It’s worth revisiting NASA’s Gavin Schmidt’s claim, as reported in your ICO Editor’s Reply, that now “…could be the warmest period since the dawn of civilization.” In my two previous letters on this subject I referenced studies of trees growing in far northern latitudes 9,000 to 5,000 years ago where they can’t grow now, and of coral mounts from the same period that are several feet above present sea level. Both are obvious signs that we couldn’t be in a warmer period now.
For other examples that totally debunk Schmidt’s statement that now is probably the hottest period in the Holocene – the past 11,500 years - we should add Alpine glaciers and tree lines. Prof. Gernot Patzelt, an internationally renowned glaciologist with numerous publications and lectures, authored (title translated from the German) “Glaciers: Climate Witnesses from the Ice Age to the Present.” Patzelt found that for 70% of the past 10,000 years, glaciers were smaller that now. This finding supports studies of Greenland ice cores (“The Two-Mile Time Machine,” Richard Alley) and a variety of ocean and lake sediment cores that indicate that 90% of the past 10,000 years were warmer than the present.
Concerning tree lines, Patzelt noted: “Around (10500 BP - Before Present) the temperatures were lower, from (10200 BP) they were already above the level of the present temperature conditions… the postglacial warm period reached a first peak shortly after (8000 BP), followed by a second peak around (6200 BP). During this time … the timberline was 100-130 meters (328-426 feet) higher than what is currently possible, which means that a summer temperature of 0.6-0.8 °C (1.0-1.3 °F) higher can be derived…” (Bolding added by me for emphasis; dates changed from BC to BP for clarity)
Trees, corals, glaciers, ice sheets – we can learn from them.
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