Space/Science — HabitableZone

Space/Science » in reply to "We are still in the midst of the third major cooling period that began around 3 million years ago..."

re: "We are still in the midst of the third major cooling period that began around 3 million years ago..."
gbaikie — (archived)

"So what you're saying is that this "major, 3Myr cooling period" has been stopped in its tracks and reversed in just a few centuries by non-existent global warming?"

"Indeed it was so warm that trees grew in both the Arctic and Antarctic, and alligators lived in Ellesmere Island at 78 degrees North."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ellesmere_Island.svg


No, what I'm saying is we are living in a period of global warming which has been lasting about 10,000 year. About two centuries ago we were in a period called the Little Ice Age, and I would say that we are significantly warmer than compared to Little Ice Age. Compared to a thousand year ago, it's most likely that average global temperature was warmer than the present- but it's possible that the warmest time during this period [called the Medieval Warm Period] could been about the same or even lower than today's temperature or could also be possible that global temperatures reached 1 or 2 C higher than current global temperature.
But neither now, nor likely within a few centuries are we going to have warming to such extant that alligators can live on Ellesmere Island. We aren't going to have alligators living in NewFoundland, either. When oranges can grow [without a greenhouse] in Oregon, let me know.

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