Skeptic Arguments and What the Science Says Claims about adaptation Claims about IPCC Claims about the sun Claims about other planets Claims about greenhouse gas Claims about climategate Claims about consensus Claims about temperature data Claims about predictions Claims about oceans Claims about Greenland Claims about cooling Claims about historical precedent Miscellaneous claims Claims about sea level rise Claims about other effects Learn more about debate mapping Claims about CO2 missing citation Polar regions no reference given no citation Volcano related Human related

Map Node  Claims about historical precedent url anchor

Question Node  What are the historical precedent arguments? url anchor

Answer Node  We didn't have global warming during the Industrial Revolution url anchor

Tags:  Industrial revolution, global warming, Historical precedent

Pro Node  In those days you couldn’t have seen across the street for all the carbon emissions and the crap coming out of the chimneys. url anchor

Why didn’t we have global warming during the Industrial Revolution? In those days you couldn’t have seen across the street for all the carbon emissions and the crap coming out of the chimneys. url anchor
Reference Node  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/3668379/Back-to-nature.html url anchor
Reference: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/3668379/Back-to-nature.html

Con Node  CO2 emissions were much smaller 100 years ago url anchor

Tags:  co2 emission
Reference Node  http://www.skepticalscience.com/Industrial-Revolution-global-warming.htm url anchor
Reference: http://www.skepticalscience.com/Industrial-Revolution-global-warming.htm

Note Node  Analogy url anchor

Answer Node  Arctic icemelt is a natural cycle url anchor

Tags:  Historical precedent, ice loss, arctic region

Pro Node  What you were not told was that the data that triggered this record is only available back to the late 1970s. We know the Northwest Passage had been open before url anchor

In 2007, the Northern Hemisphere reached a record low in ice coverage and the Northwest Passage was opened. At that point, we were told melting was occurring faster than expected. What you were not told was that the data that triggered this record is only available back to the late 1970s. We know the Northwest Passage had been open before url anchor
Reference Node  http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitalweathergang/2009/09/a_skeptical_perspective_on_glo.html url anchor
Reference: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitalweathergang/2009/09/a_skeptical_perspective_on_glo.html

Con Node  Thick arctic sea ice is undergoing a rapid retreat url anchor

Reference Node  http://www.skepticalscience.com/Arctic-sea-ice-melt-natural-or-man-made.htm url anchor
Reference: http://www.skepticalscience.com/Arctic-sea-ice-melt-natural-or-man-made.htm

Answer Node  It warmed before 1940 when CO2 was low url anchor

Tags:  Historical precedent

Pro Node  A cooling trend from 1940 to around 1975 came after what was described in the National Geographic as 'six decades of abnormal warmth'. url anchor

Of the rise in temperature during the 20th century, the bulk occurred from 1900 to 1940. It was followed by the aforementioned cooling trend from 1940 to around 1975. Yet the concentration of greenhouse gases was measurably higher in that later period than in the former. That drop in temperature came after what was described in the National Geographic as 'six decades of abnormal warmth'. url anchor
Tags:  National Geographic
Reference Node  http://www.ecolo.org/documents/documents_in_english/climate_change_Schlesinge.htm url anchor
Reference: http://www.ecolo.org/documents/documents_in_english/climate_change_Schlesinge.htm
Tags:  James Schlesinger

Con Node  Early 20th century warming is due to several causes, including rising CO2 url anchor

Tags:  warming trend, co2
Reference Node  http://www.skepticalscience.com/global-warming-early-20th-century.htm url anchor
Reference: http://www.skepticalscience.com/global-warming-early-20th-century.htm

Answer Node  It's a climate regime shift url anchor

Tags:  Historical precedent, climate

Pro Node  Recent work (Tsonis et al, 2007), suggests that this variability is enough to account for all climate change since the 19th Century. url anchor

For small changes in climate associated with tenths of a degree, there is no need for any external cause. The earth is never exactly in equilibrium. The motions of the massive oceans where heat is moved between deep layers and the surface provides variability on time scales from years to centuries. Recent work (Tsonis et al, 2007), suggests that this variability is enough to account for all climate change since the 19th Century. url anchor
Reference Node  b: http://www.quadrant.org.au/blogs/doomed-planet/2009/07/resisting-climate-hysteria url anchor
Reference: http://www.quadrant.org.au/blogs/doomed-planet/2009/07/resisting-climate-hysteria
Reference Node  http://www.agu.org/journals/ABS/2007/2007GL030288.shtml url anchor
Reference: http://www.agu.org/journals/ABS/2007/2007GL030288.shtml

Con Node  There is no evidence that climate has chaotic “regimes” on a long-term basis. url anchor

Tags:  chaos
Reference Node  http://www.skepticalscience.com/climate-shift-synchronized-chaos.htm url anchor
Reference: http://www.skepticalscience.com/climate-shift-synchronized-chaos.htm

Answer Node  Medieval Warm Period was warmer url anchor

Tags:  Historical precedent, Medieval Warm Period

Pro Node  The Medieval Warm Period was warmer than current conditions. This means recent warming is not unusual and hence must be natural, not man-made. url anchor

Reference Node  http://www.climateshifts.org/?m=201001&paged=2 url anchor
Reference: http://www.climateshifts.org/?m=201001&paged=2
Note Node  Different link, same quotes url anchor

