Soaring Arctic temperatures – a warning from history

Nature ^ | 09 July 2010 | Jeff Hecht

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Ashley Ballantyne at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and colleagues analysed 4-million-year-old Pliocene peat samples from Ellesmere Island in the Arctic archipelago to find out what the climate was like when the peat formed.

At that time, CO₂ levels are thought to have been close to current levels – around 390 parts per million – but global temperatures were around 2 to 3 °C warmer than today. It was the last warm period before the onset of the Pleistocene glaciation, and is used by climate researchers as a model for our future climate.

Previous studies using computer models have suggested that the Pliocene Arctic was also warmer than it is today – up to 10 °C warmer. A little warming can trigger a lot more in the Arctic because the loss of light-reflecting sea ice and the spread of plants across the land increase the amount of solar energy that is absorbed.

Peat heat

Ballantyne's team estimated the temperature of the period at which the peat formed by measuring three things that are affected by temperature: the concentration of various chemical compounds, levels of a certain isotope in tree rings and the amount and types of fossilised vegetation.

The group's analysis suggests the samples formed when average local temperatures were about -0.5 °C. That is 19 °C warmer than temperatures today – more than the previous computer models had estimated.

"These results should be alarming," says Ballantyne. Although it could take centuries for current global temperatures to respond to rising CO₂ levels, we can expect the Arctic to warm much more than the rest of the planet, he says.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

fyi

[Sacajaweau]

Wow...They had co2 back then....I thought we modern, anti nature folks invented it.

[UCANSEE2]

Everything is backwards.

[grey_whiskers]

They're STILL trying this crap?

Time to take back the Universities and sentence most of the "scientists" and self-proclaimed "thought leaders" to penal servitude.

And yes, you wankers -- I said "penal" not "penile" so don't get your hopes up.

Cheers!

[Leo Carpathian]

Scientwists, they don’t give up!
Government funding keeps the heat on.
Yo scientwists! We are heated by Sun and are on the mercy of sunspot cycles and human “contribution” is as much as peeing in the ocean and trying to cause global flooood!

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Such staggering extrapolation. It reminds me of the slightly gross, but funny segment on ‘Robot Chicken’, called, “If you give a mouse a cookie”.

http://video.adultswim.com/robot-chicken/give-a-mouse-a-cookie.html

There is actually an important concept in there, of using ridiculous extrapolations to justify terrible acts. Like using MMGW to justify political and economic control over the world.

[lurk]

If we’re wondering where we can cut spending, I’m guessing 2/3 of all research grants are useless politically driven ventures like this.

[Huskrrrr]

Obviously methane gas from dinosaurs was a major contributor to global warming back then.

[Domangart]

Every time one of these people makes a case they list 1, 2, 3 and forget or miss 4 and 5. The One or two parts they miss blows their argument out of the water.

[Waverunner]

PEEING IN THE OCEAN CAUSES GLOBAL FLOODING
Can I get a grant for a study to evaluate the possibility that in two centuries the “pee” effect will contribute both to global warming and rising ocean levels, as well as a lot of pissed off dolphins.

[beebuster2000]

so what?
last time i looked wasnt the arctic too cold for anything anyway?

[omega4179]

So it was 19’ WARMER a gajillion years ago before G.W Bush’s CO2 warming even existed.

[Perdogg]

what about the effects of underwater volcanic activity?

[wiggen]

Don’t bother. South Park already had that episode.

[count-your-change]

My computer model says that if my atic gets warmer it probably won't be so cold there. I guarantee it!
O.k., where my grant check?

[mountainlion]

Remember that CU is in Boulder which is said to be the most liberal city in the US and is said to still be the Drug capitol of the US. CU is where the guy invented the hockey stick curve for world temperature form three trees in Siberia. Lets wait for sober peer review.

[Mobties]

Sounds to me like someone’s trolling for one of those huge grants from a liberal trust fund like Mellon or Pew.

All this talk about peat has given me a yen for a little single malt.

[Jack Hydrazine]

"At that time, CO2 levels are thought to have been close to current levels – around 390 parts per million – but global temperatures were around 2 to 3 °C warmer than today. It was the last warm period before the onset of the Pleistocene glaciation, and is used by climate researchers as a model for our future climate."



The Pliocene Epoch is part of the Cenozoic Era.

[The Great RJ]

Look at more recent climate history. About 20,000 years ago much of the northern hemisphere was covered in hundreds of feet of glaciers. Obviously this ice age was brought on by massive global cooling. However these glaciers melted so there must have been massive global warming. All of this happened in a few thousand years and had nothing to do with CO2 levels. So let’s see some explanation for this recent climate change, not some 4 million year old period.