Occasionally, I will hear someone claim that the Medieval Warm Period (~AD 850-1350) was limited only to Europe and Greenland. Many people may have heard this from a source they respect, so this falsehood is difficult to put down without reference to sources which are also trusted. Though I don’t currently know of one paper which covers the broader, general question of the period’s global nature, the following is a list of papers about areas outside of Greenland and Europe which provide evidence of the Medieval Warm Period.
Before we get to the list, there is one additional fact that most high school students learned: Vinland. About AD 1000, Leif Eriksson was blown off course and landed in North America at a place he called “Vinland” because he found grapes growing there. The only known medieval Norse site known in America is at L’Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland. Some scientists have rejected this on the grounds that grapes cannot be grown on Newfoundland Island. They cite the fact that the farthest north grapes can be grown is in Massachusetts. Yet, they remain oblivious to their own poor, circular reasoning. They forget that climate always changes and that conditions during the Medieval Warm Period were not the same as today. The fact that Greenland is not yet up to Viking standards suggests that the Modern Warm Period is not yet as warm as the Medieval.
Some people are afraid of warmth and remain locked in a fear of losing some of the dangerous polar ice. My book, Thermophobia, attempts to coax some sanity out of the facts of our current, Ice Age interglacial.
Now, here’s the list of authors and years of publication:
- Y. Rosenthal, B. Linsley, et al. (2013)
- M.A. Cioccale (1999)
- D. Mauquoy, M. Blaauw, et al. (2004)
- T. Haberzettl, M. Fey, et al. (2005)
- T. Kellerhals, S. Brutsch, et al. (2010)
- M. Vuille, S.J. Burns, et al. (2012)
- B. Jenny, B.L. Valero-Garces, et al. (2002)
- P.L. Nester, E. Gayo, et al. (2007)
- L. Rebolledo, J. Sepulveda, et al. (2008)
- L. von Gunten, M. Grosjean, et al. (2009)
- J. Sepulveda, S. Pantoja, et al. (2009)
- M.-S. Fletcher and P.I. Moreno (2012)
- P.J. Polissar, M.B. Abbott, et al. (2006)
- A.J. Chepstow-Lusty, K.D. Bennett, et al. (1998)
- B. Rein A. Luckge, and F. Sirocko (2004)
- R. Bracco, L. del Puerto, et al. (2011)
- G.H. Haug, K.A. Hughen, et al. (2001)
- M.A. Goni, M.P. Woodworth, et al. (2004)
- R. Neukom, J. Luterbacher, et al. (2011)
Here’s the same list with titles.
Rosenthal, Yair; Linsley, Braddock K.; Oppo, Delia W. (2013). “Pacific Ocean Heat Content During the Past 10,000 Years.”
Cioccale, M.A. (1999). “Climatic fluctuations in the Central Region of Argentina in the last 1000 years.”
Mauquoy, D.; Blaauw, M.; van Geel, B.; Borromei, A.; Quattrocchio, M.; Chambers, F.M.; and Possnert, G. (2004). “Late Holocene climatic changes in Tierra del Fuego based on multiproxy analyses of peat deposits.”
Haberzettl, T.; Fey, M.; Lucke, A.; Maidana, N.; Mayr, C.; Ohlendorf, C.; Schabitz, F.; Schleser, G.H.; Wille, M.; and Zolitschka, B. (2005). “Climatically induced lake level changes during the last two millennia as reflected in sediments of Laguna Potrok Aike, southern Patagonia (Santa Cruz, Argentina).”
Kellerhals, T.; Brutsch, S.; Sigl, M.; Knusel, S.; Gaggeler, H.W.; and Schwikowski, M. (2010). “Ammonium concentration in ice cores: A new proxy for regional temperature reconstruction?”
Vuille, M.; Burns, S.J.; Taylor, B.L.; Cruz, F.W.; Bird, B.W.; Abbott, M.B.; Kanner, L.C.; Cheng, H.; and Novello, V.F. (2012). “A review of the South American monsoon history as recorded in stable isotopic proxies over the past two millennia.”
Jenny, B.; Valero-Garces, B.L.; Urrutia, R.; Kelts, K.; Veit, H.; Appleby, P.G.; and Geyh M. (2002). “Moisture changes and fluctuations of the Westerlies in Mediterranean Central Chile during the last 2000 years: The Laguna Aculeo record (33°50’S).”
Nester, P.L.; Gayo, E.; Latorre, C.; Jordan, T.E.; and Blanco, N. (2007). “Perennial stream discharge in the hyper-arid Atacama Desert of northern Chile during the latest Pleistocene.”
Rebolledo, L.; Sepulveda, J.; Lange, C.B.; Pantoja, S.; Bertrand, S.; Hughen, K.; and Figueroa, D. (2008). “Late Holocene marine productivity changes in Northern Patagonia-Chile inferred from a multi-proxy analysis of Jacaf channel sediments.”
von Gunten, L.; Grosjean, M.; Rein, B.; Urrutia, R.; and Appleby, P. (2009). “A quantitative high-resolution summer temperature reconstruction based on sedimentary pigments from Laguna Aculeo, central Chile, back to AD 850.”
Sepulveda, J.; Pantoja, S.; Hughen, K.A.; Bertrand, S.; Figueroa, D.; Leon, T.; Drenzek; N.J.; and Lange, C. (2009). “Late Holocene sea-surface temperature and precipitation variability in northern Patagonia, Chile (Jacaf Fjord, 44°S).”
Fletcher, M.-S.; and Moreno, P.I. (2012). “Vegetation, climate and fire regime changes in the Andean region of southern Chile (38°S) covaried with centennial-scale climate anomalies in the tropical Pacific over the last 1500 years.”
Polissar, P.J.; Abbott, M.B.; Wolfe, A.P.; Bezada, M.; Rull, V.; and Bradley, R.S. (2006). “Solar modulation of Little Ice Age climate in the tropical Andes.”
Chepstow-Lusty, A.J.; Bennett, K.D.; Fjeldsa, J.; Kendall, A.; Galiano, W.; and Herrera, A.T. (1998). “Tracing 4,000 years of environmental history in the Cuzco Area, Peru, from the pollen record.”
Rein B.; Luckge, A.; and Sirocko, F. (2004). “A major Holocene ENSO anomaly during the Medieval period.”
Bracco, R.; del Puerto, L.; Inda, H.; Panario, D.; Castineira, C.; and Garcia-Rodriguez, F. (2011). “The relationship between emergence of mound builders in SE Uruguay and climate change inferred from opal phytolith records.”
Haug, G.H.; Hughen, K.A.; Sigman, D.M.; Peterson, L.C.; and Rohl, U. (2001). “Southward migration of the intertropical convergence zone through the Holocene.”
Goni, M.A.; Woodworth, M.P.; Aceves, H.L.; Thunell, R.C.; Tappa, E.; Black, D.; Muller-Karger, F.; Astor, Y.; and Varela, R. (2004). “Generation, transport, and preservation of the alkenone-based U37K’ sea surface temperature index in the water column and sediments of the Cariaco Basin (Venezuela).”
Neukom, R.; Luterbacher, J.; Villalba, R.; Kuttel, M.; Frank, D.; Jones, P.D.; Grosjean, M.; Wanner, H.; Aravena, J.-C.; Black, D.E.; Christie, D.A.; D’Arrigo, R.; Lara, A.; Morales, M.; Soliz-Gamboa, C.; Srur, A.; Urritia, R.; and von Gunten, L. (2011). “Multiproxy summer and winter surface air temperature field reconstructions for southern South America covering the past centuries.”
Global Warmth 