Comment Smoke and Mirrors... (Score 1) 1044
I won't get into the longer term, as that may be a legitimate debate. However, this "warmest in the last 400 years" crap is misleading rhetoric. The reason the earth is warmer now is that the earth has been in an "Ice Age" for the last 400 years and is now starting to come out of it.
Before you read this article, you should first read up on the "Mini Ice Age": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Ice_Age. After you read it, you will see that articles like this are just unethical media outlets attempting to conjure up a story by preying on the stupid and uninformed.
This type of comparison is exactly the same as comparing a car going 10 mph to a car going 1 mph by saying "That 10mph car can go REALLY fast. It is 10x faster than other cars."
Here are the key points from the above article:
"The Little Ice Age (LIA) was a period of cooling lasting approximately from the 14th to the mid-19th centuries, although there is no generally agreed start or end date: some confine the period to 1550-1850. This cooler period occurs after a warmer era known as the Medieval climate optimum. There were three minima, beginning about 1650, about 1770, and 1850, each separated by slight warming intervals."
"There is no agreed beginning year to the Little Ice Age, although there are a frequently referenced series of events preceding the known climatic minima. Starting in the 13th century, pack ice began advancing southwards in the North Atlantic, as well as glaciers in Greenland. The three years of torrential rains beginning in 1315 ushered in an era of unpredictable weather in Northern Europe which did not lift until the 19th century. There is anecdotal evidence of expanding glaciers almost worldwide, but a climate reconstruction based on glacial length shows no great variation from 1600 to 1850, though it shows strong retreat thereafter. For this reason, scholars tend to use any of several dates ranging over 400 years for the beginning of the Little Ice Age:
1250 for when Atlantic pack ice began to grow
1300 for when warm summers stopped being dependable in Northern Europe
1315 for the rains and Great Famine of 1315-1317
1550 for theorized beginning of worldwide glacial expansion
1650 for the first climatic minimum."
"Causes: Scientists have identified two causes of the Little Ice Age from outside the ocean/atmosphere/land systems: decreased solar activity and increased volcanic activity. Research is ongoing on more ambiguous influences such as internal variability of the climate system, and anthropogenic influence (Ruddiman). Ruddiman has speculated that depopulation of Europe during the Black Death, with the resulting decrease in agricultural output and reforestation taking up more carbon from the atmosphere, may have prolonged the Little Ice Age."
Before you read this article, you should first read up on the "Mini Ice Age": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Ice_Age. After you read it, you will see that articles like this are just unethical media outlets attempting to conjure up a story by preying on the stupid and uninformed.
This type of comparison is exactly the same as comparing a car going 10 mph to a car going 1 mph by saying "That 10mph car can go REALLY fast. It is 10x faster than other cars."
Here are the key points from the above article:
"The Little Ice Age (LIA) was a period of cooling lasting approximately from the 14th to the mid-19th centuries, although there is no generally agreed start or end date: some confine the period to 1550-1850. This cooler period occurs after a warmer era known as the Medieval climate optimum. There were three minima, beginning about 1650, about 1770, and 1850, each separated by slight warming intervals."
"There is no agreed beginning year to the Little Ice Age, although there are a frequently referenced series of events preceding the known climatic minima. Starting in the 13th century, pack ice began advancing southwards in the North Atlantic, as well as glaciers in Greenland. The three years of torrential rains beginning in 1315 ushered in an era of unpredictable weather in Northern Europe which did not lift until the 19th century. There is anecdotal evidence of expanding glaciers almost worldwide, but a climate reconstruction based on glacial length shows no great variation from 1600 to 1850, though it shows strong retreat thereafter. For this reason, scholars tend to use any of several dates ranging over 400 years for the beginning of the Little Ice Age:
1250 for when Atlantic pack ice began to grow
1300 for when warm summers stopped being dependable in Northern Europe
1315 for the rains and Great Famine of 1315-1317
1550 for theorized beginning of worldwide glacial expansion
1650 for the first climatic minimum."
"Causes: Scientists have identified two causes of the Little Ice Age from outside the ocean/atmosphere/land systems: decreased solar activity and increased volcanic activity. Research is ongoing on more ambiguous influences such as internal variability of the climate system, and anthropogenic influence (Ruddiman). Ruddiman has speculated that depopulation of Europe during the Black Death, with the resulting decrease in agricultural output and reforestation taking up more carbon from the atmosphere, may have prolonged the Little Ice Age."
