{"id":433084,"date":"2026-03-22T15:14:34","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T14:14:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=433084"},"modified":"2026-03-22T15:14:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T14:14:36","slug":"blurring-the-past-how-ice-core-physics-undermines-unprecedented-co%e2%82%82-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=433084","title":{"rendered":"Blurring the Past: How Ice Core Physics Undermines \u2018Unprecedented\u2019 CO\u2082 Claims"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Peter Clack writes on X<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A common climate myth is that modern CO\u2082 is rising faster than anything in 800,000 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The truth is, no one can ever know. And this is where the science rubber really hits the road. There\u2019s no way to measure the speed of previous warming episodes. This means no one can say modern warming is \u2018unprecedented\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The truth comes from science, the laws of physics and ice core studies for more than a century. Before snow turns into solid ice, it exists in what is known as the \u2018firn\u2019. This refers to the porous, packed layer of snow that eventually settles into glacial ice. But this doesn\u2019t happen overnight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

These ice bubbles are not sealed from the surrounding air. So the air moves freely through this layer for decades or even centuries before the weight of new snow finally crushes the pores shut. This gas-age\/ice-age difference is why a single slice of ice contains air that is significantly younger than the ice surrounding it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because the air can circulate during those 50 to 200 years (depending on the site\u2019s snowfall rate), a single bubble doesn\u2019t represent a year. It can represent a rolling average of a century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If a massive CO\u2082 spike occurred 10,000 years ago but only lasted 40 years, the ice core would smooth it out. The spike would be averaged into the surrounding centuries of lower data, making it appear as a tiny, invisible bump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comparing a 20-year satellite trend to a 200-year ice core average is like comparing a high-definition photograph to a smudge of charcoal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A common climate myth is that modern CO\u2082 is rising faster than anything in 800,000 years. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121246920,"featured_media":433089,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[691829997],"class_list":["post-433084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-carbon-dioxide-co","fallback-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0-How-Ice-Core-Physics-Undermines-%E2%80%98Unprecedented-CO%E2%82%82-Claims1.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paxLW1-1OFe","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":434211,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=434211","url_meta":{"origin":433084,"position":0},"title":"Shock New Evidence Showing No Link Between CO2 and Temperature Over Last Three Million Years Stumps Net Zero Activists","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"03\/26\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"The climate science world (\u2018settled\u2019 division) is in shock following the discovery in ancient ice cores that levels of carbon dioxide remained stable as the world plunged into an ice age around 2.7 million years ago. Levels of CO2 at around 250 parts per million (ppm) were said to be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Antarctica\"","block_context":{"text":"Antarctica","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=antarctica"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0-ice-core-drilling-in-the-Antartic.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0-ice-core-drilling-in-the-Antartic.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0-ice-core-drilling-in-the-Antartic.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0-ice-core-drilling-in-the-Antartic.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":430588,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=430588","url_meta":{"origin":433084,"position":1},"title":"The Modern CO\u2082 Spike Looks Scarier Than It Really Is","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"03\/12\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Directly splicing the modern Mauna Loa record (~427 ppm in 2025) onto Antarctic ice-core data creates a visually alarming \u201chockey-stick\u201d spike. But this comparison is apples-to-oranges because ice-core proxies (especially from low-accumulation sites like Dome C or Vostok) heavily smooth atmospheric signals over 100\u2013300+ years due to firn diffusion. Rapid\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Boron Isotopes\"","block_context":{"text":"Boron Isotopes","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=boron-isotopes"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0-The-Modern-CO%E2%82%82-Spike-Looks-Scarier-Than-It-Really-Is.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0-The-Modern-CO%E2%82%82-Spike-Looks-Scarier-Than-It-Really-Is.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0-The-Modern-CO%E2%82%82-Spike-Looks-Scarier-Than-It-Really-Is.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0-The-Modern-CO%E2%82%82-Spike-Looks-Scarier-Than-It-Really-Is.