By Larry Bell
Dr. Christian Schlüchter’s discovery of 4,000-year-old chunks of wood at the leading edge of a Swiss glacier was clearly not cheered by many members of the global warming doom-and-gloom science orthodoxy.
This finding indicated that the Alps were pretty nearly glacier-free at that time, disproving accepted theories that they only began retreating after the end of the little ice age in the mid-19th century. As he concluded, the region had once been much warmer than today, with “a wild landscape and wide flowing river.”
Dr. Schlüchter’s report might have been more conveniently dismissed by the entrenched global warming establishment were it not for his distinguished reputation as a giant in the field of geology and paleoclimatology who has authored/coauthored more than 250 papers and is a professor emeritus at the University of Bern in Switzerland.
Then he made himself even more unpopular thanks to a recent interview titled “Our Society is Fundamentally Dishonest” which appeared in the Swiss publication Der Bund where he criticized the U.N.-dominated institutional climate science hierarchy for extreme tunnel vision and political contamination.
Following the ancient forest evidence discovery Schlüchter became a target of scorn. As he observes in the interview, “I wasn’t supposed to find that chunk of wood because I didn’t belong to the close-knit circle of Holocene and climate researchers. My findings thus caught many experts off guard: Now an ‘amateur’ had found something that the [more recent time-focused] Holocene and climate experts should have found.”
Other evidence exists that there is really nothing new about dramatic glacier advances and retreats. In fact the Alps were nearly glacier-free again about 2,000 years ago. Schlüchter points out that “the forest line was much higher than it is today; there were hardly any glaciers. Nowhere in the detailed travel accounts from Roman times are glaciers mentioned.”
Schlüchter criticizes his critics for focusing on a time period which is “indeed too short.” His studies and analyses of a Rhone glacier area reveal that “the rock surface had [previously] been ice-free 5,800 of the last 10,000 years.”
More here: http://www.newsmax.com/LarryBell/warming-global-climate/2014/06/17/id/577481/#ixzz355f6L5y2
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On Pierre Gosselin’s “No Tricks Zone” we have this:
Distinct solar imprint on climate
What’s more worrisome, Schlüchter’s findings show that cold periods can strike very rapidly. Near the edge of Mont Miné Glacier his team found huge tree trunks and discovered that they all had died in just a single year. The scientists were stunned.
The year of death could be determined to be exactly 8195 years before present. The oxygen isotopes in the Greenland ice show there was a marked cooling around 8200.”
That finding, Schlüchter states, confirmed that the sun is the main driver in climate change.
Today’s “rapid” changes are nothing new
In the interview he casts doubt on the UN projection that the Alps will be almost glacier-free by 2100, reminding us that “the system is extremely dynamic and doesn’t function linearly” and that “extreme, sudden changes have clearly been seen in the past“. History’s record is unequivocal on this.
Schlüchter also doesn’t view today’s climate warming as anything unusual, and poses a number of unanswered questions:
Why did the glaciers retreat in the middle of the 19th century, although the large CO2 increase in the atmosphere came later? Why did the earth ‘tip’ in such a short time into a warming phase? Why did glaciers again advance in 1880s, 1920s and 1980s? […] Sooner or later climate science will have to answer the question why the retreat of the glacier at the end of the Little Ice Age around 1850 was so rapid.”
On science: “Our society is fundamentally dishonest”
CO2 fails to answer many open questions. Already we get the sense that hockey stick climate claims are turning out to be rather sorrowful and unimaginative wives’ tales. He summarizes on the refusal to acknowledge the reality of our past: “Our society in fundamentally dishonest“.
– See more at: http://notrickszone.com/2014/06/09/giant-of-geologyglaciology-christian-schluechter-refutes-co2-feature-interview-throws-climate-science-into-disarray/#sthash.z6pKzqtQ.dpuf
I should add, that according to the leading lights of CAGW, the arctic was supposed to be completely ice free this year.
MarkW says:
August 8, 2014 at 12:32 pm
“this science thing.”
..
