Arctic reverses trend, is warmest in two millennia

AP on Yahoo ^ | 9/4/09 | Randolph E. Schmid - ap

[NormsRevenge]

WASHINGTON – The Arctic is warmer than it's been in 2,000 years, even though it should be cooling because of changes in the Earth's orbit that cause the region to get less direct sunlight. Indeed, the Arctic had been cooling for nearly two millennia before reversing course in the last century and starting to warm as human activities added greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.

"If it hadn't been for the increase in human-produced greenhouse gases, summer temperatures in the Arctic should have cooled gradually over the last century," said Bette Otto-Bliesner, a National Center for Atmospheric Research scientist and co-author of a study of Arctic temperatures published in Friday's edition of the journal Science.

The most recent 10-year interval, 1999-2008, was the warmest of the last 2,000 years in the Arctic, according to the researchers led by Darrell S. Kaufman, a professor of geology and environmental science at Northern Arizona University.

[NormsRevenge]

The new report is based on a decade-by-decade reconstruction of temperatures over the past 2,000 years developed using information from ancient lake sediments, ice cores, tree rings and other samples. The findings were then compared with complex computer climate model simulations created at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo.

[kingattax]

these richard craniums never stop do they ?

[ilgipper]

AP: Don’t believe your lyin’ eyes. The ice you see is not really there.

[SaveTheChief]

I’d like to see the 2,000 year-old records.

[steelyourfaith]

 

Beam me to Planet Gore !

[Defiant]

I doubt it is currently warmer there than in the Medieval Warm Period. Our temperatures are right now halfway between the MWP and the Little Ice Age.

[sourcery]

They must have been driving their SUVs quite extensively 2000 year ago...

[allmost]

They always refer to around 1998 when adressing temperature data.
What is the largest country on earth? Russia.
What is the coldest country (average temperature) on earth? Russia.
The meteorological stations went into disrepair, like everything else, during the fall of the soviet union. The coldest ten percent of the planet contributed less data. Such a basic concept. Such a grand fraud.

[RobRoy]

The last year or so I have been reading that the arctic is warming as the antarctic is cooling.

[RobRoy]

The last year or so I have been reading that the arctic is warming as the antarctic is cooling.

Also, there is a lot of volcanic activity under the arctic right now.

[muawiyah]

The USA alone had half the standalone weather stations and we let virtually all of them fall into disrepair while waiting for weather satellites to be launched and put into operation.

During that period the reported temperature WENT UP.

We've had numerous threads on FR regarding those damaged weather stations. NASA has responded by simply dropping the data from the worst of them. They dropped all of Latin America and Africa for pretty much the same reason. Then there's the Ocean ~ no one really knows do they?! (heavy drum beats dum dum ~ dum dum ~ dum dum dum dum)

[allmost]

NASA has responded by simply dropping the data from the worst of them.

'Worst' being whatever they want it to mean. Ignore the data that doesn't suit them, maybe I can get them to pay me to maintain a temperature gauge near my exhaust pipe.

[Charles Martel]

..maybe I can get them to pay me to maintain a temperature gauge near my exhaust pipe.

That sounds uncomfortable. ;-)

[RJL]

I've read reports that this study is using data and assumptions from Mann's widely discredited “Hockey Stick” study. The same crap in a different shoe doesn't lend a lot of credibility to this study.

[allmost]

Let it cool down, take a peek, make sure the check clears, send Venus temperatures to the ministry of truth.

[backhoe]

( Yes, I know th' bleedin' penguin isn't native- he was airlifted in by Newfies... )

[Straight Vermonter]

Nicely debunked here. As the mythbusters say, "warning, science content."

[wita]

Amen, when the vikings are growing tomatoes in Greenland, call me.

AP, when it comes to trust, what trust, they will print anything, the broad brush gets it.

[Steve Van Doorn]

Well, What do you know! They are right!