I have read of the MWP, and the Little Ice age, but not much on how they relate to "Global Warming" Why not?.

Question

I see graphs that have them, and graphs that do not. I have read that they tie in with sunspot activity, and I have read sunspots have nothing to do with the earth's temperature, tho I have read the recent sunspots have even warmed up Saturn in one news brief on Yahoo..

I see charts that show major warming every 100,000 years, more than todays, followed by a steep fall almost immediately into deep glacial conditions.

I read history that seems to support the MWP, and I hear of Environmentalists who deny there was such a thing.

Why is the MWP not studied, if it was real, and the data published for review? Why are the conditions for the 100,000 year peaks not being studied and causes published?

Why when I asked about the Martian warming I have heard about, I get data from 2004, not 2007, denying it?

Did historically during the MWP the Vikings find grapes growing in Greenland and/or Iceland. or not?

And many graphs show the temp varying in the same curves as sunspots. Why?

Answer 1

Here is a reconstructed temperature plot which includes the MWP:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:2000_Year_Temperature_Comparison.png

It certainly happened, though it wasn't nearly as warm as it is today.

Warming on Mars is a totally seperate issue from warming on Earth. Parts of Mars are cooling, too. Most of the warming is attributed to dust storms making the surface darker.

Answer 2

Many alarmists would have you just accept their view without questioning the massive amounts of parameters that contribute to establishing the current global climate. And you've only scratched the surface with your questions. Think of how many more you might have if you delved deeper into the data.

They say the more you know, the more you find out you don't know.

There are some things that we DEFINITELY know:
we waste much more energy than we should
we consume more resources than we need to
we don't adequately plan for our future consumption/energy needs
we rely too heavily on fossil fuels and other non-renewable resources
we don't take proper responsibility in reducing pollution and other types of environmental destruction.
we will not outlive the earth.

Answer 3

A lot of questions...

<< I have read of the MWP, and the Little Ice age, but not much on how they relate to "Global Warming" Why not?. >>

Much of the current debate about global warming concerns how human activities have contributed to it. The MWP was a natural event and the LIA was a natural and human induced event. Both events are in the past and not part of the current warming trend but they are important events that can tell us a lot about climate.

<< I see graphs that have them, and graphs that do not. >>

The graph that Al Gore used in An Inconvenient Truth played down the significance of the MWP and LIA, other graphs exaggerate them. Here's a good graph that put both into perspective, it's actually several graphs from different studies in one http://globalwarmingart.com/wiki/image:2...

<< I have read that they tie in with sunspot activity, >>

The LIA partially ties in with a period known as the Maunder Minimum, this was a period of about 100 years during the latter part of the 17th and early part of the 18th centuries in which there was almost no sunspot activity.

<< and I have read sunspots have nothing to do with the earth's temperature >>

In the short term they have very little effect but if there are prolonged periods of exceptionally high or low sunspot activity they can, and do, have an effect.

Sunspots are just one of the many cycles the sun goes through and of all the solar cycles sunspots are the shortest one - just 11 years. In combination with other solar cycles the sun does have an important role to play in respect of our climate.

The longer the period of time the more pronounced the effects. Over a few hundred years the effects of solar variation is small but over thousands and millions of years the effect can be very significant.

<< tho I have read the recent sunspots have even warmed up Saturn in one news brief on Yahoo.. >>

We have instruments that can very accurately measure any change in sunspot activity and in recent years there has been very little change.

The warming on Saturn is a very different matter. Saturn is a massive 'gas planet' and like our own planet it's inclined at an angle - Saturn tilts at an angle of just under 30 degrees, Earth tilts at just under 23.5 degrees. Both planets also travel in an orbit around the sun which means that at different times of the year some parts of the planet are leaning towards the sun and others are leaning away (this is why we have seasons). It's the same with Saturn but whereas our planet takes one year to travel around the sun Saturn takes 186 years (I'm going from memory - I think it's 186 years). Because of this each 'season' on Saturn lasts for 46 years and at present the southern part of the planet is warming because it's summertime there.