Con Node  Globally averaged temperature now is higher than global temperature in medieval times. url anchor

Reference Node  http://www.skepticalscience.com/medieval-warm-period.htm url anchor
Reference: http://www.skepticalscience.com/medieval-warm-period.htm

Answer Node  1934 - hottest year on record url anchor

Tags:  Historical precedent

Con Node  1934 was one of the hottest years in the US, not globally url anchor

Reference Node  http://www.skepticalscience.com/1934-hottest-year-on-record.htm url anchor
Reference: http://www.skepticalscience.com/1934-hottest-year-on-record.htm

Pro Node  The warmest year on US record is now 1934.  url anchor

In August 2007, Steve McIntyre noticed a strange discontinuity in US temperature data, occurring around January 2000. McKintyre notified NASA who acknowledged the problem as an 'oversight' that would be fixed in the next data refresh. The warmest year on US record is now 1934. 1998 (long trumpeted by the media as record-breaking) moves to second place. url anchor
Tags:  Discovered data error
Reference Node  http://www.dailytech.com/Blogger+finds+Y2K+bug+in+NASA+Climate+Data/article8383.htm url anchor
Reference: http://www.dailytech.com/Blogger+finds+Y2K+bug+in+NASA+Climate+Data/article8383.htm

Answer Node  2009-2010 winter saw record cold spells url anchor

Tags:  Historical precedent

Pro Node  Britain's big freeze is the start of a worldwide trend towards colder weather that seriously challenges global warming theories, eminent scientists claimed yesterday. url anchor

Britain's big freeze is the start of a worldwide trend towards colder weather that seriously challenges global warming theories, eminent scientists claimed yesterday. The world has entered a 'cold mode' which is likely to bring a global dip in temperatures which will last for 20 to 30 years, they say url anchor
Reference Node  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1242202/Could-30-years-global-COOLING.html url anchor
Reference: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1242202/Could-30-years-global-COOLING.html

Con Node  A cold day in Chicago in winter has nothing to do with the trend of global warming url anchor

Reference Node  http://www.skepticalscience.com/December-2009-record-cold-spells.htm url anchor
Reference: http://www.skepticalscience.com/December-2009-record-cold-spells.htm

Answer Node  It's a 1500 year cycle url anchor

Tags:  Historical precedent, cycles, 1500 year cycle

Con Node  Ancient natural cycles are irrelevant for attributing recent global warming to humans url anchor

Reference Node  http://www.skepticalscience.com/1500-year-natural-cycle.htm url anchor
Reference: http://www.skepticalscience.com/1500-year-natural-cycle.htm

Pro Node  Climate records of the past show a roughly 1,500-year cycle. url anchor

Climate records of the past show a roughly 1,500-year cycle. It was first discovered in ice cores in Greenland. Then it was seen in ocean sediments in the Atlantic. And now it's found everywhere including stalagmites in caves. It shows warming and cooling that could well account for the current warming. url anchor
Reference Node  http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/columnists/steigerwald/s_533589.html url anchor
Reference: http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/columnists/steigerwald/s_533589.html
Tags:  Fred Singer

Answer Node  Climate's changed before url anchor

Tags:  Historical precedent

Con Node  Climate reacts to whatever forces it to change at the time; humans are now the dominant forcing. url anchor

Reference Node  http://www.skepticalscience.com/climate-change-little-ice-age-medieval-warm-period.htm url anchor
Reference: http://www.skepticalscience.com/climate-change-little-ice-age-medieval-warm-period.htm

Pro Node  Climate is always changing. url anchor

We have had ice ages and warmer periods when alligators were found in Spitzbergen. Ice ages have occurred in a hundred thousand year cycle for the last 700 thousand years, and there have been previous periods that appear to have been warmer than the present despite CO2 levels being lower than they are now. More recently, we have had the medieval warm period and the little ice age url anchor
Reference Node  http://www.quadrant.org.au/blogs/doomed-planet/2009/07/resisting-climate-hysteria url anchor
Reference: http://www.quadrant.org.au/blogs/doomed-planet/2009/07/resisting-climate-hysteria

Answer Node  It cooled mid-century url anchor

Tags:  Historical precedent, cooling

Pro Node  by 1945 when this [rapid rise of CO2] began, the Earth was already in a cooling phase that continued until 1975. url anchor

It was the post war industrialization that caused the rapid rise in global CO2 emissions, but by 1945 when this began, the Earth was already in a cooling phase that continued until 1975. With 32 years of rapidly increasing global temperatures and only a minor increase in global CO2 emissions, followed by 33 years of slowly cooling global temperatures with rapid increases in global CO2 emissions, it was deceitful for the IPCC to make any claim that CO2 emissions were primarily responsible for observed 20th century global warming. url anchor
Tags:  anthropogenic emissions, IPCC, co2
Reference Node  a: http://astuteblogger.blogspot.com/2009/09/cycles-of-warming-and-cooling.html url anchor

Con Node  Mid-century cooling involved aerosols and is irrelevant for recent global warming url anchor

Tags:  irrelevant
Reference Node  http://www.skepticalscience.com/global-cooling-mid-20th-century.htm url anchor
Reference: http://www.skepticalscience.com/global-cooling-mid-20th-century.htm
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