RCEC Email 4.16.03
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This document summarizes a new 1,000 year climate study that finds: 1) The 20th century was likely not the warmest century nor an unusually extreme climate period of the last 1,000 years based on a review of over 200 climate studies. 2) Periods like the Medieval Warm Period from around 800-1300 CE and Little Ice Age from around 1400-1900 CE showed that regions worldwide experienced warmer and colder periods than the 20th century. 3) Proxy climate data provides evidence against claims that 20th century warming was unusual, instead showing climate naturally varies on century-long timescales.
![ARMSnT
Unilateral and Ric ht
By James K. Glassman
When the war in Iraq ends, a renei ed clamor for the United States to back
harsh restrictions on carbon-dioxid - emissions will begin.
The reasons are obvious. Environ entalists, politicians and editorialists in
the U.S. will complain that, if only t e Bush Administration had been more
".multilateral" and had backed the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, more
Europeans would have joined our military campaign against Saddam
Hussein.
Tony Blair, our strongest overseas ally, has bitterly criticized U.S.
opposition to Kyoto - partly to prove to home audiences that he is no
lapdog of George W. Bush. It's likE ly that he'll also want to patch things up
with France and Germany by using some of his political capital with Bush
to push the White House to adopt neasures to fight climate change.
Key international meetings in Cancun and Florence this fall will be the
battleground for the final assault by Greens and their allies to convince
Americans to join Kyoto, or somet ing like it.
That's why a new study, funded in part by NASA and announced in a
Harvard University press release on Monday, is so important. The study
concludes that, contrary to popula, belief, "Many records reveal that the
20th century is likely not the warm 9st nor a uniquely extreme climatic
period of the last millennium" [em hasis in the study].
The conclusion comes from "a review of more than 200 climate studies led
by researchers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics." The
researchers were Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas of the Harvard-
Smithsonian Center; Craig ldso arid Sherwood Idso of the Center for the
Study of Carbon Dioxide and Glb al Change at Tempe, Ariz.; and David R.
Legates of the Center for Climatic Research at the University of Delaware.
Baliunas is also deputy director of the Mt. Wilson Observatory in California
and co-host of TechCentralStation, to which Soon is a regular contributor.
In the press release distributed b~Harvard, Soon is quoted as saying:
"Many true research advances in reconstructing ancient climates have
occurred over the past two decad 3s, so we felt it was time to pull together a
large sample of recent studies fron the last five to ten years and look for](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/cos9-091021122246-phpapp01/85/RCEC-Email-4-16-03-3-320.jpg)
![the Medieval Warm Period, with a not, ble but minor re-advance between 1050 and
1150.... The world's small glaciers anc tropical glaciers have simultaneously
retreated since the 19th century, but some glaciers have advanced." Soon
and his colleagues cite the work of D. J. A. Evans, who "commented that
significant warming phases, especially those accompanied by relatively
warm winters and cool summers, diring intergiacials [like the current
period] may lead to the onset of an )ther global glaciation."
So, melting glaciers are not unique to the industrial era, and they could
signal a period of growing, not retr ating, glaciers to come.
The evidence of earlier warming is not new. But, as Baliunas says, "For a
long time, researchers have posse sed anecdotal evidence supporting the
existence of these climate extremes. For example, the Vikings established
colonies in Greenland at the begini ing of the second millennium that died
out several hundred years later wh an the climate turned colder. And in
England, vineyards had flourished during the medieval warmth. Now, we
have an accumulation of objective data to back up these cultural
indicators."
The data were from ice cores, tree -ring samples and other methods. And
the results are clear: Despite our modern hubris, we aren't the only humans
to experience a warmer earth. It makes sense, then, to view with
skepticism the claims that we hayE caused major changes in climate.
Observers such as Bjorn Lomborg the Danish statistician and author of
The Skeptical Environmentalist, start their critique by accepting the notion
that the earth is warming and that humans play a key role. Lomborg argues
that trying to fix the problem with huge expenditures or cutbacks that will
reduce economic growth is far too costly for the meager benefits that will
ensue from Kyoto's strictures.
Yes, but now Soon and the other esearchers are showing the shakiness of
Kyoto's foundation. The strong im lication of their work is that warming is
probably natural and cyclical. It he ppens all the time, and there is not much
we can do about it. Nor can we pr Idict its course with much accuracy.
What's needed now - and we cer inly have the time - is more research.
