use Perl

• It IS About the Science (Score:2)

  by pudge (1)

  Look, we have just over 100 years of good data on weather patterns. The Earth has been around for, what, billions of years? And we think that just because it is hot now, that it is the hottest summer on record, that we didn't have a hotter summer 500 years ago? Maybe a period of 20 years of increased heat in the 1500s? We can only assume we didn't. That's not good science.
  • Re:It IS About the Science (Score:2)

    by rafael (2125)

    AFAIK the study of ice at poles and at higher mountains gives good hints about the wheather for the last few dozens of centuries.
    • Re:It IS About the Science (Score:3, Informative)

      by darobin (1316)

      Yes, it does. In my hometown of Grenoble there's one of the more advanced glaciology research centers. We have super-high precision weather direct measures for the 20th century, and less precise for part of the 19th, but we also have very precise indirect data extracted from glaciers and ice caps for more than the past 500 years, and less precise (though I hear it's getting better) for many centuries back. Tree cuts also give information on weather as old as the tree, which can be several centuries old.

      --
      

      -- Robin Berjon [berjon.com]
      • Re:It IS About the Science (Score:2)

        by darobin (1316) on 2003.08.27 8:33 (#23558) Homepage Journal

        There are a few small errors above, written too fast, sorry 'bout that. I just wanted to add that the rest of the article is worth reading to see how climate can be directly affected. Volcanoes are very interesting because they show abrupt changes in the chemical composition of the atmosphere, and provide good data on how global warming operates.

        --
        

        -- Robin Berjon [berjon.com]

        Reply to This

        Parent