Can a tree rewrite climate history?

A tip of the hat to Noel Sheppard at Newsbusters for this story:

The world's oldest tree has been found in Sweden, a tenacious spruce that first took root just after the end of the last ice age, more than 9,500 years ago.

The tree has rewritten the history of the climate in the region, revealing that it was much warmer at that time and the ice had disappeared earlier than thought.

Shucks, just when we thought we had reached a consensus on climate change, now this darned 10 millenial spruce tree changes everything!

And it's not the only one. Prof Leif Kullman at Umeå University found a cluster of around 20 spruces that are over 8,000 years old!

It had been thought that this region was still in the grip of the ice age but the tree shows it was much warmer, even than today, he says.

“Spruces are the species that can best give us insight about climate change,” he says.

The summers 9,500 years ago were warmer than today, though there has been a rapid recent rise as a result of climate change that means modern climate is rapidly catching up.

All those humans who emigrated into the area following the last ice age must have had a lot of carbon spewing SUV's!