Risking havoc with the world eco omy, especially in this fragile period,
would be foolish and dangerous. Kyoto has been moved to the back
burner, mainly by the U.S. and developing countries. That's where it
belongs.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/cos9-091021122246-phpapp01/85/RCEC-Email-4-16-03-5-320.jpg)
RCEC Email 4.16.03
- 1. "Watson, Harlan L (COES)" cWatsanHL~state.gav> ~J 04/16/2003 06:18:22 PM Record Type: Record To: Phil Gooney/CEQDIEOP@EOP, Kenneth L. PeE I/CEQ/EOP@EOP cc: as well as Jim Glassman's April 3 Subject: New 1,000 year climate study from Willie Socr and Sallie Baliunas Tech Cenytral Station Article lITATNR A-tr 4 IL-attl.htm AWS Apr7-1lOO0year publish#3OFCF pdf 1OO0year ex glassmafl piece~doc -umryd
- 2. AR~MS 3$T 3 Was the 2 0th Ce tury Climate Unusual? Willie Soor and Sallie Baliunas Summary 1,0 Oyear climate Study I-This report examines the repeated claim thE t the climate of the century was unusual 20 th compared with those of the last 1000 years. The claim takes several forms e.g., that the - 2 0 th century has been warmer than any other ce itury, that the 1990s were the warmest decade of the millennium, or that 1998 was the warmest year of the millennium. These claims imply that the temperature of he pastl1000years is known well enough to allow a comparison of the 2 Qth century with the previous centuries, decades and individual years. This is not the case. A sufficiently complete set of direct temperature measurements to allow computation of global average temperature is only available since 1861 and there are many reasons to question the accuracy of the record. For earlier periods it is possible to use proxy information, e.g., tree growth, the isotopic composition of corals and ice cores, to esti ate local climate information, sometimes including local temperature. However, the proxy data are far too incomp ete - both in spatial coverage and in temperature information - to allow a realistic estimation of a global surface temperature. The most widely quoted effort to reconstruct the temperature of the Northern Hemisphere for the last 1000 years depends heavily on a single set of tree gro th data from the Western U.S., and the assumption that the differences in temperature between the Western U.S. and the rest of the Northern Hemisphere for the last millennium were the same as they were in the 2O1h century. This is an unrealistic assumption, because it is well d cumented that such local climate trends are not uniform over areas as large as a hemisphere While proxy data cannot be used to reconstruct the global average climate of the last 1000 years, they do provide a basis for comparing the climate of the 2 0th century to the climate of the preceding 900 years within individual locati ns. A survey of the scientific literature found that it was possible to identify a 50-year period inwhich temperatures were warmer than any 50-year period in the 201"century in most of the locations of the climate proxies. These results offer strong evidence that the climate of the 2 0th century was not unusual, but fell within the range experienced during the past 1000 years. The proxy data also offer strong support for the existence of: * the Medieval Warm Period, aperiod of varmer temperatures, which lasted from about 800 to 1300 G. E. * the LittlelIce Age, aperiod of colder terrperatures, which lasted from about1400 to aslate as 1900 C.E in some regions.. The recovery from the Little Ice Age may a( count for some of the warming experienced during the early 2Oth century, especially early in thE century. The existence of periods like the Medieval I arm Period and the Little Ice Age suggests that local climate varies on century-long time sc ales, a result that cannot be easily inferred f rom the much shorter thermometry records. The available scientific evidence does not support the claim that the climate of the 2 0th century in many locations around the globe was unusual when compared to the climate of the previous 900 years.
