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The Ice Cores
> 400K year history from Vostok
> 800K year history from DomeC
The climate is far from constant
CO2, CH4 and Temperature are all correlated
The data tells us far more than this
- What kind of changes are expected?
- Which came first, the gas or the heat?
- What are the periodic influences?
Notes:
Understanding the ice core data is a particularly tricky, making it easy to misinterpret the results. The data collection process is nonlinear, the reported results are indirectly related to the measurements and careful analysis techniques must be employed before meaningful comparisons can be made. None the less, this data is a rich source of information about how and why the climate changes.
Most importantly, it tell us that climate change is normal. It also tell us that the recent warming trend is insignificant compared to historic changes, both in magnitude and rate of change. It even tells us that change is a necessary part of the climate system.
It would be silly to deny a connection between temperature, CO2 and CH4. While the true nature of this relationship is not obvious, it can be extracted from the data once you know where to look.