Category Archives: Holocene

The Neoglacial Period

Solar variability did contribute to climate change over the past 1,000 years.

Holocene Warming

It is highly unlikely that today is the warmest Earth has been in the past 6,800-7,800 years or that today’s warming is unprecedented.

The Holocene Climatic Optimum and the “pre-industrial”

By Andy May The “pre-industrial” according to the IPCC in a footnote on page 43 of AR6 WGI is prior to 1750 for radiative forcings and before 1850 for temperature. Both dates are within the period commonly described as the Little Ice Age. The Little Ice Age was a brutal and a miserable time forContinue reading “The Holocene Climatic Optimum and the “pre-industrial””

Past and Present Warming – A Temporal Resolution Issue

By Renee Hannon Christian Freuer has translated this post into German here. This post examines how present global surface temperatures compare to the past 12,000 years during the Holocene interglacial. The AR6 IPCC climate assessment report, Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis, by Working Group 1 states in their Summary for Policymakers section A.2.2: “GlobalContinue reading “Past and Present Warming – A Temporal Resolution Issue”

The Holocene Temperature Conundrum

By Andy May This post has been translated in German by Christian Freuer here. As my regular readers know, I’ve been writing about the Holocene, especially Holocene climate, for over ten years. My colleagues, Javier Vinós and Renee Hannon, have also written extensively on this topic. This fills a void left by the IPCC, whichContinue reading “The Holocene Temperature Conundrum”

Holocene Thermal Optimum

By Andy May The Holocene Thermal Maximum, also called the Holocene Thermal Optimum or the Holocene Climatic Optimum, occurred at different times in different parts of the world but generally between 10,000 BP and 4,000 BP.  I use BP to indicate years before 2000.   The world ocean was probably 0.7°C warmer than today 8,000 BP.Continue reading “Holocene Thermal Optimum”