The holocene climate anomalies

Source: The post is based on the article “The holocene climate anomalies”  published in The Hindu on 2nd August 2023.

What is the News?

Recently, a study has claimed that a particular day in July was the warmest in more than 100,000 years. However, it is scientifically impossible to make such a claim.

Why is it scientifically impossible to claim that a particular day was the warmest in more than 100,000 years?

Temperature estimates from before thermometers existed rely on “palaeo proxies,” which have limitations in accuracy and timescale.

The “paleo proxies” can provide insights into temperature anomalies over longer timescales such as centuries or thousands of years. 

However, they cannot accurately determine daily temperatures due to mixing processes in oceans and lakes.

Hence, making such alarmist claims without scientific basis damages trust in climate action initiatives and scientists’ credibility.

What is Paleoclimatology? 

Paleoclimatology is the study of past climates. Since it is not possible to go back in time to see what climates were like, scientists use imprints created during past climates, known as proxies, to interpret paleoclimate. 

Organisms, such as diatoms, forams, and coral serve as useful climate proxies. Other proxies include ice cores, tree rings, and sediment cores 

What is the Holocene epoch?

The Holocene is the name given to the last 11,700 years of the Earth’s history — the time since the end of the last major glacial epoch or “ice age.”

Since then, there have been small-scale climate shifts — notably the “Little Ice Age” between about 1200 and 1700 A.D. — but in general, the Holocene has been a relatively warm period in between ice ages.