No Archimedes, it is NOT overwhelmingly accepted by those who spend their life studying it that burning oil causes global warming.
Harvard study says global warming normal
World Oil Magazine, June 2003 issue
By Thomas R. Wright, Jr., Publisher
Research by a team from Harvard University casts serious doubt on claims that man-made pollution is causing global warming (GW), in fact indicating that the Earth was warmer during the Middle Ages. This is in contrast to what environmentalists have said from the beginning of the GW debate - that temperatures are rising higher and faster than ever before because of greenhouse gases from cars and power stations.
A review of more than 240 scientific studies showed that today's temperatures are not the warmest over the past millennium and they are not producing more extreme weather. The team from Harvard examined findings of studies of so-called temperature proxies such as tree rings, ice cores and historical accounts that allow scientists to estimate temperatures prevailing at sites around the world.
The findings indicate that the world experienced a Medieval warm period between the ninth and fourteenth centuries with global temperatures significantly higher than today. They also confirm that a Little Ice Age set in around 1300, during which the world cooled. Since 1900, the world has begun to warm up again, but has yet to reach temperatures of the Middle Ages.
The timing of the end of the Little Ice Age is significant, since it implies that the records used by climate scientists date from a time when the Earth was relatively cold, thereby exaggerating the significance of today's temperature rise. The researchers say the evidence confirms suspicions that today's unprecedented temperatures are simply the result of examining temperature change over too short a period of time.
The study, which will be published in Energy and Environment, has been welcomed by skeptics of global warming. Dr. Philip Stott, professor emeritus of bio-geography at the University of London, told The Telegraph,
"What has been forgotten in all the discussion about global warming is a proper sense of history. During the Medieval warm period, the world was warmer even than today, and history shows that it was a wonderful period of plenty for everyone. When the temperature started to drop, harvests failed and England's vine industry died. It makes one wonder why there is so much fear of warmth."
World Oil Magazine, June 2003 issue:
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