Thermal expansion does not wait. Thermal expansion is not “thermal equilibrium” Keep your apples separate from your oranges.
dbstealey says:
August 8, 2014 at 12:35 pm
Maybe in his home universe, it works like that.
As usual, the sock puppet ‘H Grouse’ cherry picks only the Arctic when posting about sea ice.
For a chart of global ice cover, see here.
We see that global ice is rising. So much for the ‘global warming’ nonsense.
sturgishooper says:
August 8, 2014 at 12:35 pm
“Sea level has been increasing since the Little Ice Age”
…
So have global temperatures.
H Grouse says:
August 8, 2014 at 12:28 pm
MarkW says:
August 8, 2014 at 12:23 pm
Which is less than the previous 20 years.
Doesn’t matter if it is less. That wonderful “thermal expansion” and “melting ice” problem still exists for all the folks saying “no warming”
I don’t know why I bother, you’ll just quote me out of context again, but It’s been increasing at faster rate for much longer than man had been producing any noticeable amount of CO2. The fact that it increased only by 50mm in last 18 years actually signifies that sea rise is slowing down. Which directly proves that you are wrong.
H Grouse says: August 8, 2014 at 12:33 pm at least an occasional prediction correct?
Even a broken clock is correct twice a day.
Did anyone predict this? http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/IMAGES/global.daily.ice.area.withtrend.jpg
Grouse says:
So have global temperatures.
Which debunks the claim that human CO2 emissions cause global warming.
[BTW, does Grouse work? If so, he is cheating his employer by posting throughout the work day.]
H Grouse says:
August 8, 2014 at 12:39 pm
Well, duh! How do you suppose the LIA is characterized except by average temperature as implied by proxies and shown by instruments.
That a warmer world should have higher sea level is not at issue. The cause of post-LIA warming is. There is no reason to suppose that humans have had much or anything to do with it. Maybe a tiny bit from groundwater pumping. CO2, not so much.
MarkW says:
August 8, 2014 at 12:35 pm
“Notice how the troll left the last 3 years of data out of his cherry picked chart.”
This is better, …..
http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/files/2012/06/Figure3.png
Doesn’t change the trend line.
@H Grouse
#1 – Sea ice melting does not increase sea level. Physics 101
#2 – Half a world is not the whole world. Keep your cherry picking to yourself. The better one shows TOTAL – which includes ANTARCTICA
H Grouse:
The trouble with you trying to be clever is that you reveal you are not. Your post at August 8, 2014 at 12:16 pm says in total
I was referring to the value obtained by Massen & Beck for global background CO2 as later measured at Mauna Loa.
You really don’t have a clue what you are talking about or you would not have made such a mistake.
Richard
sturgishooper says:
August 8, 2014 at 12:42 pm
.
“Well, duh! ”
..
OK, please explain to me how we get 50 mm of sea level rise if there has not been any warming in the past 17 years and 10 months.
Doesn’t it stand to reason that if it is not getting warmer, then sea levels should stop rising?
H Grouse says:
August 8, 2014 at 12:36 pm
—–
Did you take classes in how to make yourself look dumb, or do you come by this skill naturally.
Take an iron bar. Apply a torch to one end. A few seconds later go to other end of the bar and touch it. Did you get burnt? Of course not, for the simple reason that the heat hasn’t moved to the other end yet. And iron is a good thermal conductor compared to most other things.
It takes time for heat to move from the atmosphere into everything else. Until the heat has moved, then thermal expansion can’t take place.
It’s really simple, unless you are dedicated to protecting your religious beliefs at the expense of your integrity.
H Grouse says
“Thermal expansion does not wait. Thermal expansion is not “thermal equilibrium” Keep your apples separate from your oranges.”
The same thermal expansion that was happening before Rockefeller started selling Gas and and Edison invented the light bulb. Man made Global warming at work.
If the oceans are warming and the air ain’t then something else is warming the oceans bub. There’s your next bit of proof that it’s not the CO2. Work on your next theory this one is done.
H Grouse says:
August 8, 2014 at 12:39 pm
So have global temperatures.
—-
However CO2 levels didn’t start rising until almost 100 years later.
