North Pole Enjoyed Balmy Climate

In ages past, the North Pole region enjoyed a Mediterranean climate, according to Nature Science Update and the BBC News.  EurekAlert reminds us that ice cores demonstrate that Greenland, too, had one or more periods of warm weather suitable for lush plant growth (see 08/16/2004 headline).  Climate swings were abrupt enough to occur within a human lifetime.

Food for thought (salad, at least).  Do ice cores show a history going back over a hundred thousand years?  Learn about the slippery assumptions used for identifying “annual” layers in an article by Michael Oard.