Back to Plimer - Chapter 2 - HISTORY

I've quoted Plimer and posted some vids before. But now it's time to quote a few of the gems from the chapters of Heaven and Earth: global warming the missing science that I've read, so far. (Admittedly, it's taking me forever to read it. I spend way too much time on the net.) Some of it is pretty scary, like the following, from the chapter on "History":

"Evidence suggests that the shift from interglacial to glacial conditions occurred in only 400 years." (pg.37)

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"The change from warmth to the bitter cold of the Younger Dryas took less than 100 years and maybe only a decade." (pg. 43)

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"It appears that the end of the Younger Dryas took place over 40-50 years in three different steps, each about five years duration. Other data indicates a warming of 7 degrees C in only a few years, half of the warming taking place in a 15-year period. Such a warming rate is far higher than even the most alarmist catastrophic warming suggested by models of human-induced global warming." (pg. 46)

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"Climate change is a powerful causal agent for the evolution of civilization. Global cooling is generally associated with a collapse of civilization, whereas global warming is associated with great advances in civilization." (pg. 55)

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"History shows us that global warming gives us nothing to fear. If we need to fear something, then the best candidate is a global mega-drought associated with cooling and driven by solar activity. It's happened before and it will happen again." (pg. 55)

Yikes!

"The Vikings, who were already great mariners, sailed north and west and established settlements in Greenland, Iceland and North America....The ice-free North Atlantic meant that the Vikings could travel and they called Newfoundland "vinland" because of the vineyards there. Cattle, sheep and barley were grown in Greenland, tree roots could penetrate soil that was once tundra, fishing for cod and seals took place on ice-free seas, burials could be undertaken in soils that were not frozen, villages were established and the Pope sent a bishop to Greenland to care for his Norse flock." (pg. 65)

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"The Doomsday Book of England shows where grapes were grown, in places where no grapes could now be cultivated for wine production. England, now a cool damp place, was warmer and drier in the Medieval Warming. England thrived and its population grew from 1.4 million to 5.5 million. France's population tripled to 18 million.

Vineyards in Germany were up to 780 metres above sea level whereas today the maximum altitude is 560 metres above sea level. Temperature usually decreases by 0.6 to 0.7 per 100 metres of altitude gained, so the average mean temperature must have been 1.0 to 1.4 degrees C warmer than now. Settlements, land clearing and farming in valleys and slopes spread 100 to 200 metres higher in altitude in Norway, again suggesting that summer temperatures were 1 degree C higher than now. Tree lines moved upslope in the Medieval Warming and the stumps and roots are still preserved above the current tree line in many alpine areas. Stumps and logs of Larix sibirica 30 metres above the current tree line in the Polar Urals have been dated and show that at 1000 AD the tree line was higher than now. This treeline receded around 1350 AD, indicating the effects of the following Little Ice Age." (pg. 65-66)

Many of the CO2 alarmists have claimed past warming was localized to northern latitudes, but sorry pals, it ain't so.

"Examination or temperature indicators in boreholes in Australia has given a 500-year record of temperature. The 17th Century was the coolest in the 500 year period, with warming in the 19th and 20th Centuries. The warming of Australia over the past five centuries is only about half that experienced by the continents of the Northern Hemisphere. More importantly, the Australian and South Pacific data shows that the Little Ice Age was global. This is contrary to the suggestion that the Little Ice Age was restricted to the Northern Hemisphere and was caused by a weakening in the Gulf Stream. Stalagmites in a cave in the Makapansgat Valley of South Africa show that the region was 1 degree C cooler from 1300 to 1800 AD. The lowest temperatures recorded in South Africa were in the Maunder and Sporer Minima. Again it is clear that the Little Ice Age was global and not regional." (pg. 80)

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"The Little Ice Age brought famine, disease, death, depopulation, war and social disintegration. The previous cooling, the Dark Ages, did the same. Over the last 1000 years in Europe, there is a correlation between violence, conflict, cold weather and precipitation. Cold times bring violence, war, depopulation and human misery." (pg. 86)

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"The evidence from history, archaeology and science is overwhelming. It shows substantial changes in climate over the last 130,000 years. Many of these changes are cyclical and coincidental with solar cycles. These changes are rapid. The evidence from geology is also overwhelming. Since the explosion of multicellular life (at 542 Ma) [Ed: "Ma" means "million years ago"], there were times when Earth was far colder and far warmer than now. It also includes times when atmospheric CO2 was far higher than now. (pg. 86)"

And that's just a tiny smattering of the gems referred to in Chapter 2 of Plimer's book, which cites 400 historical and scientific sources. But perhaps the best of the best is his final sentence on page 99:

"History cannot be rewritten just because it does not fit a computer model with a pre-ordained conclusion."

Take that, Saskboy. I'd like to see you, or for that matter, Brad Wall go mano-mano with Ian Plimer.

Next up. Chapter 3 THE SUN. You'll have to wait until tomorrow, though.