One of the inconvenient facts for climate hysterics is that there is lots of evidence that it has been much warmer on Earth in the period before there was any possibility that human emissions of CO2 could have had any impact. The obvious problem for the hysterics is that it appears that natural cycles of warming and cooling will produce whatever limited warming we are experiencing now. A post at Watts Up With That describes the recent discovery at a receding glacier of a very large fossil tree at a very high altitude. The tree could obviously not have grown there in anything like today’s climate, indicating that around 6000 years ago, the age of the tree fossil, it was far warmer in this area. The scientist talking about this discovery further notes that in a number of European countries the public has developed a jaundiced view of climate hysteria, with a majority believing that any warmth is part of a natural cycle. (WUWT Post)
A basic math concept taught from elementary arithmetic, though algebra, geometry and beyond is reconciling and proving your math answer. Geometry has proofs, Algebra after solving the equation, you work the problem backwards to make you get the same answer.
The basic principle of reconciling the answer with other known facts is poorly adhered to in climate science, especially in the paleo arena.
As noted in kevin’s post above, there are far too many proxy reconstructions that dont reconcile to other known facts. Historical tree line elevations that dont reconcile to the proxies; tree stumps uncovered by receding glaciers, species of food crops grown during the MWP in greenland that cant grow there today, Citrus trees in china growing 300km north of their present day range during the mwp. All examples of individual proxy reconstructions that dont reconcile to other known biological facts.
A book I read last summer was ‘the history of climate ” which dealt primarily with the history of weather in Europe from circa 1000 ad through the late 1800’s, with considerable contemporaneous records of wine harvest info dates quantities, etc.
One chapter dealt with the glacier advances during the little ice age. Several glaciers had very rapid advances, one of which in the Chamonix region of France advancing approx 1.5 miles destroying homes and farm buildings. That level of glacial advance in 40-60 years requires a temp drop of 2.0c+. The proxy reconstructions in that region show less than a 1.0c temp difference. As noted in my other comment to this post, the paleo climate scientists do a very poor job of reconciling the work with other known events.