- 3. ARMSnT Unilateral and Ric ht By James K. Glassman When the war in Iraq ends, a renei ed clamor for the United States to back harsh restrictions on carbon-dioxid - emissions will begin. The reasons are obvious. Environ entalists, politicians and editorialists in the U.S. will complain that, if only t e Bush Administration had been more ".multilateral" and had backed the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, more Europeans would have joined our military campaign against Saddam Hussein. Tony Blair, our strongest overseas ally, has bitterly criticized U.S. opposition to Kyoto - partly to prove to home audiences that he is no lapdog of George W. Bush. It's likE ly that he'll also want to patch things up with France and Germany by using some of his political capital with Bush to push the White House to adopt neasures to fight climate change. Key international meetings in Cancun and Florence this fall will be the battleground for the final assault by Greens and their allies to convince Americans to join Kyoto, or somet ing like it. That's why a new study, funded in part by NASA and announced in a Harvard University press release on Monday, is so important. The study concludes that, contrary to popula, belief, "Many records reveal that the 20th century is likely not the warm 9st nor a uniquely extreme climatic period of the last millennium" [em hasis in the study]. The conclusion comes from "a review of more than 200 climate studies led by researchers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics." The researchers were Willie Soon and Sallie Baliunas of the Harvard- Smithsonian Center; Craig ldso arid Sherwood Idso of the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Glb al Change at Tempe, Ariz.; and David R. Legates of the Center for Climatic Research at the University of Delaware. Baliunas is also deputy director of the Mt. Wilson Observatory in California and co-host of TechCentralStation, to which Soon is a regular contributor. In the press release distributed b~Harvard, Soon is quoted as saying: "Many true research advances in reconstructing ancient climates have occurred over the past two decad 3s, so we felt it was time to pull together a large sample of recent studies fron the last five to ten years and look for
- 4. patterns of variability and change. "in fact, clear patterns did emerge showing that regions worldwide experienced the highs of the Medieval Warm Period and lows of the Little Ice Age, and that 20th century ternperatures are generally cooler than during the medieval warmth." These findings are vital to the deb teover the Kyoto agreement since the premise for cuffing back on greenhouse-gas emissions is that humans played a significant role in heating up the Earth during the 20th Century. But Soon and his colleagues confi med that a warm epoch appeared in various parts of the world from about 900 to 1000 A.D. through about 1200 to 1300 A.D., during which temper tures were greater than those of the 20th Century. Needless to say, there were no SL Vs 1,000 years ago. Other warm periods are also identifled in the study. For example, the researchers ask, "Was the warmth of the 1980s in western Europe exceptional or unusual?" Not at all They cite the respected climate sc olar H. H. Lamb, who wrote that "even the great warmth of the years 1989/1991, hailed in some quarters as proof of the reality of the predicted glob- I warming due to the enhancement of the greenhouse effect by increasi g carbon dioxide and other effluents... may have a surprising analogy inthe past to the remarkable warmth - well attested in Europe - of the year 1540, shortly before the sharpest onset of the so-called Lit le Ice Age." In the first week of January 1541, Lamb wrote that "young pe pie were still bathing in the Rhine on the Swiss-German border." The point here is that warm periods don't necessarily precede warmer periods. They may precede colder ones. We just don't know enough about climate to make predictions, and il would be folly to spend between $150 billion and $400 billion a year - thE estimates for Kyoto-style mitigation - on the flimsy evidence of warming th t currently exists. The study also casts doubt on the sort of thin anecdotal evidence often cited by the media to show that th )planet is heating up in unusual fashion. For example, the New York Times is obsessed with retreating glaciers, but they are not a new phenomenon. "Broadly," write the scholars, "gla iers retreated all over the world during
- 5. the Medieval Warm Period, with a not, ble but minor re-advance between 1050 and 1150.... The world's small glaciers anc tropical glaciers have simultaneously retreated since the 19th century, but some glaciers have advanced." Soon and his colleagues cite the work of D. J. A. Evans, who "commented that significant warming phases, especially those accompanied by relatively warm winters and cool summers, diring intergiacials [like the current period] may lead to the onset of an )ther global glaciation." So, melting glaciers are not unique to the industrial era, and they could signal a period of growing, not retr ating, glaciers to come. The evidence of earlier warming is not new. But, as Baliunas says, "For a long time, researchers have posse sed anecdotal evidence supporting the existence of these climate extremes. For example, the Vikings established colonies in Greenland at the begini ing of the second millennium that died out several hundred years later wh an the climate turned colder. And in England, vineyards had flourished during the medieval warmth. Now, we have an accumulation of objective data to back up these cultural indicators." The data were from ice cores, tree -ring samples and other methods. And the results are clear: Despite our modern hubris, we aren't the only humans to experience a warmer earth. It makes sense, then, to view with skepticism the claims that we hayE caused major changes in climate. Observers such as Bjorn Lomborg the Danish statistician and author of The Skeptical Environmentalist, start their critique by accepting the notion that the earth is warming and that humans play a key role. Lomborg argues that trying to fix the problem with huge expenditures or cutbacks that will reduce economic growth is far too costly for the meager benefits that will ensue from Kyoto's strictures. Yes, but now Soon and the other esearchers are showing the shakiness of Kyoto's foundation. The strong im lication of their work is that warming is probably natural and cyclical. It he ppens all the time, and there is not much we can do about it. Nor can we pr Idict its course with much accuracy. What's needed now - and we cer inly have the time - is more research. Risking havoc with the world eco omy, especially in this fragile period, would be foolish and dangerous. Kyoto has been moved to the back burner, mainly by the U.S. and developing countries. That's where it belongs.
- 6. But it might not stay there. Policymnakej s need to pay attention to the facts - especially after the war ends and er vironmental extremists start applying the real heat.