People will still argue with science

The article refers to records after the start of measurements. It is quite accurate to call them record numbers, even though 4.5 billion years ago the Earth was a glowing ball of liquid lava, and of course it was considerably hotter.

The temperatures you are talking about are known changes in the Earth's orbit around the Sun. They are called Milankovitch cycles and are the reason behind periodic ice ages in the last 2.8 million years. In total, the Earth went through about 40 ice ages, and we have found traces of them.

In the warm season when there was forest in Hardangervidda, the cycle was at its peak. It was this peak that melted the ice sheet over our country, and it was this peak that gave humans a stable, warm period that provided the foundation for our entire civilization.

Here's the thing: Earth's orbit is well documented. Researchers know that there are 20,000 years until the next freeze and ice age. The climate will slowly become cooler, as it has done for as long as there have been forests on the plateau.

But the opposite happens. The weather is getting warmer. The answer lies in carbon dioxide. This is the only answer, as no other natural cycle can explain it.

The Little Ice Age occurred, among other things, because European diseases killed off large portions of the indigenous populations on the American continents, and huge amounts of agriculture grew again in a short time. This forest growth absorbed large amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, thus accelerating the cooling process.

That carbon dioxide has these properties was already known in the 19th century.

But people still want to argue with science.

The National Geographic TV series “Cosmos” on Disney+ is highly recommended as basic knowledge. Book “Landet blir til” if you want to know more about the physics that created our beloved country. “Det som ble Norge” is a nice, simple read about the rocky ground we walk on.

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