The climate of southeast Iceland 1,000 to 2,000 years ago mayhave been significantly warmer than what has generally beenbelieved, and if so, may help establish a benchmark against which current global temperature conditions can be assessed, according to a UC Davis geographer. As evidence for his proposal, UC Davis professor Jack Ives cites radiocarbon-dated wood from beneath the Skaftafellsjokull and Svinafellsjokull glaciers, combined with a folk tradition claiming that large forests flourished several kilometers upglacier from the present glacial front. The reinforcement of the physical evidence by folk history is significant in terms of establishing the magnitude of climatic change over the past two millennia in comparison with the "abnormality" of present conditions. Perhaps, says Ives, the global warming believed to have emerged during the 1980s is not as dramatic as some may claim. He presented his findings recently at meeting of the Association of American Geographers.