Little Ice Age? No. Big Warming Age? Yes

In September, a website called Space Weather Archive interviewed Martin Mlynczak of NASA’s Langley Research Center. Mlynczak noted that because the sun is currently in a relatively inactive period, the thermosphere (one of the highest layers of Earth’s atmosphere, more than 300 miles above the surface) could reach its coldest temperatures since records began in the 1940s.

Woodcut of a famous 18th-century winter in Massachusetts,
during what some have called the "Little Ice Age," for the
lack of a better term. But compared to full-blown ice ages,
it was short-lived and puny, scientists say. Image from
"History and Antiquities of New England," published 1856.
Courtesy of New York Public Library.

The interview didn’t mention Earth’s surface temperatures, where the past five years have been the five hottest since records began in the late-1800s. However, the British newspaper Metro then ran a story falsely claiming that: “It’s feared this could herald the arrival of a uniquely grim ‘mini Ice Age.’ ”

Like a bad game of Telephone, this inaccurate reporting then spread throughout the conservative media, including Fox News, the Drudge Report, Rush Limbaugh, and Sarah Palin’s Twitter page. The story was debunked by the climate scientists at Climate Feedback, and Metro subsequently issued a correction, but the damage had been done.

Read the story from the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists by Dana Nuccitelli - “Little Ice Age? No. Big Warming Age? Yes.”