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":431737,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=431737","url_meta":{"origin":433084,"position":2},"title":"Scrap Net Zero: Dramatic New Ice Core Evidence Shows Current Century Warming Common Throughout the Last 400,000 Years","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"03\/16\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Lies, disinformation and fictional accounting are the order of the day as a desperate hard-Left UK government, aided by its pet Climate Change Committee, tries to keep its impossible Net Zero controlling agenda intact. The bedrock unproven science claims surround the suggestion that recent limited global warming presents an existential\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"carbon dioxide (CO\u2082)\"","block_context":{"text":"carbon dioxide (CO\u2082)","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=carbon-dioxide-co%e2%82%82"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AQNjD50U5BSHXKhbscvVp0rGnUR6hoQdiZubFSx_Ij9yejmpV8YYFx1zXyOZCBb_Db7xH7SbDnfoSEwmkh0kWhbY0neImestka5gHpKz-03o-dSdp3Knnivmh-CEG9ab_VGSR0GV5xGzczFpZ2RI_eX0gaDy.jpeg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AQNjD50U5BSHXKhbscvVp0rGnUR6hoQdiZubFSx_Ij9yejmpV8YYFx1zXyOZCBb_Db7xH7SbDnfoSEwmkh0kWhbY0neImestka5gHpKz-03o-dSdp3Knnivmh-CEG9ab_VGSR0GV5xGzczFpZ2RI_eX0gaDy.jpeg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AQNjD50U5BSHXKhbscvVp0rGnUR6hoQdiZubFSx_Ij9yejmpV8YYFx1zXyOZCBb_Db7xH7SbDnfoSEwmkh0kWhbY0neImestka5gHpKz-03o-dSdp3Knnivmh-CEG9ab_VGSR0GV5xGzczFpZ2RI_eX0gaDy.jpeg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AQNjD50U5BSHXKhbscvVp0rGnUR6hoQdiZubFSx_Ij9yejmpV8YYFx1zXyOZCBb_Db7xH7SbDnfoSEwmkh0kWhbY0neImestka5gHpKz-03o-dSdp3Knnivmh-CEG9ab_VGSR0GV5xGzczFpZ2RI_eX0gaDy.jpeg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AQNjD50U5BSHXKhbscvVp0rGnUR6hoQdiZubFSx_Ij9yejmpV8YYFx1zXyOZCBb_Db7xH7SbDnfoSEwmkh0kWhbY0neImestka5gHpKz-03o-dSdp3Knnivmh-CEG9ab_VGSR0GV5xGzczFpZ2RI_eX0gaDy.jpeg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":298925,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=298925","url_meta":{"origin":433084,"position":3},"title":"Real Science Guy: Climate Crisis\u00a0Imaginary","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"01\/28\/2024","format":false,"excerpt":"For the past 35 years, the United Nations\u2019 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned us that emissions from the burning of fossil fuels, predominantly carbon dioxide (CO2), are causing dangerous global warming. This myth is blindly accepted \u2014 even by many of my science colleagues who know virtually\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Climate crisis\"","block_context":{"text":"Climate crisis","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=climate-crisis"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/0farm_emissions_sources.png?fit=1200%2C762&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/0farm_emissions_sources.png?fit=1200%2C762&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/0farm_emissions_sources.png?fit=1200%2C762&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/0farm_emissions_sources.png?fit=1200%2C762&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/0farm_emissions_sources.png?fit=1200%2C762&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":243289,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=243289","url_meta":{"origin":433084,"position":4},"title":"The IPCC AR6 Report Erases the Holocene","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"02\/05\/2023","format":false,"excerpt":"You won\u2019t find much in the\u00a0IPCC AR6 report\u00a0on the atmospheric CO2\u00a0concentration evolution during the\u00a0Holocene. They talk a lot about how CO2\u00a0concentration compares to global temperature during the years since 1850 and over the past 800,000 years, but very little about the changes since 12,000 years ago.","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/image-177.png?fit=910%2C616&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/image-177.png?fit=910%2C616&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/image-177.png?fit=910%2C616&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/image-177.png?fit=910%2C616&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":439916,"url":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=439916","url_meta":{"origin":433084,"position":5},"title":"Rapid Natural Warming Spikes Occurred 25 Times \u2014 Last Ice Age Edition","author":"uwe.roland.gross","date":"04\/16\/2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Abrupt climate change occurred naturally many times during the last ice age (the last glacial period, roughly 115,000 to 11,700 years ago). Paleoclimate records, especially from Greenland ice cores, document at least 25 major rapid warming-cooling oscillations known as Dansgaard-Oeschger (D-O) events.","rel":"","context":"In \"abrupt climate change\"","block_context":{"text":"abrupt climate change","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?tag=abrupt-climate-change"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0-Rapid-Natural-Warming-Spikes-Occurred-25-Times-%E2%80%94-Last-Ice-Age-Edition1.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0-Rapid-Natural-Warming-Spikes-Occurred-25-Times-%E2%80%94-Last-Ice-Age-Edition1.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0-Rapid-Natural-Warming-Spikes-Occurred-25-Times-%E2%80%94-Last-Ice-Age-Edition1.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/climatescience.press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0-Rapid-Natural-Warming-Spikes-Occurred-25-Times-%E2%80%94-Last-Ice-Age-Edition1.jpg?fit=784%2C1168&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/121246920"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=433084"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433084\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":433091,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433084\/revisions\/433091"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/433089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=433084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=433084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=433084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}