If You Think Today’s Temperatures Are Unprecedented, They Aren’t

The first chart below says it all, based on the best available evidence for what temperatures on earth have been like for the past 400,000 years or so, taking us through several glaciation cycles.  What should immediately catch your eye is that temperatures were higher for a few thousand years at the peak of each interglacial period than they have been during this one.  It would appear that if there is any human influence, it has cooled the extreme warmth typically found at those interglacial peaks.  But don’t tell the hysterics, wouldn’t want data to interfere with their blissful delusions.

Note also the fits and starts on the way down to the lowest temperatures during an ice age, and how cold it gets.  Humans are in deep shit when it starts getting cold.  Aside from the dangers of cold and hundreds of feet of ice on top on what are now heavily populated cities, the earth’s ability to produce adequate food will be severely diminished.  We should be thinking now about how we will compensate for the loss of heat and energy that has made this interglacial period allow humans to flourish.

The second chart gives the interglacial period temperature record reconstruction, a few hundred years of which has some actual recorded temperatures, but which in general just because of recency allows for more precise estimates.  On this chart you will also note that there can be significant swings over a few hundred years, but you might also be struck by the fact that last couple of thousand years show a downward trend line.  Unprecedented warmth indeed.  I would suggest that the most likely interpretation is that we are in the middle of one of those temporary spikes which will shortly reverse and continue a trend toward cooling, and which spike has nothing to do with CO2 levels, which appear as likely to follow as to lead temperature trends.