The findings prove that the world experienced a Medieval Warm Period between the ninth and 14th centuries with global temperatures significantly higher even than today.

They also confirm claims that a Little Ice Age set in around 1300, during which the world cooled dramatically. Since 1900, the world has begun to warm up again - but has still to reach the balmy temperatures of the Middle Ages.

The timing of the end of the Little Ice Age is especially significant, as it implies that the records used by climate scientists date from a time when the Earth was relatively cold, thereby exaggerating the significance of today’s temperature rise.

Middle Ages were warmer than today

Robinson Crusoe in words of only one syllable. Though his man Friday is still called Friday.

How strange a thing is the life of man! One day we love that which the next day we hate. One day we seek what the next day we shun. One day we long for the thing which the next day we fear; and so we go on. Now, from the time that I was cast on this isle, my great source of grief was that I should be thus cut off from the rest of my race. Why, then, should the thought that a man might be near give me all, this pain? Nay, why should the mere sight of the print of a man’s foot, make me quake with fear? It seems most strange; yet not more strange than true.

Een Nederlandse tekst in woorden van slechts éen lettergreep levert regels op als:

“Wat je vaak ziet is dit: elk mens gaat naar een school, en brengt daar zijn stem uit. Hij kiest uit een lijst. Hij maakt een stip op die lijst rood. Als een mens nu heel vaak zo’n stip bij zijn naam rood ziet, dan is hij de baas.”

[bron: Opperlandse taal- en letterkunde 9e druk]