Ancient Romans, Chinese Helped Warm Planet

Newser ^ | Oct. 4, 2012

[Milagros]

Ancient Romans, Chinese Helped Warm Planet ICE SAMPLES REVEAL GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS

By Rob Quinn, Newser Staff Posted Oct 4, 2012 1:08 AM CDT

(NEWSER) – Human activity contributed to climate change long before the Industrial Revolution, according to new research. Scientists analyzing ice core samples from Greenland found a spike in emissions of the greenhouse gas methane during a 200-year period around 2,000 years ago, when the ancient Roman and Chinese empires were at their peak, reports the Los Angeles Times. Researchers believe the rise was caused by the widespread use of charcoal as fuel and the burning of large areas of forest to clear farmland.

The amount of the heat-trapping gas emitted by human activity was only about a 70th of today's levels, but still accounted for a significant proportion of methane emissions, researchers say. Methane is also emitted from natural sources including wetlands and wildfires. "The pre-industrial time was not a natural time for the climate—it was already influenced by human activity," the lead researcher says. "When we do future climate predictions we have to think about what is natural and what did we add. We have to define what is really natural." Sources: Los Angeles Times, The Age

[hinckley buzzard]

The Roman Warming era has been well-known to historians. It is likely that the alarmists have cause and effect reversed. Warming has historically led to bursts of growth in civilization, and did so 2000 years ago. Odds are the methane came from some geologic event, possibly undersea, and may have contrbuted to the warming that nurtured the growth of Rome. Or not.

[ClearCase_guy]

They always talk as if humans were not "natural".

The secularists say that there was slime, then higher life forms, then apes, then humans -- and then the humans did "unnatural" things and messed up the planet. Hey, if we're just animals, aren't we just doing what comes naturally?

On the other hand, perhaps we were created by God and we were given dominion over the earth.

[JRandomFreeper]

The bastards killed Kennyus Flavius.

/johnny

[Milagros]

created by God and we were given dominion over the earth.

__

Genesis 1:28 "God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and ... Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature ... "

[Repeat Offender]

Those damned Romans and their Sport Utility Chariots!

[youngidiot]

They have to promote absurd “findings” like this to keep the whole “man is bad for the planet, we need socialism” scam going.

[SoldierDad]

Scientists are really stupid and gullible individuals, aren’t they?

[expat2]

I agree. The warming period probably caused the methane emission, probably due to melting tundra, not the other way round.

[Jack Hydrazine]

Paper demonstrates solar activity was at a grand maximum in the late 20th century
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/09/13/paper-demonstrates-solar-activity-was-at-a-grand-maxima-in-the-late-20th-century/#more-71007

New paper finds deep Arctic Ocean from 50,000 to 11,000 years ago was 1–2°C warmer than modern temperatures http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/08/29/new-paper-finds-deep-arctic-ocean-from-50000-to-11000-years-ago-was-1-2c-warmer-than-modern-temperatures/#more-70100

Antarctic peninsula was 1.3°C warmer than today 11,000 years ago
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/08/23/antarctic-peninsula-was-1-3c-warmer-than-today-11000-years-ago/#more-69774

[SamuraiScot]

core samples from Greenland found a spike in emissions of the greenhouse gas methane during a 200-year period around 2,000 years ago, when the ancient Roman and Chinese empires were at their peak

It was all the spicy Szechuan food. . .

[verum ago]

The Roman Warming era has been well-known to historians. It is likely that the alarmists have cause and effect reversed. Warming has historically led to bursts of growth in civilization, and did so 2000 years ago. Odds are the methane came from some geologic event, possibly undersea, and may have contrbuted to the warming that nurtured the growth of Rome. Or not.

The Roman Warming has long been a thorn in the side of AGW theory, as it represents natural warming on the scale of the current warming (if you trust the measurements), and thereby shows that the current warming can be natural.

Making the Roman Warm Period anthropogenic preserves the AGW orthodoxy. I'm going to go ahead and say that if the "scientists" working on this didn't set consciously set out to get the result they did, they at least wanted it to come out that way and were influenced by that.

[albionin]

I wonder what caused the warming 9000 years ago B.C. because if I’m reading the graph right it looks like it was warmer then than it is now. How did the planet survive?

[ArmyTeach]

Good info

[goron]

[skr]

From http://www.livescience.com/8142-history-destructive-volcanoes.html

“Thera – island of Santorini in the Aegean Sea - sometime between 1645 B.C. and 1500 B.C.

While the date of the eruption isn’t known with certainty, geologists think that Thera exploded with the energy of several hundred atomic bombs in a fraction of a second. Though there are no written records of the eruption, geologists think it could be the strongest explosion ever witnessed.

The island that hosted the volcano, Santorini (part of an archipelago of volcanic islands), had been home to members of the Minoan civilization, though there are some indications that the inhabitants of the island suspected the volcano was going to blow its top and evacuated. But though those residents might have escaped, there is cause to speculate that the volcano severely disrupted the culture, with tsunamis and temperature declines caused by the massive amounts of sulfur dioxide it spewed into the atmosphere that altered the climate.”

[Cronos]

why would warming have contributed to the growth of Rome? Agriculture etc was already going on ahead.

I would think it actually led to the detriment of Rome, since a warming climate caused Germanic overpopulation so the Germanics came out of Denmark and Sweden and started invading the rest of the continent

[norwaypinesavage]

The article fails to establish any connection between charcoal and methane. There is simply no methane involved in the production, or burning of charcoal.

[Jack Hydrazine]

It was warmer 9,000 years ago than it is today and the oceans were about 20 to 30 feet higher than today. Reason? That was when the temperature peaked at the beginning of the inter-glacial after coming out of the last ice age. It's been getting cooler ever since.

Take a look at this graph.



Temperatures were warmer than today for most of the past 10,000 years
http://iceagenow.info/2010/05/temperatures-were-warmer-than-today-for-most-of-the-past-10000-years/

[albionin]

Thanks very much. Until the global warming proponents can account for these past warming periods they can not claim proof that man is the major cause of today’s warming.