Gag order on the EPA

[David Horn]

(01-25-2017, 04:14 PM)Galen Wrote: As I look back over geological time scales at the carbon dioxide levels and temperature I discover something very interesting.  First is that carbon dioxide levels have been much higher than they are now for much of the last 600 million years. Second the earth's average temperature has varied over that time from 10 to 25 degrees Celsius.

Unless the paleontologists are just making shit up then I am forced to conclude that carbon dioxide levels are not going to turn the earth into Venus because that never happened with much higher levels in the distant past.  This is exactly what I would expect from a system that has been stable for geological time scales.  If there was a positive feedback mechanism where carbon dioxide then it should have been triggered when carbon dioxide levels were greater than 3000 ppm.  Since we are here this clearly did not happen.

I don't think you need to take things anywhere near that far to find real catastrophe.  If climate drifts slowly, the natural systems can adjust.  If the drift is too fast, they can't.  Watching the temperatures change enough to kill trees unable to adjust, but unable to move where the climate is now conducive, is a catastrophe in the making.  That's already happening.