How has the Earth changed in 10,000 revolutions around the sun?
The figure to the left shows the amount of ice melting from an Ice Cap in what is now northern Canada and is based on the work of paleoclimatologist Ray Bradley. Reflecting the warming that has occurred after the most recent ice age, this graph provides a snapshot of the range of variability as measured by melting ice caps that can occur during a time span of 10,000 years. Note that the melting that has occurred during the 20th Century is greater than almost all periods for ~4000 years. (See dashed line). As we see in Climate Science, scientists looking for long-term patterns of 1,000 years or more in climate and environmental change use a variety of paleo proxies such as tree rings, and cores taken from ice caps and sediment layers from the ocean or lakes to glean data that can provide insight into why climate can abruptly shift in less than a decade. In Climate History we examine the development of human civilizations during the Holocene– the past +10,000 years since the last ice ag
