THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume XIII, Issue # 270, November 14, 2011
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
ICE-FREE ARCTIC: 6,000 YEARS AGO
By Dennis T. Avery
THE MODERN GLOBAL WARMING DEBATE: ENVIRONMENTALISTS & GLOBAL WARMING ALARMISTS FRANTICALLY
PREDICTING THAT THE ARCTIC SOON WILL BECOME ICE-FREE, THE POLAR BEARS WILL STARVE, & WE WILL BE SORRY WE
DIDN'T LISTEN TO THE WARNING -- UN IPCC CLAIMS OF MAN-MADE GLOBAL WARMING, CLAIMS BASED ON AN
"UNPRECEDENTED WARMING" THAT WAS ONLY 22 YEARS LONG, 1976-1998 -- THE RUSSIANS CONTENDING THAT THE
ARCTIC REGION HAS RECENTLY BEEN AT ABOUT THE PEAK WARMTH OF ITS OWN SEVENTY-YEAR CLIMATE CYCLE --
SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE DISCOVERED & PRESENTED BY GEOLOGISTS & CLIMATOLOGISTS: LONGTERM CHANGES IN THE
EARTH'S PAST TEMPERATURES -- AN ICE-FREE ARCTIC DURING THE FIRST HOLOCENE WARMING, ABOUT 6,000-7,000 YEARS
AGO
FULL STORY:
Perhaps the silliest thing about the modern global warming debate is that we’re trying to evaluate major climate changes
in eye-blinks of time, such as 10 or 30 years. A big Ice Age cycle lasts about 90,000 years, and the last one ended about
12,000 years ago. El Ninos last a year of two and change nothing, climate-wise. The Weather Channel can (sort of)
predict ten days out.
Yet, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has made claims of man-made global warming, claims
based on an “unprecedented warming” that was only 22 years long, 1976–1998. There’s been no trace of a global
warming trend since. There was, however, an earlier “unprecedented warming” from 1915-1940 — before the Industrial
Revolution started seriously raising the C02 levels.
At the moment, the environmentalists and global warming alarmists are frantically predicting that the Arctic will become
ice-free any minute now, all the polar bears will starve, and we’ll be sorry we didn’t listen. The Russians, however, say the
Arctic region has recently been about at the peak warmth of its own 70-year climate cycle — and the Russians know the
Arctic. There are, additionally, lots of old news stories in the New York Times files that made the same
“unprecedented” claims about Arctic melting in the 1920s and 1930s. Let’s also remember that there are two Poles and the
Antarctic has been building ice for the last 40 years.
Today, we’d like to settle the Arctic question once and for all — based on research that has been before us for years.
First, let’s agree that geologists and climatologists have the evidence of longterm changes in the earth’s past
temperatures. Geologist Ian Plimer, in his book, Heaven and Earth, notes that the first global warming during our
Holocene, between 9,000 and 6,500 BC, was the warmest the earth has been since the end of the last big Ice Age.
A Norwegian research team three years ago announced it had found important evidence of an ice-free Arctic during that
first Holocene warming. “The climate in the northern regions has never been milder since the last Ice Age than it was
about 6000–7000 years ago,” says Astrid Lysa, one of the Norwegian geologists.
Dr. Lysa and Eiliv Larsen, of the Geological Survey of Norway, studied beach ridges on the northern shores of Greenland.
They found distinct, very long beach ridges, running parallel to the beach, which dated back to 6000-7000 years BC. They
say these ridges were formed when there was wave activity and occasional storms -- on a big body of water with little or
no ice. The research team says pack ice ridges are shorter, narrower and more irregular. The Norwegian team says the sea
levels haven’t been as high since, because the ice hasn’t all melted since. Otherwise, new waves would have washed the
older ridges away.
If the Arctic was nearly ice-free in the first Holocene Warm Period, did the seals disappear? Did the polar bears starve? If
they had, there’d be no polar bears up there today, since they aren’t migratory.
Lysa and Larsen say there are pack ice ridges farther down the beach, Carbon dating shows this Arctic pack ice had
re-formed by 4000 years ago. There is also evidence that Inuit hunters had migrated to the northern beaches by that time.
These seal-hunting people had to have both pack ice and driftwood.
“Seals and driftwood were absolutely vital if they were to survive, says Larsen. “They needed seals for food and clothing,
and driftwood for fuel when the temperature crept towards minus 50 degrees.”
There you have it. The Arctic has been ice-free or nearly ice-free in the climatically recent past. So much for
“unprecedented warmth” in today’s Arctic, so much for the polar bears going extinct. However, I will concede that climate
cycling is so complex it would be much simpler to just blame humans.
SOURCES:
“Less Ice in the Arctic Ocean 6000-7000 Years ago,” Geological Survey of Norway (NGU), October 20, 2008 press release.
Ian Plimer, Heaven and Earth: Global Warming and the Missing Science; Taylor Trade Publishing, 2009, (Australia).
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
The Earth's Natural History, Global Climate Changes,
& the Future of Human Life & Civilization on the Planet:
Science, Ideology, & Public Policy
Political Environmentalism Versus Human Progress & Prosperity:
Policy Issues Relating to Energy, Environment,
& Natural Resources
Dennis T. Avery, a senior fellow for the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., is an environmental economist. He was
formerly a senior analyst for the U.S. Department of State. He is co-author, with S. Fred Singer, of Unstoppable Global
Warming Every 1500 Years. Readers may write to him at PO Box 202 Churchville, Virginia, 2442; email to
cgfi@hughes.net; or visit our website at www. cgfi.org
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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