The Greenhouse Effect and Global Warming - Air Pollution and Global Warming: History, Science, and Solutions - page 287

Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) in Geneva, Switzerland.
Because of the depressing nature of the weather, Lord
Byron and Shelley's wife, Mary Wollstonecraft Shel-
ley (1797-1851) entered into a competition to write
the most depressing work. Lord Byron wrote the poem
Darkness , and Mary Shelley started the novel Franken-
stein ( The Modern Prometheus ), which she finished in
1818.

1

Medieval climate
o ptimu m Little Ice Ag e

0.5

0

Greenland

-0.5

1 -1

Antarctic

0

-1

-2

12.3.2.13. Comparison of Current
with Historical Temperatures
The current high temperatures are not unprecedented in
Earth's history. In fact, temperatures throughout most
of the planet's history have been even higher than today,
except during the major and minor ice ages. How-
ever, during previous periods of high temperature, the
Earth did not need to support the infrastructure to feed,
clothe, and house billions of people .Previous changes
in Earth's temperature were also gradual, not sudden.
The global warming that is now occurring has resulted
in a rate of temperature increase that is higher than
nearly all known historic rates of temperature increase .
Table 12.4 shows that the rate of temperature increase
from 1880 to 2010 was about 0.7 ◦ C per 100 years and
that from 1955 to 2010 was 1.3 ◦ C per 100 years. For
comparison, the rate of temperature increase during the
past millennium was about 0.052 ◦ C per 100 years, dur-
ing the deglaciation after the Younger Dryas period was
0.3 ◦ C per 100 years, and during the deglaciation leading
to the last interglacial period was 0.13 ◦ C per 100 years.
The rate of temperature increase today is greater than
the rate of historic temperature increase due to natural
events.
Ye t , a n e xamination of the Vostok core data indicates
that during deglaciations, temperature increases over

1.5 1 0.5 0

Year AD

Figure 12.24. Temperature variation in the Northern
Hemisphere summer (top line) and in the Antarctic
(bottom line) during the past 1,500 years. The
deviations for the ice core data are relative to a
modern surface air temperature over the ice of
− 55 ◦ C. Greenland data are from North Greenland Ice

Core Project Members (2004). Antarctic data are from
the Vostok ice core (Jouzel et al., 1987, 1993, 1996;
Petit et al., 1999).

islanders directly and through disease and famine. The
volcano emitted an estimated 1.7 million tonnes of
ash and aerosol particles that traveled globally, cooling
North America and Europe over the next 2 years (Stom-
mel and Stommel, 1981; Stothers, 1984). In 1816, frost
in the spring and summer killed crops in the United
States, Canada, and Europe, sparking famine in some
areas of Europe. In the northeast United States and
Canada, 1816 was known as the year without a sum-
mer .The artist Joseph M. W. Turner (1775-1851) cap-
tured colorful sunsets caused by the volcanic particles
in paintings during this period.
In the dark summer of 1816, George Gordon (Lord)
Byron (1788-1824) met and became friends with Percy

Table 12.4. Rates of temperature change during different historical periods

Temperature change (K)
per 100 years Period Years ago

1958-2007 (radiosonde records, Figure 12.14) 52-4 + 1.3

1955-2010 (land and ship measurements, Figure 12.13) 56-1 + 1.3

1880-2010 (land and ship measurements, Figure 12.13) 121-1 + 0.7

During the past 1,000 years (Vostok core, Figure 12.24) 1,000-0 + 0.052

+ 0.3

Deglaciation after Younger Dryas (Vostok core, Figure 12.23) 12,632-11,191

+

Last years of deglaciation after Younger Dryas (Vostok core,
Figure 12.23)

11,237-11,191 2.2

Deglaciation leading to last interglacial period (Vostok core,
Figure 12.20)

138,000-128,000 + 0.13