If It Lasts

clipped from www.foresight.org One thing that Climategate does is give us an opportunity to step back from the details of the AGW argument and say, maybe these are heat-of-the-moment stuff, and in the long run will look as silly as the Durants’ allergy to Eisenhower. And perhaps, if we can put climate arguments in perspective, it will allow us to put the much smaller nano arguments (pun intended) into perspective too. So let’s look at some ice. I’m looking at the temperature record as read from this central Greenland ice core. So what does it tell us about, say, the past 500 years? Well, whaddaya know — a hockey stick.  In fact, the “blade” continues up in the 20th century at least another half a degree.  But how long is the handle? How unprecedented is the current warming trend? Yes, Virginia, there was a Medieval Warm Period But was the MWP itself unusual? Well, no the trend over the past 4000 years is a marked decline. the current warming trend simply represents a return to the mean.  If it lasts.