Was the Medieval Warm Period Global?

2001/02/23 by Wallace S. Broecker · 6 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Archaeology and ancient environmental studies #Art #Environmental science #Geology and Paleoclimatology Research #Period (music) #Tree-ring climate responses

paper · doi:10.1126/science.291.5508.1497

openalex publication_date 2001/02/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23

Abstract

During the Medieval Warm Period (800 to 1200 A.D.), the Vikings colonized Greenland. In his Perspective, Broecker discusses whether this warm period was global or regional in extent. He argues that it is the last in a long series of climate fluctuations in the North Atlantic, that it was likely global, and that the present warming should be attributed in part to such an oscillation, upon which the warming due to greenhouse gases is superimposed.

Citations

• INTCAL98 Radiocarbon Age Calibration, 24,000–0 cal BP
• Paleocean circulation during the Last Deglaciation: A bipolar seesaw?
• Northern hemisphere temperatures during the past millennium: Inferences, uncertainties, and limitations

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• Proxy climatic and environmental changes of the past 1000 years
• Low-Frequency Signals in Long Tree-Ring Chronologies for Reconstructing Past Temperature Variability
• Hockey stick graph (global temperature) [wikipedia]