claim: by the 2001 [ IPCC ] climate assessment...the Medieval Warm Period had been ingeniously wiped out.
evidence: The IPCC First Assessment Report in 1990 noted evidence that Holocene climatic optimum around 5,000-6,000 years ago had been warmer than the present ( at least in summer ) and that in some areas there had been exceptional warmth during a shorter Medieval Warm Period ( which may not have been global ) about AD 950-1250, followed by a cooler period of the Little Ice Age which ended only in the middle to late nineteenth century.