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Published online 24 April 2008 | Nature | doi:10.1038/453013a

Sediment cores reveal Antarctica's warmer past

ANDRILL project discovers that life at the pole wasn#25;t so chilly 16 million years ago.

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  • The ANDRILL project has confirmed what other studies found earlier: Earth's climate has always changed. Studies have also shown that the orbital motion of the planets induces changes in the Sun and in Earth's climate. For example: 1. J. Shirley, "Axial rotation, orbital revolution and solar spin-orbit coupling", Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 368, 280-282 (2006). 2. W. Alexander et al., "Linkages between solar activity, climate predictability and water resource development," J. South African Institut. Civil Eng. 49, 32-44 (2007). http://www.lavoisier.com.au/papers/Conf2007/Alexander-etal-2007.pdf 3. Theodor Landscheidt, "Extrema in sunspot cycle linked to Sun's motion," Solar Physics 189, 413-424 (1999). http://bourabai.narod.ru/landscheidt/extrema.htm http://bourabai.narod.ru/landscheidt/publications.htm Regretfully, Al Gore and his friends neglected to consider orbital motions of the planets in making their long-range plans to stop global climate change. - Oliver K. Manuel

    • 24 Apr, 2008
    • Posted by: O M
  • So did somebody leave their SUV running 3.5 million years ago???

    • 25 Apr, 2008
    • Posted by: William Smith
  • The current debate is a non-starter if it focuses on whether climate changes (or whether the globe warms/cools). Technologists should be finding buttons and levers so humans can humanize the Earth. Conservation is a virtue. Attempts to legislate virtues are likely no more effective than attempts to change weather - without adequate knowledge.

    • 27 Apr, 2008
    • Posted by: IAN LEE
  • Is it possible to de-politicize (global warming)climate change?

    • 29 Apr, 2008
    • Posted by: Gary Filice
  • Ever since geologists first figured out that climate was different in the past, scientists have *always* known that climate changes naturally. These conclusions hold over multi-million-year time scales as well as decadal time scales. They hold 300 million years ago as well as 300 years ago. Just because scientists now believe that both data and theory overwhelmingly support the conclusion that humans are changing climate does NOT mean that they have abandoned the idea that climate has in the past (and will in the future) change naturally. One has to be either disingenuous or badly misinformed to conclude that the ANDRILL project has overturned any dogma with regards to anthropogenic climate change. Climate scientists learn that climate changes naturally in climate change kindergarden.

    • 29 Apr, 2008
    • Posted by: Charles Jones
  • Of course climate has changed over time, in response to both cyclical and non-cyclical forcing. But the world has never before experienced the type of perturbation imposed by the addition of so much previously sequestered carbon. What is different today is the RATE OF CHANGE in the climate system. The fact that the climate system is naturally variable makes the overprint of an anthropogenic effect even more troubling.

    • 30 Apr, 2008
    • Posted by: JONATHAN BERG
  • Thanks, Charles ["Just because scientists now believe that both data and theory overwhelmingly support the conclusion that humans are changing climate does NOT mean that they have abandoned the idea that climate has in the past (and will in the future) change naturally."] and Jonathan ["What is different today is the RATE OF CHANGE in the climate system."] Please share with us the experimental data that support these assertive statement. Thanks! Oliver K. Manuel, www.omatumr.com

    • 01 May, 2008
    • Posted by: O M
  • The Great Pyramid is actually a complete triacontrahedron, which is two, 4-sided pyramids base to base. In other words, beneath the Great Pyramid is another pyramid of equal proportions, with the apex pointed down. Inside that lower and as-yet undiscovered pyramid are the controls for the Earth. When humans finally learn to accept the improbable, they will be found.

    • 02 May, 2008
    • Posted by: Mike Havenar