H Grouse says:
August 8, 2014 at 12:43 pm
The global temperature trend line is down:
MIS 11 warmer than Eemian Interglacial.
Eemian warmer than Holocene.
Holocene Climatic Optimum warmer than Old Kingdom Warm Period.
OKWP warmer than Minoan WP.
Greek Dark Ages Cold Period warmer than Dark Ages Cold Period.
Minoan warmer than Roman WP.
Dark Ages Cold Period warmer than LIA.
Roman warmer than Medieval WP.
LIA colder than DACP.
Modern Warm Period cooler than Medieval WP.
Not a happy trend for the fate of humanity.
H Grouse says:
August 8, 2014 at 12:45 pm
The rate of increase in sea level rise has indeed slowed, but we’re still in a warmer cycle than the LIA. But that has little or nothing to do with human GHGs.
H Grouse says:
August 8, 2014 at 12:43 pm
—-
Actually it does change the trend line. It flattens it noticeably.
However the problem with your graph is that it starts at the beginning of the warm cycle of the PDO, which is well known to melt arctic sea ice.
H Grouse says:
August 8, 2014 at 12:45 pm
sturgishooper says:
August 8, 2014 at 12:42 pm
.
“Well, duh! ”
..
OK, please explain to me how we get 50 mm of sea level rise if there has not been any warming in the past 17 years and 10 months.
Doesn’t it stand to reason that if it is not getting warmer, then sea levels should stop rising?
I haven’t got a clue. SInce it is obviously not going to cause catastrophe, why should I care? I am perfectly happy for you to spend all of your life trying to figure that out. As long as you leave me alone and don’t try to change my way of life, trying to stop sea rise that had been happening for ages.
Doesn’t it stand to reason.
—-
No Grouse, it doesn’t stand to reason at all.
Glaciers take time to melt. Also ground water pumping is still going on.
But your plot doesn’t predict a warmer future.
It doesn’t match decreasing summertime Arctic air temperatures up where the ice actually is.
It doesn’t even relate to rising CO2 levels.
Now, explain why the Antarctic sea ice has been steadily expanding since 1996, and has been above 0.0 anomaly ever since 2006?
The ever-increasing Antarctic sea ice at 58-59 south latitude receives 5x times more energy in September than does Arctic sea ice up at 80 north latitude that same day. Today, at the actual sea ice limits of the Arctic, more energy is LOST from the open ocean by evaporation, convection, conduction, and long-wave radiation than can be gained by the few hours of sunlight each day at 5 – 7 degree solar elevation angles.
So, why should we care about receding Arctic sea ice?
Less Arctic sea ice in August, September, October => more heat loss => colder futures.
More sea ice in those months => less heat loss => warmer futures.
Yes, losing Arctic sea ice seems like a problem to me.
And, according to the DMI, the daily summertime temperatures up at 80 north have been getting colder since 1959. So, why do you not fear a colder future?
Why do you NOT care about the ever-increasing Antarctic sea ice?
More Antarctic sea ice => more reflected energy 7 months of the year => colder futures. And Antarctica has been getting colder!
richardscourtney says:
August 8, 2014 at 12:44 pm
…
“You really don’t have a clue”
..
“Those done by chemical methods prior to 1960 are often rejected as being inadequate due too poor siting, timing or method. ”
http://www.biokurs.de/treibhaus/CO2_versus_windspeed-review-1-FM.pdf
Thanks RIchard.
RACookPE1978 says:
August 8, 2014 at 12:53 pm
“Now, explain why the Antarctic sea ice has been steadily expanding”
Shifting wind.
..
Also note, that Antarctic ice MASS has been decreasing.
..
http://congrexprojects.com/docs/12c20_docs2/2-grace_esa-clic_forsberg.pdf?sfvrsn=2
Udar says:
August 8, 2014 at 12:52 pm
I: haven’t got a clue.”
..
I will give you two.
1) Thermal expansion
2) Melting ice.
H Grouse says:
August 8, 2014 at 12:57 pm
Actually, Antarctic mass is not diminishing. The EAIS quit retreating about 3000 years ago, as shown by radionuclides in the soil around its margins.