CLIMAP Project

THE CLIMAP PROJECT (Climate: Long range Investigation, Mapping, and Prediction), run by the World Data Center for Paleoclimatology, first published its oceanic map in 1981. Although nominally meant to map ocean conditions, the project gave insight into global warming, due to the fact that oceanic conditions in a region distant from the ice sheets were largely dependent on greenhouse gases. Therefore, a model ofthe conditions thousands of years ago compared to current conditions could provide evidence for human-caused global warming.

Although CLIMAP is frequently cited as a useful resource for mapping oceanic conditions during the last glacial maximum, several of its claims are controversial and, perhaps, misestimates. Unfortunately, collecting sediment core samples from the Pacific Ocean is quite expensive; therefore, re-collecting the data or obtaining more ...