Monday, February 05, 2007
Global Warming - about that "hockey stick"
And the "mild climatic conditions; in Greenland!...
At 'theNewAmerican.com', Dennis Behreandt writes about global warming:
"Perhaps the most important consideration is one of perspective. Is it warmer now, as is alleged, than ever before in human history? The 'hockey stick' graph says it is. In fact, it is not at all clear that it is warmer now than ever before. The Earth has been warming, more or less, since the beginning of the current Holocene Epoch, when the planet shook off the cold of the last ice age. The overall increase in temperatures has been punctuated by periodic short-term changes. The Medieval Warm Period, a time of temperatures warmer than average beginning in about 800 A.D. and lasting until about 1300 A.D., was followed by the Little Ice Age, a period of several centuries of colder-than-normal temperatures.
It was during the Medieval Warm Period that the Vikings discovered Greenland and made their other remarkable voyages of exploration in the North Atlantic. According to Jared Diamond, professor of geography at the University of California, 'Between A.D. 800 and 1300, ice cores tell us that the climate in Greenland was relatively mild, similar to Greenland's weather today or even slightly warmer.... Thus, the Norse reached Greenland during a period good for growing hay and pasturing animals.' The mild climatic conditions may have helped Eric the Red, Greenland's discoverer, to market the area to potential settlers. The Grœnlendinga Saga records that Eric 'called the land, that he had found, Greenland, for he said, that might attract men thither, when the land had a fine name.' According to Dr. Philip Stott, professor emeritus of bio-geography at the University of London, '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.'"
