Medieval Global Temperatures
The Distortion
Opponents of action on clean energy and climate change often use skewed historical references to make an argument that today’s warming isn’t unusual and therefore can’t be because of human activity. One of these arguments uses temperature data from the Middle Ages to claim that that period was warmer than today, and therefore today’s temperatures are just part of the natural cycles.
The Truth
Climate change is a global problem of unprecedented proportions. Individual temperature records of particular areas are not necessarily going to show the same pattern of the global warming.
The same is true looking back at history. Climate change deniers like to cherry-pick data that supports their pre-conceived notions and deny all of the rest. The truth is that there’s no record saying that the Earth was significantly warmer during the Middle Ages. Europe and most of the Northern Hemisphere was warmer than normal, and other areas were colder. And even in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s warmer now than it has been in the last 1200 or even 2000 years and – this is the key point – going to get even warmer!
