At https://www.netzerowatch.com/pyrenean-caves-reveal-a-warmer-past/ … which is by David Whitehouse, who used to work for the BBC – a long while ago. The mountains of the world are sensitive to climate change. The Pyrenees occupy a situation between the Mediterranean world and its climate, and the Atlantic, and its wetter climate zone. Hence, proxy data based on stalagmites in caves is an interesting addition to the climate data. Especially as it reveals past climate episodes warmer than the present one. Were oceans boiling back in the day?
Climate reconstructions based on lake varves, tree rings, and glaciers already exist, for the last couple of thousand years. This one, based on speleotherms, is just as revealing. It actually supports in large measure other proxy findings.
Temperatures in the Pyrenees have followed the global trend. They have increased by 1.5 degrees celsius since 1882. In addition, long term snow depth research, beginning in 1955, shows a steady decline – especially at high elevations. The glaciated areas have also declined – since the Little Ice Age. The new research involves seven nations and represents a complete record of oxygen isotope variations over the last 2500 years, based on 8 stalagmites from 4 caves. Precipitation rates played a minor role.
The warmest period was 0-200AD, the so called Roman Warm Period. During this period the climate in Britain was much warmer and in the Mediterranean it was also humid, and wetter, as well as warm. What might have caused that has not been explained, adequately. The so called Medieval Climate Anomaly , and a short post medieval warm period in the middle of the Little Ice Age, can also be picked out by the data. The coldest decades, rather than periods of cold, occurred during the 6th century AD and between 1800 and 1850 [the point at which it was chosen to start the modern warming alarmist charts]. The colder it was at the start of the charts the warmer it looked to a casual observer at the other end of the charts. We may also note the point is made that even during the Little Ice Age there were decades that exhibited little evidence of cold weather but rather showed variability. This also applies to the Medieval Climate Anomaly. Some decades were cold and did not exhibit the warmth of most of the period. However, since 1850, there has been an averall warming track – coinciding with the industrial era.
The new speliotherm record strongly supports tree ring data, and other methodologies, it would seem, but not as precisely as far as single year dates. Cold weather was evident around 300AD, and again between 500 and 650AD, and 750 to 850AD. I would raise a question mark about the 750-850AD period, but in spite of that the speliotherm records appears to be rughly consistent with other proxy data. We may also note it confirms the Maunder Minimum cold period but not necessarily the Dalton minimum [lack of solar activity = cold weather theory].
At https://phys.org/news/2023-09-scientist-climate-embedded-antarctic-ice.html … news of a new ice core in Antarctica. This time the focus is on the Ross Sea and the West Antarctic peninsular. The bit that sticks out in the direction of South America. The ice core was extracted between 2011 and 2013, from an ice dome on Roosevelt Island in the Ross Dependency. It would have been even more interesting to have an ice core from the peninsular as it is affected by currents carrying warm water from the tropical Pacific through the Indian Ocean to the South Atlantic. One interesting discovery was an abrupt equatorward shift in the position of the Westerlies 32,000 years ago. This is the start of the Late Glacial Maximum. The information from the ice core would not contradict the idea of a small axial movement at the poles. At the same time, ithe axial shift would explain the expansion of the ice cap in NE North America and NW Europe – but not in Siberia or Alaska [and parts of the Yukon]. For more info on the findings and what catastrophists might take from them go to https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-40951-1 …