IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v614y2023i7948d10.1038_s41586-022-05536-w.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Revisiting the Holocene global temperature conundrum

Author

Listed:
  • Darrell S. Kaufman

    (Northern Arizona University)

  • Ellie Broadman

    (Northern Arizona University
    University of Arizona)

Abstract

Recent global temperature reconstructions for the current interglacial period (the Holocene, beginning 11,700 years ago) have generated contrasting trends. This Review examines evidence from indicators and drivers of global change, as inferred from proxy records and simulated by climate models, to evaluate whether anthropogenic global warming was preceded by a long-term warming trend or by global cooling. Multimillennial-scale cooling before industrialization requires extra climate forcing and major climate feedbacks that are not well represented in most climate models at present. Conversely, global warming before industrialization challenges proxy-based reconstructions of past climate. The resolution of this conundrum has implications for contextualizing post-industrial warming and for understanding climate sensitivity to several forcings and their attendant feedbacks, including greenhouse gases. From a large variety of available evidence, we find support for a relatively mild millennial-scale global thermal maximum during the mid-Holocene, but more research is needed to firmly resolve the conundrum and to advance our understanding of slow-moving climate variability.

Suggested Citation

  • Darrell S. Kaufman & Ellie Broadman, 2023. "Revisiting the Holocene global temperature conundrum," Nature, Nature, vol. 614(7948), pages 425-435, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:614:y:2023:i:7948:d:10.1038_s41586-022-05536-w
    DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05536-w
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05536-w
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41586-022-05536-w?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gu, Haolei & Wu, Lifeng, 2024. "Pulse fractional grey model application in forecasting global carbon emission," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 358(C).
    2. Hsun-Ming Hu & Gianluca Marino & Carlos Pérez-Mejías & Christoph Spötl & Yusuke Yokoyama & Jimin Yu & Eelco Rohling & Akihiro Kano & Patrick Ludwig & Joaquim G. Pinto & Véronique Michel & Patricia Val, 2024. "Sustained North Atlantic warming drove anomalously intense MIS 11c interglacial," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    3. Jiawei Jiang & Bowen Meng & Huanye Wang & Hu Liu & Mu Song & Yuxin He & Cheng Zhao & Jun Cheng & Guoqiang Chu & Sergey Krivonogov & Weiguo Liu & Zhonghui Liu, 2024. "Spatial patterns of Holocene temperature changes over mid-latitude Eurasia," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-10, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:614:y:2023:i:7948:d:10.1038_s41586-022-05536-w. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.