legal.alien
03.09.03, 12:30
New study says GW normal. Research by a team from Harvard University casts
serious doubt on claims that man-made pollution is causing global warming
(GW), in fact indicating that the Earth was warmer during the Middle Ages.
This is in contrast to what environmentalists have said from the beginning of
the GW debate - that temperatures are rising higher and faster than ever
before because of greenhouse gases from cars and power stations.
A review of more than 240 scientific studies showed that today's temperatures
are not the warmest over the past millennium and they are not producing more
extreme weather. The team from Harvard examined findings of studies of so-
called temperature proxies such as tree rings, ice cores and historical
accounts that allow scientists to estimate temperatures prevailing at sites
around the world.
The findings indicate that the world experienced a Medieval warm period
between the ninth and fourteenth centuries with global temperatures
significantly higher than today. They also confirm that a Little Ice Age set
in around 1300, during which the world cooled. Since 1900, the world has
begun to warm up again, but has yet to reach temperatures of the Middle Ages.
The timing of the end of the Little Ice Age is significant, since it implies
that the records used by climate scientists date from a time when the Earth
was relatively cold, thereby exaggerating the significance of today's
temperature rise. The researchers say the evidence confirms suspicions that
today's unprecedented temperatures are simply the result of examining
temperature change over too short a period of time.
The study, which will be published in Energy and Environment, has been
welcomed by skeptics of global warming. Dr. Philip Stott, professor emeritus
of bio-geography at the University of London, told The Telegraph, "What has
been forgotten in all the discussion about global warming is a proper sense
of history. During the Medieval warm period, the world was warmer even than
today, and history shows that it was a wonderful period of plenty for
everyone. When the temperature started to drop, harvests failed and England's
vine industry died. It makes one wonder why there is so much fear of warmth."
