Roman World Was Hotter than Thought

New Scientist ^ | 10 July 2012 | Fred Pearce

[rjbemsha]

Tree rings actually show ... a long-term cooling trend that lasted right up until the Industrial Revolution.... Results suggest the Roman world was 0.6 °C warmer than previously thought.

[rjbemsha]

The study, by Jan Esper of Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, shows that human CO2 emissions have interrupted a long COOLING period that would ultimately have delivered the next ice age.

Micheal Mann is not pleased. He says: "The implications of this study are vastly overstated by the authors."

[ClearCase_guy]

England used to produce decent wines. But it's been too cool for the past few centuries, so people get their wine from France, Italy, Spain, California, or Australia instead. The idea that the current world is "hot" is ludicrous. We've known for a long time that the Medieval period was warmer than now and we've known for a long time that the Roman period was warmer than now.

We had a small ice age end in 1850, for goodness sake! The Global Warming thing is a complete scam.

[Mr. K]

I dont know how they can measure accurately to .6 of a degree from tree rings

It is a thing called “significant figures” and it is one of the first things you learn in college science

The concept is simple, you cannot be more accurate than your measuring device.

If all I have is a blank yardstick (with no inches marked on it), the best I give you is measurments in fractions of a yard (and you are never 100% certain about that fraction, you can only eyeball a half a yard or a third, but how about an eighth? or 3/16’s of a yard?)

You can not accurately say you have 3 yards and 14 inches.

Now if your yardstick is marked WITH inches, then you can accurately say something is 3 yards and 14 inches - you can even say 3 yards and 14 and a half inches, but not much more accurately than that. (you could not give thousandths of an inch accuracy, using only this yardstick)

So...

How do these scientists get the nerve to tell us things are ‘0.6’ degrees different than thousands of years ago?

Using tree rings as a measuring device?

That is why ALL THIS CLIMATE TALK is BULL$H!T~!

[tbw2]

The great 1700s ice fairs on the river Thames, which no longer freezes over, are a good indicator.

[Red Badger]

Yeah, I'd agree with that..............

[Honorary Serb]

Milankovitch (Milankovic) cycles

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milankovitch_cycles

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milutin_Milankovic

[Paladin2]

Exactly.

I just knew that Mikey (the serial data abuser at the State Penn) wouldn't like this.

[Tallguy]

I think that the widespread use of computers to do number crunching has contributed to the problem with observing the significant digit rules. Actually it probably started with hand calculators.

My college professors in the late-70’s would beat us up over this, but I suspect that everybody falls prey to the use of over-precise answers.

[CedarDave]

Micheal Mann is not pleased. He says: "The implications of this study are vastly overstated by the authors."

Amazing! A junk scientist criticizing another junk scientist. The latter's research must have been really bad!

As for tree rings, "trees don’t represent temperature and half a year doesn’t represent an annual record." See here and here.

[Mr. K]

I am just surprised that the significant digits argument has never been used to beat these "global warmers" down

Or is it "climate changers" now?

[Moose Burger]

Of course it was hot; everybody used togas

[sima_yi]

Of course it was warmer then. Rome was a republic (at least nominally), therefore inhabited by Republicans, therefore it was Bush’s fault.

[BwanaNdege]

Slide rules - Three significant digits!

These media articles where some idiot reporter has converted from metric to imperial measurement or vice-versa and run it out to three digits or more.

As in, “The Cowboy’s halfback gained two yards (1.828 meters) on the next play”, instead of what actually happened, “The Cowboy’s halfback gained about two yards (about two meters) on the next play”.

City slicker asking farmer for directions, “It’s about a mile (1.609 kilometers) or so down the road”, instead of “It’s about a mile or so (1 to 2 kilometers) down the road”.

[SunkenCiv]

Tree-rings prove climate was WARMER in Roman and Medieval times than it is now
dailymail | 11 July 2012 | By Science Reporter
Posted on 07/21/2012 8:40:01 PM PDT by dennisw
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2909192/posts

[SunkenCiv]

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Note: this topic is dated 7/11/2012. Blast from the Past. Thanks rjbemsha. Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.