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The Last Time Earth Heated Up This Fast Was When The Dinosaurs Went Extinct
By
Scott Heins
Published Mar 21, 2016
Modified Mar 21, 2016
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By
Scott Heins
Published Mar 21, 2016
Modified Mar 21, 2016
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Just when you thought you'd had enough of our planet's Certain Climate Doom, here comes SCIENCE with their new campaign for Certain Climate Doom 2: The Certaining. A report published today in Nature Geoscience confirms that the Earth's carbon levels are increasing at a rate unseen since the dinosaurs went extinct [pdf].
To put it another way: the Earth hasn't warmed up this quickly for 66 million years. The good folks at National Geographic have published startling breakdown of the data:
That period, known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), was marked by a massive release of the Earth's natural carbon stores into the atmosphere. (It’s not clear what caused the PETM, but volcanic eruptions and methane gas release are suspects.) The excess carbon triggered a 5°C (9°F) temperature increase, along with drought, floods, insect plagues, and extinctions. (Read more about this period of “Hothouse Earth.”)
The new analysis of the sediment record concludes that the carbon rush at the start of the PETM extended over at least 4,000 years. That translates to about 1.1 additional gigatons of carbon per year. Today, fossil fuel burning and other human activity release 10 gigatons of carbon annually.
According to the study's leader, University of Hawaii Oceanographer Richard Zeebe, the onset of carbon is now happening so fast that history provides no real reference points. "[W]e don't have a really good analog in the past for the massive amount of carbon we're releasing," he told NatGeo. "Even if we look at the PETM and say the transition to a warmer climate may have been relatively smooth, there's no guarantee for the future."
"The lesson for society is the same," Penn State Geoscientist Lee Kump said in an interview with the magazine. "We are now exceeding by an order of magnitude the rate of carbon release during one of the most remarkable global warming events in Earth's history." Here in New York City, global climate change is on pace to completely flood the five boroughs during the next thousand years. But if that's too long to wait, fear not—in only the next few decades we'll also experience food shortages, skyrocketing coffee prices, outbreaks of the Zika virus, the disappearance of lobsters, and the death of winter sports all together.
Tagged
carbon emissions
climate change
environment
greenhouse gases
Scott Heins
Scott Heins is a freelance photo and video journalist based in New York City, and a frequent contributor to Gothamist + WNYC. His work often centers around labor rights, housing, and policing. In 2018-2019 he traveled to four states while covering a wave of public school teachers strikes, with work featured in The New York Times, The Intercept, Getty Images, Splinter, and Bloomberg Photos. Scott is a dues-paying member of the National Writers Union's Freelance Solidarity Project.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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