[Grovenet] When the Arctic was balmy

[Geri]

Thanks for passing it along, Eric.  This is fascinating
stuff.  [Too bad this is from a pay-subscription site;
I'd like to click the links!  ;-) ]

We've watched a couple shows on this and related
things over the last year (or two?), and I wish I could
remember where we saw them ... probably either
Discovery or PBS ...


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Eric Canon" <canonmetals at yahoo.com>
To: "grovenet" <grovenet at rdrop.com>
Sent: Thursday, June 01, 2006 8:28 AM
Subject: [Grovenet] When the Arctic was balmy


: This is a fascinating article from Nature about
: what scientists are finding in Arctic sediments
: indicating temperatures that averaged 74 degrees
: 80 million years ago. They deduce that carbon
: dioxide gulping ferns, over millions of years,
: changed the atmospheric makeup and temperatures
: came down. 
: 
: Here's a quote:
: 
: "A core of sediment pulled from the bottom of the
: Arctic Ocean has confirmed that, millions of
: years ago, the North Pole was as warm as a balmy
: summer day."
: 
: "The results are unexpected. Not only did the
: Arctic heat up to an extent that is inexplicable
: by current climate models, say the researchers,
: it also seems that the North Pole began to cool
: at about the same time as the Antarctic. This
: timing suggests that climate was being driven by
: a global factor, such as atmospheric levels of
: greenhouse gases, rather than something more
: local, such as geological upheaval.
: 
: "This is a major, major surprise," says Jan
: Backman, a marine geologist at Stockholm
: University in Sweden, who co-led the expedition."
: 
: http://tinyurl.com/oyxe7
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