An item from the Sydney Morning Herald caught my eye at some point this week … here’s the incipit:
TONY ABBOTT is under pressure to justify telling students it was considerably warmer when Jesus was alive after leading scientists said his claim was wrong.
He urged year 5 and 6 pupils at an Adelaide school to be sceptical about the human contribution to climate change, saying it was an open question.
In a question-and-answer session on Friday, the Opposition Leader said it was warmer “at the time of Julius Caesar and Jesus of Nazareth” than now.
Leading scientists said there was no evidence to suggest it was hotter 2000 years ago. […]
via Climate scientists cross with Abbott for taking Christ’s name in vain.
… back when rogueclassicism was young, we mentioned a study in CO2 Science on the so-called Roman Warm Period, which ran roughly from 250 B.C. to 450 A.D.. A more recent study (which didn’t get any press attention, near as I can tell, but is all over the interwebs) uses mollusk evidence to suggest the period was actually warmer than the present day. Interesting implications about the Romans’ activities rarely, if ever, seem to be mentioned in connection with the RWP (cf., e.g., claims of Roman pollution found in Iceland). Seems to be some sort of ‘elephant in the room’ situation …
UPDATE (05/22/10): The study seems to be filtering to the editorial pages, e.g.:
- <a href=”http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/may/19/nero-was-hotter-than-al-gore/”>EDITORIAL: Nero was hotter than Al Gore | Washington Times</a>
rogueclassicism 