Getting things into perspective: The BIG picture

From climate4you

Fig.2. Reconstructed global temperature over the past 420,000 years based on the Vostok 

ice core from the Antarctica (Petit et al. 2001). The record spans over four glacial 

periods and five interglacials, including the present. The horizontal line indicates 

the modern temperature. The red square to the right indicates 

the time interval shown in greater detail in the following figure.

The diagram (Fig.2) shows a reconstruction of global temperature based on ice core analysis from the Antarctica. The present interglacial period (the Holocene) is seen to the right (red square). The preceding four interglacials are seen at about 125,000, 280,000, 325,000 and 415,000 years before now, with much longer glacial periods in between. All four previous interglacials are seen to be warmer (1-3oC) than the present. The typical length of a glacial period is about 100,000 years, while an interglacial period typical lasts for about 10-15,000 years. The present interglacial period has now lasted about 11,600 years.

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