Art Disproves Science!

Actually, not really, but provocative headline, no?

What's interesting is that there are actually a few projects from AGW skeptics which are surveying medieval landscape paintings to help subjectively prove a Middle Warm Period in the European climate record. There is also a similar project to survey art from the Renaissance to about 1850 to look for subjective clues about the Little Ice Age. Why is this important? This is to defend against ten year old rhetoric that right now is the warmest it has been in 2000 years, nevermind that we didn't have a lot of carbon gas producing economies 2000 years ago to make it as warm as it is currently, but whatever. Still, it is pretty ridiculous to look for some kind of climate record hint in art, at least from a scientific viewpoint. What are the variables, the metrics, how do you test your theory that a worldwide rise in temperature inspires more sunny pictures? Will there also be more snowy pictures during the Little Ice Age? Anyway, it's a fun idea, but ultimately more hot air fueling the debate.