Study says warming might be all natural

New Jersey Star Ledger ^ | March 22, 2002 | PAUL RECER

[ZULU]

WASHINGTON -- An unusually warm period a millennium ago may have been part of a natural planetary cycle, researchers say in a study of tree rings that scrutinizes the link between human activity and climate change.

The study, appearing today in the journal Science, analyzed ancient tree rings from 14 sites on three continents in the northern hemisphere and concluded that temperatures in an era known as the Medieval Warm Period some 800 to 1,000 years ago closely matched the warming trend of the 20th century.

[ZULU]

Even when evidence to the contrary stares them in the face, the Global Warming Fanatics continue to scream the sky is falling.

[ohioman]

This report will receive very limited, if any, media exposure.

[Seeking the truth]

Isn't this the time frame when the Norsemen were thriving and planting crops in Greenland? My quick math tells me it is.

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

Cook said data used in the climate change panel's calculation are based on a model that compared the preindustral-age climate with the climate of the 20th century. The model did not include a Medieval Warm Period. Including data from that era could change the calculations, Cook said.

You can 'prove' just about any trend in historical data if you choose your data points carefully enough.

The panel's selection of 'the preindustrial-age climate' as their starting point makes it clear that they had already fingered greenhouse gases as the cause of the current warming period, and that they were simply going out for supporting data.

A kangaroo court masquerading as scientific research.

Tim

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

These scientists have blasphemed the gods of the enviroleft.

Off with their heads!

[dogbyte12]

My two cents. Either global warming exists or it doesn't. If it does, it doesn't matter if it's caused by us or natural causes. It will affect our environment and we will have to deal with it's effects. It would be the same thing if we cooled down alot. Just deal with it, move farming to a more temperate zone, etc. The one concern with warming as opposed to cooling will be coastal flooding however.

I am thinking the extremists on both sides of this issue are getting silly trying to show the other side up.

If a fire is raging towards my house, I don't give a damn if it was caused by lightning, or caused by a kid playing with matches, I want it put out, a fire break in place, or I will have to rebuild and relocate.

We need to figure out if global warming is going to happen, and take steps to deal with it. Period. Who cares if nature or man creates it?

[ZULU]

The Vikings colonized Greenland and Iceland during the warm period. In the 1300's the Norse colony in Greenland was abandoned or died out as a result of the spreading cold of the Little Ice Age. In the 1300's there was even a year in England called the Year without a Summer, when it was too cold and wet to even grow crops.

As late as the American Revolution, it was so cold in winter that the Hudson River and Arthur Kill froze so thickly that the Americans were able to drag cannons across the ice to Staten Island. One of the winters during the Revolution - the one when they were in North Jersey, brought 10 foot snow drifts.

Weather patterns do change. The climate in Ancient Egypt was less arid than today. etc., etc.

[Balding_Eagle]

If a fire is raging towards my house,

There is no fire, relax.

[eno_]

It is a sign we have become dumbed down and innumerate that the common American citizen cannot add up in his head that geological and cosmological effects on climate are orders of magnitude more potent than anything man is doing or could do.

[ZULU]

Global warming and cooling events occur continuously. Technically, we aare in an "Interglacial Era". Based on overall geologic experience, the last glacial period ended around 10,000 B.C. and we should be drawing close to the end of the present Interglacial Period and the start of a new glacial period.

Glacial periods themselves and their cause are a source of contriversy among geologists. There are theories that changes in the oceanic currents, brought about by continental drift cause them, as well as cycles in the earth;s rotation and solar heat output. A combination of these may be the deciding factor. No one has definitely tagged the main cause as of yet.

Either way, our real concern, from my perspective should be the imminent end of the prsent interglacial period and what steps, is any, we should make to protect the northern hemisphere from being buried under a thousands of feet of glacial ice - not arguments about "global warming". I don't expect things will warm up substantially more than we have experienced in the last decade. This isn't the Jurassic Period.

[eno_]

You are parroting a line from the idiot enviroleft. The fact is there is a real cost to "greenhouse gas" controls. Real people starve to real death in developoing countries because our GDP did not grow as much and they did not get aid or investment. All so that idiot soccer moms in the U.S. can assuage their guilt.

[Rustynailww]

"This report will receive very limited, if any, media exposure."..............it has been on the radio news so far today.

[ZULU]

Well said.

The sack cloth and ashes group of the liberal far left are uncomfortable with our current high level of living here and this is a way for them to try to bring our life style down to that of the third world nations they so much admire.

Should we be concerned with environmental degredation? Certtainly. Every day, more and more of the earth's forests are depleted and more and more and more species of animals and plants become extinct. Every day the area of the oceanic plankton, the main producers of atmospheric oxygen, is reduced, primarily by human activity.

Unless you find a landscape like Easter Island or Iceland appealing, these are far more serious environmental issues to be concerned about. Not to mention the ever increasing world population. Just feeding and medicating the mass of humanity we are creating will shortly become a major issue. There IS a limit to the carrying capacity of the earth and converting all of the world's protoplasm to human biomass does hold any charm for me. I do like to see plants and animals at times. Even if I prefer an attractive blonde, redhead or brunette human female to look at, I wouldn't want to be buried alive by them.

[grumpster-dumpster]

It's 27 degrees at 10:00 AM, Wind Chill 16 degrees. I am not in the mood to hear about a warming period in the middle ages! ...I want it NOW!

[Osage Orange]

The following was...I believe, written by a Freeper. Unfortunately I do not recall whom it was...but it's a keeper....IMO.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

"The point is that if it is now hotter now than it has been in 500 years that is only another way of saying that 500 years ago it was just as hot as it is today.

But if global warming is caused by our improvident use of resources and general thoughtlessness, stupidity, and generally disgusting behavior, as charged by algore among others, then how do we explain the warming during the 1400s? There were no gas guzzling 1492 model Chevy Blazers..

So what was it? Heretics burning at the stake?

Medieval wooden cities on fire? Improvident burning of peat in the humble hearths of the serfs?

Various hydrocarbons emanating from knights on horseback fiercely jousting?

Is it possible that global warming (and cooling) is a natural event that has happened many times? That would be terrible because then algore wouldn’t have a reason to lecture us as if we were a bunch of grubby brain damaged little children.

[mykdsmom]

I received my March issue of Imprimis from Hillsdale College yesterday. It is titled The Kyoto Protocol and Global Warming.

Long but interesting read. You can read it here.

MKM

[eno_]

Even if I prefer an attractive blonde, redhead or brunette human female to look at, I wouldn't want to be buried alive by them.

Clearly, you went to all the wrong parties.

[ZULU]

Well, er, what I meant to say was CONSTANTLY buried by them.

[Dick Bachert]

Duuuhhhhhhh...!

The ecofreaks and their grow government agenda at any cost will NOT like this information.