<< I see charts that show major warming every 100,000 years, more than today’s, followed by a steep fall almost immediately into deep glacial conditions. >>

You're right in saying that the earth experiences warming at approx 100,000 year intervals. These warming periods cause glaciers to retreat and are known as interglacials, the colder periods in-between are called glacials and this is when the glaciers advance.

This graph shows temperatures over the last 450,000 years and you can clearly see the peaks http://www.globalwarmingart.com/wiki/ima... you can also see that the high temperatures were pretty much the same as the current climate but what's concerning many scientists is that the planet is warming much faster now than it did during the other times of rising temperatures.

<< I read history that seems to support the MWP, and I hear of Environmentalists who deny there was such a thing. >>

Some environmentalists might deny it, I don't know why because it was certainly something that happened and no climatologist or meteorologist would deny it, nor for that matter would anyone who had studied climate.

<< Why is the MWP not studied, if it was real, and the data published for review? Why are the conditions for the 100,000 year peaks not being studied and causes published? >>

They are studied, very carefully. These are just a couple of a great number of things that are taken into account and we are able to learn a lot from these. What's important to remember is that the MWP was occasioned by a warming event that lasted 1000 years and saw temperatures rise by 0.7 degrees C - this is the same rise we've seen in just 50 years. Similarly, the 100,000 year peaks were the result of warming over several thousand years, at today’s rate the same level of rise would occur in just a few hundred years.

<< Why when I asked about the Martian warming I have heard about, I get data from 2004, not 2007, denying it? >>

Not sure which data you're referring to. All climate data relating to Mars comes from NASA and they have published several reports in the last few years. There was one that may be the 2004 report you're referring to entitled 'Mars Is Melting'. This is sometimes referred to by climate change skeptics as evidence that the warming of Earth is caused by the same factor that's warming Mars - namely the sun. However, the NASA reports also point out that whilst some parts of Mars may be warming there are other parts that are cooling and that any warming that is occurring or has occurred isn't caused by the sun and isn't comparable to warming on Earth.

<< Did historically during the MWP the Vikings find grapes growing in Greenland and/or Iceland. or not? >>

No they didn't. In 982AD Eirik Raude (better known as Eric the Red) was exiled from Iceland after committing murder. He landed on the south-western tip of Iceland and established a 'home'. When his period of exile had expired after 3 years he returned to Iceland to gather together people who would populate his new community. According to his Biography he named the new land Greenland in order to lure people there with promises of warmer climates and green lands. It was basically a piece of Viking propaganda and whilst the communities did become established for a while they were soon abandoned. There were some parts of Greenland that were habitable and crops could be grown but this was only on the extremities of the island and only at certain times of the year. An interesting discovery in recent years has been the remains of some of these early settlements. The Greenland ice is retreating again exposing where the Vikings used to live.

<< And many graphs show the temp varying in the same curves as sunspots. Why? >>

Not sure which graphs you're referring to, I guess it's the Microwave Sounder Data graphs which show the temperature of the lower atmosphere. This ties in with sunspot activity but it's different from the surface temperatures. Here's the two graphs for you to compare...

http://www.globalwarmingart.com/wiki/ima...
http://www.globalwarmingart.com/wiki/ima...

Answer 4

There are several reasons the dots are not connected in a way that reveals truth. Its quite clear the northern hemisphere is getting warmer at this time but no one stops to think about the cooling that has gone before. The south pole was ice free 12mya and now has so much ice it would take 10,000 years to melt.

Answer 5

Global Warming alarmists don't want you to realize that reality and thier hype don't match.

How could we have been dumping tons of CFC's and driving soe of the most polluting cars ever made (1960's and 1970's US made vehicles) and have gotten global cooling if manmade pollutants were the cause of the current warming?

The Ozone hole is shrinking...
And solar output is rising.

Maybe man really can't have as much effect on global climate as the environmentalist tin hat wearers think.

Answer 6

well al gores movie made a profit , the free market has spoken global warming must be true.

