Bill, that is a huge site! Lots of graphs, but I didn't see this type (from a Greenland ice core) that gives more resolution.
www.eoearth.orgThese ice core graphs are showing the change
or anomoly relative to the "present day" temperature, such as the -55.5 C (degrees below zero) that was recorded with Paul's Vostok graph.
But it's all relative; so they all still indicate climate changes, more or less....
What I find most interesting, is the long and relatively flat period ...during which civilization arose. It seems relatively flat and level compared with almost any other similarly long period from either the 100kyr graph [with the much better resolution or magnification of Paul's 'box'] ...or the 400kyr graph with the exaggerated 'y-scale'
and a 'zero' that is different from today (if I am to believe what I read here earlier).
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History (of civilization) is a long story filled with tales of how climate changes have helped make or break various regional societies, istm.
But looking at these graphs, doesn't it seem that climate is usually much wilder than anything we have experienced over the past few thousand years or so? You can imagine how those peaks of Paul's (
the previous interglacials) would look
on the scale of this 100,000 year graph ...I hope!
It may have been briefly "warmer" during the past interglacials; but
for how long or how 'evenly' was the climate as warm
or warmer, during those previous interglacials ...compared with our current interglacial?
That which history experienced as the MWP & LIA seems to only register as a
level slope on both of these graphs.
Can you imagine civilization's story overlayed onto any other period, from either of these graphs? How lucky have we been?
I'd agree it is prudent
not to 'force' our climate
too far away from the 'level slope' that civilization (especially agriculture) has enjoyed ...
or survived--or not ...since the beginning ~10,000 years ago--so to speak.
~
p.s. ...or at this scale also, the past ten thousand years are unusually calm, compared to how climate behaved before.
www.soest.hawaii.edu/
