[Zon]

In graph 1-6 (see post 45) showing 3 million years (time is reversed, that is, the left side is present day, the right three million years past) is looks like our present interglacial spike is well within the normal duration. In graph 1-5 the right most spike at 400 kyr is about the same duration as our present day interglacial.

IIRC the reason for greater abundance of temperature points plotted for more recent times is due to the overlay of more independent ice-core studies.

[3niner]

...looks like our present interglacial spike is well within the normal duration.

True. Interglacial periods last for up to 20,000 years. Our current interglacial period has lasted for about 18,000 years.

[ForGod'sSake]

IIRC the reason for greater abundance of temperature points plotted for more recent times is due to the overlay of more independent ice-core studies.

Well FWIW, I took a quick look around this Muller's site to get a sense of where he stands on the global warming "issue". He sortof gave tacit approval(since he didn't offer a rebuttal I was able to find) to the "Humans Are Killing the Planet" scam. That said, I think his graphs(with the exception of Fig. 1-6) are, well, kukka. Maybe(probably?) designed to obscure what's actually happening recently with world temps. JMO of course.

This set of graphs and following comments from HERE are a lot cleaner(fewer points I gather) and actually suggest a dip(???) from the latest peak on the 150kya(2nd) graph:

Temperatures over the last 1 million, 150 thousand, 16 thousand and 150 years

Here "ka" is an abbreviation for "thousands of years ago". These temperatures are estimated by various methods; I got this chart from:

• Barry Saltzman, Dynamical Paleoclimatology: Generalized Theory of Global Climate Change, Academic Press, New York, 2002, fig. 3-4.

As we keep zooming in towards the present we keep seeing more detail:

• Over the last million years there have been about ten Ice Ages - though counting Ice Ages is a bit like counting "really deep valleys" in a hilly landscape.
• From 150 to 120 thousand years ago it warmed up rather rapidly. From 120 thousand years ago to 16 thousand years ago it cooled down - that was the last Ice Age. Then it warmed up rather rapidly again.
• Over the last 10 thousand years temperatures have been unusually constant.