Global Warming and the Tree-Ring Circus

Climate change /global warming alarmists examine tree rings for what they call climate signals. Like dendrochronology, there are serious problems involved. The old idea of a tree having one ring each year is known to be false, but there are other factors that need greater consideration.

Credit: RGBStock / Gesine Kuhlmann

Global warming activists are known for ignoring facts in order to promote their agenda, and they also presuppose evolution and billions of years. Discerning signals and noise in tree rings must involve the health of the individual trees, responses of local tree groups, changing conditions (which can easily remain unknown over many years), and more. Something else to consider is that our Creator provided adaptation responses to the environment in plants. Two papers were published, one seemed far more sensible and cautious, the other apparently ignores data for the sake of their agenda.

Tree ring data should provide accurate checks on climate models, right? It’s complicated.

By common assumption, a tree produces one ring per year, as a reflection of the changing seasons (heavy growth in summer, slow growth in winter). Scientists can use that cycle to count back over centuries. A tree, however, is not obligated to follow the calendar; it is responding to a bevy of conditions that allow for growth. One of the most obvious factors is climate; rings should be more densely concentrated in dry years, more widely spaced in wet years. That’s the theory. By comparing ring patterns from multiple trees, scientists should be able to use the data as a proxy for changing climate.

You wooden want to miss the rest of this article. Just visit "Rings Around Climate Theories".