Arctic current warmer than for 2,000 years: study

Yahoo ^ | 1/28/11 | Alister Doyle - Reuters

[NormsRevenge]

OSLO (Reuters) – A North Atlantic current flowing into the Arctic Ocean is warmer than for at least 2,000 years in a sign that global warming is likely to bring ice-free seas around the North Pole in summers, a study showed.

Scientists said that waters at the northern end of the Gulf Stream, between Greenland and the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, averaged 6 degrees Celsius (42.80F) in recent summers, warmer than at natural peaks during Roman or Medieval times.

"The temperature is unprecedented in the past 2,000 years," lead author Robert Spielhagen of the Academy of Sciences, Humanities and Literature in Mainz, Germany, told Reuters of the study in Friday's edition of the journal Science.

The summer water temperatures, reconstructed from the makeup of tiny organisms buried in sediments in the Fram strait, have risen from an average 5.2 degrees Celsius (41.36F) from 1890-2007 and about 3.4C (38.12F) in the previous 1,900 years.

The findings were a new sign that human activities were stoking modern warming since temperatures are above past warm periods linked to swings in the sun's output that enabled, for instance, the Vikings to farm in Greenland in Medieval times.

"We found that modern Fram Strait water temperatures are well outside the natural bounds," Thomas Marchitto, of the University of Colorado at Boulder, one of the authors, said in a statement.

The Fram strait is the main carrier of ocean heat to the Arctic.

[NormsRevenge]

The summer water temperatures, reconstructed from the makeup of tiny organisms buried in sediments in the Fram strait, have risen from an average 5.2 degrees Celsius (41.36F) from 1890-2007 and about 3.4C (38.12F) in the previous 1,900 years.

—

tiny organisms buried in sediment?

Hmmmm.

[Adams]

And just what type of high-tech thermometers were they using 2,000 years ago to establish that benchmark temp?

[yoe]

...then the Ice Age is really coming to a close?

[NorCoGOP]

They also had predicted that all the ice would have melted by 2006...

Glad to see their past performance isn't hindering future predictions...

Globull warmers - contemporary versions of the 1800-1900 "world is coming to an end" doomsayers.

[fireforeffect]

Or a new one is starting.

Open water in the Arctic can cause excessive snow in Canada and Russia. This is one of the scenarios for the start of an ice age.

[jd777]

This is propaganda not science - It’s the coldest winter in over a decade throughout the northern Hemisphere.

[San Jacinto]

0The summer water temperatures, reconstructed from the makeup of tiny organisms buried in sediments in the Fram strait, have risen from an average 5.2 degrees Celsius (41.36F) from 1890-2007 and about 3.4C (38.12F) in the previous 1,900 years.

Thanks for the laugh, guy.

[Wuli]

“The summer water temperatures, reconstructed from the makeup of tiny organisms buried in sediments in the Fram strait”

This can only construct postulated temperatures, not actual temperatures as they were and the difference between the accuracy of those postulates and the actual temperatures can be as great as the 0.8 degree difference claimed to have occurred in the last 2,000 years.

[DTogo]

Indeed, tell us more about those Viking deep sea thermometers...

[mmercier]

You beat me to it.

I suspect they are using plankton deposits in sediment.

[San Jacinto]

And just what type of high-tech thermometers were they using 2,000 years ago to establish that benchmark temp?

Apparently, very, very small ones. Those tiny organisms couldn't carry a big one.

[utahagen]

Exactamundo!

In 2006, Al Gore said on Oprah, “Beijing will be underwater in fifteen years.” Please, Freepers, let's keep reminding people about this.

[DrDavid]

Look here for more scientific debate on this “discovery”

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/01/27/the-north-atlantic-heat-is-on/

[pissant]

These morons will never give up.

[Wuli]

“We found that modern Fram Strait water temperatures are well outside the natural bounds,”

So, their “natural bounds” are found only in the last 2,000 years?? Major actual climate change cycles occur within a 2,000 year range, not over a greater range?

The term “natural bonds” in this context is evidence of a lack of scientific rigor as well as a lack of honesty. It goes with writing about science to fit a political agenda.

[BigBobber]

I wish this guy would try swimming in 42 def F water. He could tell us how small his micro organisms got when he hit the water.

[pointsal]

Where is Al Gore and his current squeeze these days?

[Williams]

Yeah I was wondering where they got a precise measurement of ocean currents flowing to the arctic during the Roman Empire and medieval periods.

[dogcaller]

This is good news, indeed. With the cold winter this year and the heavy New England snows I have been worried about a new Ice Age. The thought of all the Democrats up north fleeing from the mile thick ice sheet and moving down here to the south is a frightening prospect.