The Last 12,000 Years Show a More Complex Climate History Than Previously Thought

 Inconsistencies between Holocene climate reconstructions and numerical model simulations question the robustness of climate models and proxy temperature records. Here, we analyze a global database of Holocene paleotemperature records to investigate the spatiotemporal structure of the HTM. The results indicate a heterogeneous response to climate forcing and highlight the lack of globally synchronous HTM

Natural climate variability results from multiple forcings and feedbacks with heterogenous spatiotemporal manifestations

• Greenhouse gases, volcanic radiative forcing, and solar irradiance apply rather homogeneously across the Earth's surface, while insolation varies both latitudinally and seasonally
• Evidence of past climate variability gleaned through the testimony of geological archives offers a unique opportunity to contextualize ongoing changes and to assess climate model performance on timescales going beyond the decadal climate variability recorded in the instrumental period
• Global temperature reconstructions consistently depict a Holocene Thermal Maximum (HTM) ranging between 10-5 ka4,5 with a maximal probability centered around 6.45 ka4
• The cooling trend inferred from proxy records, often attributed to declining high northern latitude insolation, cannot be resolved in numerical simulations
• This discrepancy between proxy data and model simulations, commonly referred to as "The Holocene Temperature Conundrum"7, casts doubt on the conceptual framework underlying temperature proxy interpretation and on climate model skill

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/10/05/the-last-12000-years-show-a-more-complex-climate-history-than-previously-thought/