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If the question is a bit confusing, what I'm asking is if there is scientific evidence to counter an argument against climate change that I had come across.

The person said that climate change is not a serious issue due to the "globe" having warmed up before in humanity's existence -- specifically Greenland during the Viking age, or the Nordic countries.

Addendum: I understand that such an argument against climate change is not factually correct, however, in the spirit of the scientific method I went to look for evidence that pointed either in favor or against this argument... only to then wade through a quagmire of pseudo science and nonsensical claims in favor of this response which are distressingly common. Thus I ask this question to try to get more clear information.

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    $\begingroup$ Are you aware of the website skepticalscience.com? It counters many denialist arguments. You may find an answer there. $\endgroup$
    – gerrit ♦
    Commented Jul 4, 2022 at 9:12
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    $\begingroup$ Please ask one question per Stack Exchange question :) They're quite different questions for people to answer $\endgroup$
    – JeopardyTempest
    Commented Jul 4, 2022 at 12:40
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    $\begingroup$ Unfortunately, many of the arguments on skepticalscience.com are themselves refutable and sometimes accurate, misleading, or given with poorly-sourced information. $\endgroup$
    – Barry Carter
    Commented Jul 4, 2022 at 13:28
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    $\begingroup$ @blacksmith37, could please elaborate on the how this question is politically incorrect? $\endgroup$
    – Seraphim
    Commented Jul 4, 2022 at 16:26
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    $\begingroup$ facts does not work on climate deniers so it might be better to focus your energy in a different direction. $\endgroup$
    – trond hansen
    Commented Jul 5, 2022 at 2:59

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I suspect what that person is saying is that they think global warming is not actually occurring - that any changes are (like the Medieval Warm Period) naturally occurring and that it won't play out differently over time. But it is easy to show that the warming now is of a different scale than that example -

enter image description here

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    $\begingroup$ And when they point out how much colder it was at the beginning of the chart, remind them that there were glaciers covering New York at that time, so if that much colder than normal equals glaciers over New York, what does the same amount warmer than normal look like? $\endgroup$
    – John
    Commented Jul 5, 2022 at 3:20
  • $\begingroup$ can you explain what is being shown on the x-axis please? i assume that the x-axis is in units of years. and 0 refers to some time epoch... 2022, 2021, 2010? what year is 0 referring to? $\endgroup$
    – Trevor Boyd Smith
    Commented Jan 25, 2023 at 16:55
  • $\begingroup$ @TrevorBoydSmith - The graph was chosen for including multiple data sources, that don't show any exceptional MWP comparable to current warming. I think it has 1950 as the zero (BP) point. From "Holocene global mean surface temperature, a multi-method reconstruction approach" - nature.com/articles/s41597-020-0530-7 $\endgroup$
    – Ken Fabian
    Commented Jan 25, 2023 at 22:48

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