Tom,

Well reasoned post. The current warm period can also be seen as a temperature rebound from the Little Ice Age.

Of note is the graph shows sharp peaks of warming; it warms rapidly and then cools just as rapidly. Secondly, each succeeding peak has a lesser maximum than the previous peak. Since warming is natural, one can assume we may be in for rapid cooling if our current era warming peak follows a similarl shape. This may have already started given the severity of winters in both hemispheres the last few years.

Mariss