Here's a very good example
of the Holocene Optimum
warm period, very likely to
have been warmer than
today:
Today, Zhokhov Island,
in the Siberian High Arctic,
is very cold.
There's desolate tundra.
There are no trees.
There are no birds.
There's year-round pack ice
in the surrounding sea,
even in the summer.
Summer temperatures
may reach just 1° or 2° C
above freezing during
the warmest month ( July ).
It's damn cold there !
But, 9,000 to 10,000 years ago,
Zhokhov Island was warm enough
to host waterfowl species,
birch trees, and year-round
human residents, who hunted
polar bear and reindeer.
It was teeming with
waterfowl species,
that would have required
100+ days above freezing
to breed successfully.
( Today, non-freezing days
may reach only 60 days per year )
There were many birch trees.
( Today, the northern limit for
birch trees is 600 km farther south ).
Human inhabitants
of Zhokhov Island,
used to hunt polar bear
and reindeer with blades
made of raw materials
(obsidian) brought in from
far away.
(Pitulko et al., 2019)
Zhokhov Island was
at least +5 to + 6°C
warmer than today,
10,000 and 9,000
years ago, when
CO2 concentrations
were about 260 ppm.
(Makeyev et al., 2003)
Artifacts recovered from
an archaeological site
on Zhokhov Island,
indicate the humans
that lived there,
between 8,250
and 7,800 years ago,
hunted polar bear
in the winter, and
reindeer year-round.
They used dogsleds,
and knife / spear blades
made of obsidian,
or volcanic glass.
There was no volcanic
glass on the island,
so they must have
procured obsidian
on the Siberian mainland,
likely traveling hundreds
of kilometers to get it.
(Pitulko et al., 2019)
“Our data show that
from 10,600 BP,
Zhokhov Island
was situated
on the margin
of the shrinking
Arctic coast. "
"This is supported
by the presence
of a large quantity
of driftwood that
washed ashore
at the Zhokhov site."
(Anisimov et al. 2009)
"Zhokhov Island
was covered by
an Arctic tundra
comprising sedge grass,
shrubs and dwarf birch ."
(Makeyev et al. 2003)
Other recent studies
prove the entire Arctic
was +4 to +7°C warmer
than today, also about
9,000 years ago.
(McFarlin et al., 2018, and
Mangerud and Svendsen, 2018)
Current Arctic
temperatures
are +1 degree C.
degrees warmer
than in the late 1970s,
but the temperature
there now is no warmer
than in the warm 1930s.
Greenland was much warmer
during the 1920s and 1930s,
than in recent decades.
