temperatures Occur? Newest Research Says During Medieval Period

Read here. Map source here. (click on images to enlarge)

Newton et al. analyzed sediment cores from the Makassar Strait between the Indian and Pacific Oceans and confirmed that the hottest sea-surface temperatures took place some 800+ years ago, during the Medieval Period. These scientists noted that Medieval Warming took place during a solar activity maximum.

 

"Based on Mg/Ca ratios of the planktonic foraminifer Globigerinoides ruber that they obtained from a sediment core that was extracted from the seabed at the southern end (~5.3°S, 117.8°E) of the Makassar Strait...as they describe it, that "the warmest sea surface temperatures of the past 2000 years occurred between 1000 and 800 years ago," which period, they say, "is broadly coincident with the Medieval Warm Period as reflected in Northern Hemisphere temperature anomaly reconstructions."

"...used to reconstruct surface-water temperature (SST), sea-surface salinity (SSS), and seawater density variability over the past 2000 yr. Maximum SST and SSS occurred at both sites between 850 and 700 yr ago, coinciding with the Medieval Solar Maximum and Medieval Warm Period (ca. 1000–700 yr ago). SST and SSS declined at both locations after 700 yr ago and reached minimum values during the Little Ice Age, between 300 and 100 yr ago." [Alicia Newton, Robert Thunell and Lowell Stott 2011: Geology]

Additional climate-history and peer-reviewed postings. Historical temperature charts.

Been There, Done That: Unequivocal, Unprecedented & Accelerating Climate Change Prior To The IPCC

Abrupt and massive climate change, as represented by temperatures, has been a natural phenomenon for eons. Despite the claims of IPCC activists, pundits, celebrities, reporters, and some politicians, our current climate change is not unequivocally unprecedented and accelerating faster than previous occurrences. In fact, as the below charts depict, the current climate change is kind of wimpy compared to its ancestors.

It's important to recognize that scientists within the physical science realm concur that the climate can change abruptly with great severity, and that it has taken place with regularity over the last 10,000 years. Their proof? It's the ice cores pulled from the Greenland ice cap, which reveal incredibly large temperature changes as the graph immediately adjacent reveals. (And the Antarctic ice cores provide even more proof.)

As the experts will tell you, there is absolutely no scientific dispute regarding this historical evidence that was laid down by the climate for thousands of years.

While analyzing the ice core data, the scientists additionally determined several undisputed scientific facts:

1. Temperatures have been both hotter and colder than modern temperatures over the last 10,000 years.

2. There has been a cycle of warmer and cooler temperature swings over the last 10,000 years.

3. The modern increase in temperatures since the Little Ice Age represents #19 in the count of climate change swings over the last 10,000 years.

4. Major temperature swings of at least a 1 degree change may take anywhere from 220 years to 1000+ years before ending.

5. The recent past temperature increase has been both modest (below 1 degree) and relatively slow (750+ years) to warm since the initial plunge to the Little Ice Age levels.

These scientific facts are depicted in the visual representation of ice core data below (click on image to enlarge):

The #1 bar is this chart is that of a warming period that started around 10,000 years ago, lasting 840+ years with a temp increase of 1.23 degrees. The #2 bar represents the subsequent cooling period, which lasted some 850 years with temps cooling a huge 3 degrees. The rest of warm/cool climate change swings are represented all the way down to the present period, which is bar #19. (Each bar lists the associated temperature change and the length of the cooling/warming period, from peak to trough or vice versa.)

The modern bar (#19) is especially revealing. Since the initial plunge of the Little Ice Age temperatures about 750 years ago, the natural warming rebound has yet to even cross the 1 degree finish line that would denote this most recent climate change as a major one. Based on historical, natural precedents that the ice core evidence provides, our modern period should be expecting to reach the 1 degree mark in the near term future, regardless of any human influences - that's what nature and the climate does, naturally.

Additional historical and modern temperature charts.

One final note: the ice core data only extends to 1905. To estimate the temperature change from 1905 to 2010, 'C3' used a really useful graphing service provided by Global Warming Science. Using this invaluable service, we found 4 arctic area weather stations (above 65N) that had fairly complete temperature records from 1905. The chart below is the end result, including a linear trend for the 4 stations: 0.55 degrees per 100 years.

Latest Peer-Reviewed Research: The Warming of The Medieval Period Remains Unprecedented

Read here. Scientists analyzing maximum latewood density (MXD) datasets from Scandinavia determine that the Medieval Warming was unprecedented in its duration, at least 100 years in length.

In contrast to the modern era, this study, by Gunnarson et al., revealed that there were similar temperature increases from 1910 to 1940's, and one that started in the late 1990's. Neither of these very short-term warmings have MDX temperature reconstructions exceeding the Medieval Period.

"Working in the same general area, researchers combined these older historical MXD data with "recently collected MXD data covering AD 1292-2006 into a single reconstruction of April-September temperatures for the period AD 1107-2006,".....report "there is a steep increase in inferred temperatures at the beginning of the twelfth century, followed by a century of warm temperatures (ca. 1150-1250)," which falls within the temporal confines of the Medieval Warm Period; and they state that "the record ends with a sharp increase in temperatures from around 1910 to the 1940s, followed by decreasing temperatures for a few decades," after which they indicate that "another sharp increase in April-September temperature commenced in the late 1990s," during what is commonly known as the Current Warm Period. Thus, they say that "the two warmest periods are the mid to late twentieth century and the period from AD 1150-1250," and they emphasize that the temperatures of both of these periods have been so similar that "it is not possible to conclude whether the present and relatively recent past are warmer than the 1150-1250 period."" [Björn E. Gunnarson, Hans W. Linderholm, Anders Moberg, 2011: Climate Dynamics]

Additional climate-history and peer-reviewed postings. Historical temperature charts.