Appearance Deceives: Despite Extreme Heatwaves, Earth Remains in a Cool Geological Period

Hungary is enduring a scorching summer, with record-breaking temperatures in June and July drawing significant attention to global warming. However, geologists like Dr. Árpád Juhász offer a different perspective, suggesting that despite the current heat, Earth remains in a colder geological period. This era, which began 2.6 million years ago and is commonly referred to as the ice age, is characterized by extreme climate fluctuations.

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We are still living in the period described by extreme climate fluctuations, which characterized the Pleistocene epoch that began 2.6 million years ago – the ice age, using a term incorrectly adopted into common parlance – because, a rare phenomenon in Earth's history, the poles are currently covered in ice.

Juhász points to the presence of ice caps at the poles as evidence that Earth is not in a consistently warm phase. He explains that the planet has experienced much more extreme climate shifts in its history, long before human civilization. For instance, the period following the Würm glaciation, approximately 18,000 years ago, saw a rapid warming event known as the Dyras. During the peak of the last ice age, vast amounts of water were frozen, causing global sea levels to drop by 100 to 120 meters.

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Although it may seem to the average person that the rapid warming we are experiencing now is a completely unique phenomenon, in reality, Earth's history knows even more extreme climate fluctuations, and moreover, from a time long before human civilization, or even the appearance of humans.

This dramatic drop in sea level had profound effects on early human migration. Homo sapiens used the exposed land bridges to travel to regions like the Sunda Islands, Australia, and the Americas via the Bering Strait. The subsequent rapid warming, occurring over just one to two thousand years, caused the melting of massive ice sheets covering much of Eurasia. This meltwater raised global sea levels by at least 100 meters, submerging the land bridges that connected Southeast Asian islands to Asia and Australia.

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There are extreme geological examples of sudden warming. One such example is the Dyras warming that followed the end of the last major ice age, the Würm glaciation, the causes of which are not precisely known.

The article questions whether the current warming is merely a warmer interlude within a larger ice age cycle or the beginning of a fundamentally new climate pattern. It delves into the causes of past climate changes on Earth and examines both natural and human factors contributing to the current warming trend, inviting a deeper scientific discussion beyond immediate weather events.

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So much water froze out of the world's oceans during this period that the global sea level was 100 – 120 meters lower than today.