What type of data can be examined to provide insights into past climate conditions?

Proxy data, like ice cores, are invaluable in examining past climate conditions because they contain trapped bubbles of air that act as time capsules. These bubbles preserve atmospheric gases and particulate matter that provide information on historical temperature, greenhouse gas concentrations, and even volcanic activity over the millennia. Analyzing ice cores allows scientists to reconstruct climate conditions in specific time frames, often extending back hundreds of thousands of years.

In contrast, current satellite data primarily offer insights into present-day atmospheric conditions and trends rather than historical data. Real-time environmental statistics focus on current measurements, which do not provide a view into past climate scenarios. Annual temperature records can provide a historical perspective but are generally limited to data from the past few decades to a century at most, and they often lack the comprehensive depth that proxy data provides over much longer timescales. Therefore, proxy data such as ice cores are the most effective means of investigating and understanding past climate conditions.