Monte wrote:
Jocificus wrote:
I don't usually get involved in this forum, but I just have to point out that this is straight up false. There have been multiple times in the earth's history that CO2 levels were far higher than what there is now, levels far higher than anything we'll produce in the next few decades or more even. Just because the CO2 doesn't disappear magically doesn't mean the Earth can't handle it.
This is simply, factually, absolutely untrue.
Either your bias is leading to you assume you understand what was written, or you are completely misled, or intentionally trying to mislead others. There was nothing in that statement that limited Jocificus' statement to a comparison between pre and post industrial revolution.
Historically, the CO2 levels in the atmosphere have been significantly higher than they are currently, and there are easy resources available that discuss the levels.
In 2009, the CO2 global average concentration in Earth's atmosphere was about 0.0387% by volume, or 387 parts per million by volume (ppmv).[1][2] This is 103 ppmv (36%) above the 1832 ice core levels of 284 ppmv.
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While these measurements give much less precise estimates of carbon dioxide concentration than ice cores, there is evidence for very high CO2 volume concentrations between 200 and 150 Ma of over 3,000 ppm and between 600 and 400 Ma of over 6,000 ppm.[19] On long timescales, atmospheric CO2 content is determined by the balance among geochemical processes including organic carbon burial in sediments, silicate rock weathering, and vulcanism. The net effect of slight imbalances in the carbon cycle over tens to hundreds of millions of years has been to reduce atmospheric CO2. The rates of these processes are extremely slow; hence they are of limited relevance to the atmospheric CO2 response to emissions over the next hundred years. In more recent times, atmospheric CO2 concentration continued to fall after about 60 Ma. About 34 Ma, when the ice sheets of Antarctica started to take their current form near the Eocene-Oligocene extinction event, CO2 has been found to be about 760 ppm,
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This is a misunderstanding of the realities of what we are facing of an almost unspeakable magnitude. We *are* killing the earth. A 3 degree change in average global temperatures would have disastrous results for our society, economy, and our life. It wouldn't be just a small adjustment. It wouldn't be just a nip here and a tuck there.
Not killing the earth... maybe self destructive for humanity as we currently exist, but not destroying the earth, or turning it into a barren rock like some have suggested.