Global Warming: Medieval Era Hotter than Today

The London Telegraph ^ | 06/04/2003) | Robert Matthews

[jpl]

Areas throughout the northeaast are expected to get 6-8 inches of snow today.

[NYCRebublican]

IT looks like Al Gore was right. Bovine feces must be regulated. Look what the deregulation of bovine feces did to the Middle Ages.

[bert]

.....Thats what I love about this website.....

As a pretty fair student of world history, I must confess my failing and debt to FR for enlightening me on the previously unknown notion that there was even the possibility of war between Vikings and Eskimos.

We live, We learn....

[eddiespaghetti]

Am I mistaken in recalling that the Vikings settled Greenland when it was relatively "green", and disappeared after the "little ice age" set in, due apparently to isolation, disease, and possibly eskimo attack?

I believe that during the "Medieaval Optimum" (period of warming) Greenland was warm enough to raise cattle there; after 1300 or so, the place was not an economically viable place to live.

es

[marron]

I don't honestly know if there was ever any war between the vikings and the eskimos. No one was there to record the final days of the Vikings on Greenland. Some people have theorized that there could have been some kind of conflict between them toward the end, but I'm not sure what kind of evidence exists to support that. Its just a theory.

Really, it seems to have been malnutrition which led to disease which brought about the end of the Vikings there. The malnutrition presumably was caused by bad harvests, which presumably was caused by the worsening climate (the "little ice age").

The whole subject of eskimo attacks is tangential, and I'm not sure how we got off on that. The eskimos seem not to have been there when the Scandinavians arrived, although they seem to have had some contact with them later. I think everything else is just conjecture.

The point is, the climate was warmer when Greenland was settled, and they were able to live by traditional agriculture. Then the climate got worse over time, traditional agriculture no longer could support them, and the settlements there died out.

Thus, it seems, global temperatures vary over a period of several centuries. If global warming progressed to a point such that traditional agriculture could again be undertaken in Greenland, it would not necessarily portend the end of life on earth as we know it.


http://www.discover.com/mar_00/featvanished.html
Vanished Vikings

[Frumious Bandersnatch]

Last year, scientists working for the UK Climate Impacts Programme said that global temperatures were "the hottest since records began" and added: "We are pretty sure that climate change due to human activity is here and it's accelerating."

It has been well known for the longest time that Greenland was a whole lot warmer during the Middle ages.  The reason it was basically abandoned was due to the onslaught of the little ice age.

[Terriergal]

ping #5 for direct link to article.

[Francohio]

Sorry, I got carried away. Won't happen again. I suppose this means I can't wear my AL Gore T-shirt to antiwar rallies?

[Bommer]

Your right, but it was Thatcher that got it to take off into the mainstream!

[Kenno]

A professor of mine stated that there is more evidence for a coming Ice Age than for global warming. I've heard the same elsewhere, and also that we may have avoided one at the end of the Middle Ages only by creating waste heat in the Industrial Revolution. So if the greenies get their way, the Ice Age might come after all.

[cogitator]

I mean, tree-rings and all are very nice, but how many 500 year old trees are there, in Europe, especially. And you have to cut the tree down to study its rings, no? I mean, really, when was the thermometer invented, anyway? When did we start keeping regular records of weather, accurate or not? Were there monks who kepts logs, even without measuring devices, "it's hot today, it's cold today, it snowed today, etc."? My understanding is that weather "records" go back about 125 years at this point. I'm happy to be enlightened by any knowledgable freepers out there.

You don't have to cut down a tree to examine the rings; it can be cored.

Weather-station (thermometer) records commence about 1850, but wide-scale stations don't show up until the late 1800s.

Though monks didn't log temperatures, there is an interesting record in Europe that logged winter freeze dates. An icon of the Virgin Mary was carried across the lake at the earliest possible time, and retrieved the next time it was possible the next year. This record, and others similar to it, show that winter freeze arrives about 10 days later (on average) than it did 150 years ago.

[bobsatwork]

"This is not new research!!! "
Sure it is. A review of existing studies is research. If they just did the review, it's new. Besides, they make a valuable point.

[KayEyeDoubleDee]

A review of existing studies is research. If they just did the review, it's new. Besides, they make a valuable point.

Well, yea, but the article makes it sound like it is some kind of new concept, not an analysis of a wealth of existing data/arguments.

[KayEyeDoubleDee]

A professor of mine stated that there is more evidence for a coming Ice Age than for global warming.

according to historical cycles, we are due for another small ice age.

[Doctor Stochastic]

Bristlecone pines (some have even been cut down to study the rings) are about 3000 years old. Other growth rings can be obtained from creosote bushes in Utah among others. These form rings growing out from a center section which dies. The rings can be matched up for about 12000 years. Ice cores from Greenland can be matched to the tree rings.

The idea of overlapping isn't hard. For example rings like !|||||!!|| and |!!||!!|!|! can be overlapped by comparing the shifted overlaps. (|!!|| occurs in both.) One can find the maximum likelihood overlap.

[bert]

Thanks for the report. I was thinking that I should have considered the fact that there could have been conflict and it just never entered my mind. The thought is there if it ever comes up again.

Blam has got me interested in the forces of catastrophe and climate.

[SunkenCiv]

Greenland Ice Cap Is Melting, Raising Sea Level
Source: The Associated Press
Published: Jul 20, 2000 - 04:05 PM Author: By Paul Recer
Posted on 07/20/2000 14:37:50 PDT by Ms. AntiFeminazi
http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3977712e1941.htm

[SunkenCiv]

[The KG9 Kid]

That theory is still valid, and has had more support just recently.

Here's a graphic explaining how the Solar system is travelling through interstellar dust clouds presently:

We're actually moving out of a cloud of diffuse gas called 'The Local Bubble' that we've been hurtling through for several thousand years.

Google for 'The Local Bubble' to find out more.