Short Warm Periods Typical for Transitions to Glacial Epochs?

Short Warm Periods Typical for Transitions

to Glacial Epochs?

Is naturally occurring global warming
a prelude to an ice age?

7 Mar 10 — The end of the last interglacial epoch - the Eemian Period - was marked by possibly at least two warming events, says this article in Science Daily.

Writing in Quaternary International, German and Russian climate researchers who evaluated geochemical and pollen analyses of lake sediments in Saxony-Anhalt, Brandenburg and Russia, say that a short warming event at the very end of the Eemian Period marked the final transition to the ice age.

The Eemian Period, also known as the Eemian Interglacial, began around 126,000 years ago, ended around 115,000 years ago and is named after the river Eem in the Netherlands.

"The observed instability with the proven occurrence of short warming events during the transition from the last interglacial to the last glacial epoch could be, when viewed carefully, a general, naturally occurring characteristic of such transition phases," concludes Dr Tatjana Boettger of the UFZ, who analysed the sediment profiles at the UFZ's isotope laboratory in Halle.

In other words, global warming could be a natural occurrence, and
could be a prelude to an ice age..

"From reconstructions of climate history, we know that in the Earth's recent history, interglacial epochs occurred only once every 100,000 years or so and lasted for an average of around 10,000 years. The current interglacial epoch -- the Holocene -- has already lasted more than 10,000 years and reached its highest point so far around 6000 years ago.

"From a climate history perspective, we are currently at the end of the Holocene and could therefore expect to see a cooling-down in a few thousand years if there had been no human influence on the atmosphere and the resulting global warming."

    A few thousand years? Where did they come up with that? If previous inter-
    glacials lasted an average of 10,000 years, and if the present interglacial has
    already lasted more than 10,000 years, then why on earth do they think the
    next cooling is still a few thousand years away?

     You already know what I think. I think we're entering the next ice age now.

See entire article, entitled "Climate Fluctuations 115,000 Years Ago:
Were Short Warm Periods Typical for Transitions to Glacial Epochs?"
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100302111912.htm
Thanks to Mike McEvoy for this link

THE NEXT ICE AGE - NOW!