The latest bit of mumbo jumbo from Science magazine

Below is the title and abstract from an article by Schaefer et al., just published in Science of 9 June 2006, Vol. 312. no. 5779, pp. 1510 - 1513:

Near-Synchronous Interhemispheric Termination of the Last Glacial Maximum in Mid-Latitudes

"Isotopic records from polar ice cores imply globally asynchronous warming at the end of the last glaciation. However, Be exposure dates show that large-scale retreat of mid-latitude Last Glacial Maximum glaciers commenced at about the same time in both hemispheres. The timing of retreat is consistent with the onset of temperature and atmospheric CO2 increases in Antarctic ice cores. We suggest that a global trend of rising summer temperatures at the end of the Last Glacial Maximum was obscured in North Atlantic regions by hypercold winters associated with unusually extensive winter sea ice.


So at the end of the last ice age the earth warmed up unevenly. It warmed up much sooner in Southern and intermediate latitudes than it did in the Arctic. The Arctic stayed very cold for thousands of years longer than the rest of the world did.

OK. That's rather odd. But our researchers can explain it. Good old atmospheric CO2 is OF COURSE to blame for the warming but the Arctic area had supercold winters which cancelled out the effect in the North.

That's what philosophers call a "deus ex machina" explanation. It is about as informnative as saying that the hand of God did it. It is not a scientific explanation at all unless there is a good independent explanation (as distinct from mere speculation) of WHY the North had extensive ice and WHY the CO2 effect did not melt it.

Gaseous diffusion is very rapid and the CO2 should have managed to have spread widely and fairly evenly with thousands of years to do so. So to say that it had different effects in climatically similar parts of the world is mumbo jumbo. The results are in fact most consistent with CO2 having nothing to do with the thaw.

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