I think everyone in here said Global warming exists . . . so you are trying to prove that humans contribute to that? Okay, that makes sense we have a bi-product of C02 when we burn gas and there is a direct correlation between C02/Methane and difference in the temperature of the earth over a very long period of time. That brings me to my point. . .
On your first graph you are showing a scale using thousands and thousands of years going from 425,000 years ago to present day. On your second graph you only go back to 1880 (128 years ago) and the third graph you go back to 1960 (48 years ago). How can you put so much faith into data that only shows back to the 1800s? The earth is millions of years old. So the arguement becomes . . . How much of an affect do humans have on global climate change? (not just warming).
Lets look at your first graph again:
http://i32.tinypic.com/35jihl0.gif
Okay . . . what I see here at the right end at present day . . . it appears we haven't crested above the other maximums (the 3 points roughly 100,000 years apart) and it appears we are on an upward trend heading for that crest. You say we should be in a cooling period but that statement doesn't make sense based on the graph because there is no clear peak like there has been in the past. Are you are saying because of human C02/Methane emissions we are not going to experience the cooling and warming period over the next 100,000 years?
Lets look at a chart of the estimated human population since 10,000 BC, this should put us in the same time scale as your first graph. (which I just linked again)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/comm...ation_curve.svg
I hope you opened it up and are looking at it so this makes sense . . . take my 12,000 year chart and squeeze it down real tiny and where does it fit? Right at the end of the first graph in the expected upswing of of temperature change. It's already been close to 100,000 years and humans are barely beginning to populate the earth. It is unclear to me if they are affecting this warming because I can't see into the future. I can't see where the temperature peaks and I can't see a descent.
All we can really say with this data is, yes there is global climate change, yes we are in a warming stage, yes we should be seeing a peak within the next few hundred years BUT we don't know yet how significant our influence is on climate change yet. We must be influencing it because we produce C02 and Methane. There is no denying that. Should we be shaking in our boots running for high ground because of it? I think no. Some think yes.
Based on this data and the small time scales of your glacier charts I don't think we have enough data to support major funding and crisis status of this topic. We should focus on more immediate, life threatening situations such as war, famine and disease. Those are things we can control quickly and effectively, we waste too much time on this climate change topic. We are small and can do simple things in our own life to output less C02, however, it is naive of us to think we can have an extreme influence on climate change until more time passes and more data is collected.
PS You also said we are going out of the normal cycle of warming and cooling, did you have more data for me on that? From the first graph it doesn't seem that we are out of the cycle.
