Email 1558, Nov 2003, UEA's Nick Brooks: "I¹m always wary of claims...that we are entering a period of unprecedented warmth...research suggests tropical sea-surface temperatures some 5-6 degrees higher [in the Holocene] than present...such claims may come back to haunt us"

Email 1558

I¹m always wary of claims (p3) that we are entering a period of unprecedented warmth. I do not know what the mean global temperature was in the Holocene climatic optimum, but research suggests tropical sea-surface temperatures some 5-6 degrees higher than present. Even a smaller change would of course be catastrophic for many societies today, but unless there have been serious comparisons between today and the mid-Holocene and we can say with confidence that anthropogenic warming scenarios exceed such palaeoclimatic conditions such claims may come back to haunt us.