Originally Posted by: R. Shackleferd...as that chart only shows a 1000 and 4000 year history...

If that's the case, then I'm raising a red flag right now because we have Arctic and Antarctic ice cores (completely with trapped pockets of atmosphere) going back past the Last Glacial Maximum 18,000 years ago. According to After the Ice, anyway.

Usually, in a situation like this, when somebody shows you a chart of 4,000 years of History it's because they DON'T want you to see something about the other 14,000 years. Looking at one of Mithen's graphs, it shows global temperature being WELL above what we're seeing today at about 7,500 BC and another big spike at 4,500 BC.

Even 2,000 BC is graphed as much warmer and wetter than now.