Three new tree ring reconstructions (spanning 1320-2021, 1720-2014, and 1657-2020 CE) document the dominance of natural variability in the paleoclimate record.
In the last 300 to 700 years, no precipitation pattern has emerged in Scandinavia, Asia, or Central Greece which can be linked to anthropogenic impacts or post-1950 CO2 increases (Stridbeck et al., 2026, Cai et al., 2026, Sakalis and Kastridis, 2025).
Extreme precipitation deficits (droughts) were much more common and pronounced across sub-Arctic Sweden and the Tibetan Plateau (TP) before 1950 than since.
For example, there were three TP megadroughts from 1865-1950, whereas only one occurred from 1950-2014 (Cai et al., 2026). TP severe drought years were worse in 1735 and 1914 than in 2009.
Image Source: Stridbeck et al., 2026
Image Source: Cai et al., 2026
Image Source: Sakalis and Kastridis, 2025
