What caused the Holocene Maximum heat wave for 3000 years, if there weren't any cars?

Question

temperatures are believed to have been much higher than they are now and stayed that way for 3000 years...and what caused the high temperatures in Europe before the little ice age...

Answer 1

Just like any other time in the history of the planet, the Sun's variations cause variations of the temperature on Earth.

Man is too small to have any effect on the Earths climate.

Answer 2

Though some temperatures during that period were in the same range as today, they were confined to the northern hemisphere and the summer months.

What's more, the cause is understood (orbital forcing similar to what controlled the Ice Ages), just as today's cause is understood (CO2 emissions), and these causes are very different. NOAA has a page on this that contains the following quote:

"In summary, the mid-Holocene, roughly 6,000 years ago, was generally warmer than today, but only in summer and only in the northern hemisphere. More over, we clearly know the cause of this natural warming, and know without doubt that this proven "astronomical" climate forcing mechanism cannot be responsible for the warming over the last 100 years. "

As an aside, it's worth noting that even if the Holocene had been as warm as or warmer than today, it would do nothing to undermine the theories and data that indicate today's warming is rapid and anthropogenic.

Answer 3

The Holocene Maximum was caused by "orbital forcing," or what astronomers call Milankovitch cycles. This is the same effect that triggers ice ages and inter-glacial periods: small changes in Earth's orbit.

Since Earth's orbit can be computed for thousands of years into the past and future, we know that orbital forcing caused peak temperatures 6000 years ago, during the Holocene Maximum, and has been slowly cooling the planet since then.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/207/4434/943

Therefore we also know that orbital forcing has nothing to do with the current warmth.

Answer 4

The Sun. It was the main controller of climate, historically.

How do we know it isn't the Sun now? Simple, we measure solar radiation. If we'd been able to do that during the Holocene maximum, we'd have easily seen the increase in solar radiation.

Right now the solar radiation is changing only a little, and it's _decreasing_.

"Recent oppositely directed trends in solar
climate forcings and the global mean surface
air temperature", Lockwood and Frolich (2007), Proc. R. Soc. A
doi:10.1098/rspa.2007.1880

http://www.pubs.royalsoc.ac.uk/media/proceedings_a/rspa20071880.pdf

News article at:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6290228.stm

Climatologists know all about the Sun, of course. And they know this particular change isn't that.

"While evidence suggests fluctuations in solar activity can affect climate on Earth, and that it has done so in the past, the majority of climate scientists and astrophysicists agree that the sun is not to blame for the current and historically sudden uptick in global temperatures on Earth, which seems to be mostly a mess created by our own species."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,258342,00.html

Answer 5

Exactly. Also, the beginning of the end of the last ice age was about 10000 to 12000 years ago and it has been gradually warming, with ups and downs, since then. Where were the cars and factories 10000 years ago?

The entire global warming scam gets me so angry!

Answer 6

Solar Activity - aphelion/perihelion cycles.

Answer 7

Then darn republicans in there gas powered elephants.

Answer 8

They are basically babbling and crying over a less than one degree temp change in a speck of earth time as near as I can figure. Amazing what you can get people to panic about.

Answer 9

And how did the Polar bears ever survive such a tragedy?

Answer 10

Don't ask questions, just believe Al Gore. He has all our best interests in mind.