Comments on: Science in the news http://sortingoutscience.net/2007/12/science_in_the_news/ Science for people who never knew it could be interesting Sun, 24 Jan 2010 06:32:48 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Sam Wise http://sortingoutscience.net/2007/12/science_in_the_news/comment-page-1/#comment-76 Sam Wise Fri, 14 Dec 2007 04:33:39 +0000 http://sortingoutscience.net/2007/12/11/science_in_the_news/#comment-76 The temperature spike in the 20's wasn't a global thing, it was a spike in local (to Greenland) temperatures. I couldn't tell you what caused it -- maybe a change in ocean currents, maybe something else (local temperatures can be pretty variable). The press release, at least, doesn't go into depth on this. Then the end of this "spike" in the 40's was probably a mix of the local fluctuation going away, combined with the global leveling out of temperatures that hit around then (driven by a couple of big volcanic eruptions, and a big up-tick in industrial pollution). The point of the article is that a slight increase in local temperature back in the 1920's caused a big loss of ice cover. That being the case, the current warming is likely to do some serious damage to the Greenland ice cap. The temperature spike in the 20’s wasn’t a global thing, it was a spike in local (to Greenland) temperatures. I couldn’t tell you what caused it — maybe a change in ocean currents, maybe something else (local temperatures can be pretty variable). The press release, at least, doesn’t go into depth on this.

Then the end of this “spike” in the 40’s was probably a mix of the local fluctuation going away, combined with the global leveling out of temperatures that hit around then (driven by a couple of big volcanic eruptions, and a big up-tick in industrial pollution).

The point of the article is that a slight increase in local temperature back in the 1920’s caused a big loss of ice cover. That being the case, the current warming is likely to do some serious damage to the Greenland ice cap.

]]> By: Eurotrash http://sortingoutscience.net/2007/12/science_in_the_news/comment-page-1/#comment-75 Eurotrash Thu, 13 Dec 2007 14:54:37 +0000 http://sortingoutscience.net/2007/12/11/science_in_the_news/#comment-75 Any idea what caused the spike in global warming in the 20's? And also what deminished it? Any idea what caused the spike in global warming in the 20’s? And also what deminished it?

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