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Friday, June 14, 2024

11 Extreme Cooling Events Over the Holocene

I wrote an article for Phys.org:

"Uncovering the prolonged cooling events of the Holocene," Phys.org, 6/13/24.

They were all caused by a group of volcanic eruptions over a short period of time (~decades) augmented by the ice-albedo feedback. Just like the Little Ice Age. The paper gives this graph for the 200-yr moving average of NH surface temperature of the last 6,000 years:


There were no prolonged natural warm periods.

4 comments:

  1. Great article! It's somewhat astounding that scientists can peer so far into the past with this level of resolution.

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  2. This was posted over on the /r/climatechange subreddit. The responses were disappointing and betray a real lack of curiosity.

    For example:

    "Lol, no one is saying that dips don't exist, the rapid increase that we see now, 0.234C per decade over the last 30 years, has not happened in the last 6,000 years."

    And

    "I agree that it's interesting, but it can also occlude the more important issue of what's going on in the present for the general public that doesn't really understand how to interpret research results."

    There seems to be a fear that engaging with science will somehow muddy the waters. It's baffling. It's more important to know something than to understand it.

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  3. So understanding the past "occludes" the present. Weird position to take on gaining knowledge. As if learning has to fix in a finite box.

    Thanks for the comment.

    ReplyDelete
  4. "So understanding the past "occludes" the present. Weird position to take on gaining knowledge."

    :) Well put.

    ReplyDelete