International Greenland Ice Coring Effort

Quoting the News Center at the University of Colorado at Boulder
(emphasis mine):

“A new international research effort on the Greenland ice sheet with the University of Colorado at Boulder as the lead U.S. institution set a record for single-season deep ice-core drilling this summer, recovering more than a mile of ice core that is expected to help scientists better assess the risks of abrupt climate change in the future.

The project, known as the North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling, or NEEM, is being undertaken by 14 nations and is led by the University of Copenhagen. The goal is to retrieve ice from the last interglacial episode known as the Eemian Period that ended about 120,000 years ago. The period was warmer than today, with less ice in Greenland and 15-foot higher sea levels than present”

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Again quoting the same source:

“‘Evidence from ancient ice cores tell us that when greenhouse gases increase in the atmosphere, the climate warms,’ said White. ‘And when the climate warms, ice sheets melt and sea levels rise. If we see comparable rises in sea level in the future like we have seen in the ice-core record, we can pretty much say good-bye to American coastal cities like Miami, Houston, Norfolk, New Orleans and Oakland.’”

1) Regarding that last quote (which gets far, FAR sillier after that)…

A) Although atmospheric CO2 has a very minor warming effect (which decreases exponentially with increasing concentration), the FACT is that ALL the peer reviewed science demonstrate that rising temperatures have historically led to rising CO2 levels, NOT the other way around.

B) IF the current interglacial warming period replicates the conditions of the previous interglacial warming period, there will not be ONE DAMN THING we can do to prevent it.

But, considering we have an ongoing 10,000 year cooling trend at Vostok and the even more pronounced 10,000 year cooling trend in Greenland, it seems unlikely that we are heading for that sort of outcome.

Furthermore, this chart from this paper -- published in this journal -- suggests that 2007 annual mean temperatures on the Greenland ice sheet are not quite back to where they were in 1930. So, I don’t think AGW has done a heck of a lot of damage in the last 73 years!

C) Despite the futility and stupidity of trying to micromanage climate change, we can sure waste a lot of money pretending like we can actually make a difference -- while simultaneously making a bunch of corrupt trial lawyers and other scumbags hideously wealthy.

2) The nuttiest claim of all from this article is this:

“While ice cores pinpoint abrupt climate change events as Earth has passed in and out of glacial periods, the warming trend during the present interglacial period is caused primarily by human activities like fossil fuel burning, White said.”

So, the current interglacial warming period -- which began 18-20 thousand years ago -- was caused by human beings burning fossil fuels? Geez! Who KNEW that SUVs were THAT OLD!

3) IF we get high integrity ice core data from Greenland dating back to the Eemian, we will be able to put Greenland ice sheet temperature data into the same sort of proper perspective as is possible with data from Vostok, Antarctica.

We already know that all the Arctic sea ice melted during the Eemian. Furthermore, all the Arctic sea ice MAY have melted as recently as 5,000 years ago (or less). So, there is no possibility of using Arctic sea ice core data to more closely compare Northern hemisphere temperature histories.

Click here for some basic science on climate change.