Friday, September 05, 2008
Climate change reveals... climate change?
Glaciers in the Alps are melting, supposedly because of human induced (anthropogenic) global warming, now called "climate change." As they recede, we are learning a lot about neolithic humans:
Some 5,000 years ago, on a day with weather much like today's, a prehistoric person tread high up in what is now the Swiss Alps, wearing goat leather pants, leather shoes and armed with a bow and arrows.
The unremarkable journey through the Schnidejoch pass, a lofty trail 2,756 metres (9,000 feet) above sea level, has been a boon to scientists. But it would never have emerged if climate change were not melting the nearby glacier.
So far, 300 objects dating as far back as the Neolithic or New Stone Age -- about 4,000 BC in Europe -- to the later Bronze and Iron Ages and the Medieval era have been found in the site's former icefield.
So, 5000 years ago, and even apparently during the Middle Ages, there was no ice where a glacier stood in modern times, but we know the glacier melted because humans have been burning fossil fuels for the last century.
Check.
1 Comments:
By 
RJ, at
Sat Sep 06, 06:36:00 PM:
Then why weren't the glaciers there 5,000 years ago? Was that because of humans burning fossil fuels? I bet they had great cars then. Glaciers come and go - always have and always will. Why is it suddenly caused by a minor greenhouse gas that's only 0.04% of the atmosphere?