Answer 7

The MWP was real and global temperatures were much higher than they are today, you don't even need science to tell you this, you can actually see evidence from archaeological digs that show warm weather crops being grown in very northern regions.
http://www.wooster.edu/geology/tr/kbrady.html
http://www.math.nus.edu.sg/aslaksen/gem-projects/hm/0203-1-02-sunspots/climate.html



Sunspots:
http://m2.aol.com/gregbenson/Solar_Activity_Proxies.jpg

Lots of resources:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4499562022478442170&q=great+global+warming+swindle.
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?id=d0235a70-33f1-45b3-803b-829b1b3542ef&k=99551&p=1
http://www.cei.org/pdf/5539.pdf
http://www.johnstonsarchive.net/environment/gore.html
http://www.friendsofscience.org/index.php?ide=3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fr5O1HsTVgA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming_controversy
http://www.friendsofscience.org/index.php?ide=4
http://www.john-daly.com/
http://www.abd.org.uk/green_myths.htm
http://www.ourcivilisation.com/aginatur/prog1.htm#suspend
http://www.trac.org.au/cgi-bin/test?page=/myths/top10.htm
http://www.bkdesign.ca/blog/reports/global-warming-myth.php
http://www.fcpp.org/pdf/TimBallJan2607handouts.pdf
http://www.fraserinstitute.ca/admin/books/files/ScienceIsntSettled.pdf
http://meteo.lcd.lu/globalwarming/Carter/laying_ten_global_warming_myths.html
http://www.ncpa.org/ba/ba230.html
http://www.stuff.co.nz/timaruherald/4064691a6571.html
http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Files.View&FileStore_id=56dd129d-e40a-4bad-abd9-68c808e8809e
http://www.lavoisier.com.au/papers/articles/ninelieslaunch.pdf#search=%22vostok%20figure%20125%22
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-05/teia-csh051107.php
http://www.canadafreepress.com/2007/global-warming051407.htm
http://wwwghcc.msfc.nasa.gov/temperature/.
http://web.dmi.dk/solar-terrestrial/space_weather/
http://www.aip.org/enews/physnews/2003/split/642-2.html
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/060926_solar_activity.html
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/08/040803093903.htm
http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2003/17jan_solcon.htm
http://www.globalwarming.org/article.php?uid=900
http://www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/Reference_Docs/The_Geologic_Record_and_Climate_Change.pdf
http://www.livescience.com/environment/070312_solarsys_warming.html
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070228-mars-warming.html
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solarsystem/mgs-092005.html
http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/solarsystem/mgs-092005-images.html
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/mars_ice-age_031208.html
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn1660
http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=17977
http://www.canadafreepress.com/2007/global-warming030207.htm
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2000-03/UoCS-Nrol-1903100.php
http://www.co2science.org/scripts/CO2ScienceB2C/articles/V8/N46/EDIT.jsp
http://www.nationalcenter.org/NPA235.html
http://www.worldclimatereport.com/
http://www.globalwarming.org/article.php?uid=192
http://www.moonbattery.com/archives/2005/03/growing_glacier.html
http://juneaualaska.com/visit/stories/herbertglacier.shtml
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-329es.html
http://globalwarmingart.com/wiki/Image:Holocene_Sea_Level_png
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Post-Glacial_Sea_Level.png
http://www.climateark.org/articles/1999/markhotd.htm
http://www.abc.net.au/foreign/content/2004/s1107203.htm
http://www.oism.org/pproject/s33p36.htm
http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Files.View&FileStore_id=c5e16731-3c64-481c-9a36-d702baea2a42
http://www.climatechangedebate.org/documents/CCD_read.pdf
http://w3g.gkss.de/G/Mitarbeiter/bray.html/BrayGKSSsite/BrayGKSS/WedPDFs/Science2.pdf
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/story.html?id=63ab844f-8c55-4059-9ad8-89de085af353&k=0
http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressRoom.Blogs&ContentRecord_id=B82EAA82-802A-23AD-49E8-30B49D1BC8F5
http://www.john-daly.com/forcing/moderr.htm. http://rpc.senate.gov/_files/Sept1004GlobalWarmingPG.pdf
http://www.sepp.org/Archive/NewSEPP/ipccreview.htm
http://www.john-daly.com/guests/un_ipcc.htm
http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/prometheus/archives/science_policy_general/000318chris_landsea_leaves.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_cooling
http://www.michaelkubacki.com/cooling.htm