Ancient global warming caused by volcanoes?


Is it possible that human action isn't to blame?

Another one of those environmental stories I don't want to slip through the cracks.

Scientists believe they have solved the mystery of what caused the most rapid global warming in known geologic history, a cataclysmic temperature spike 55 million years ago driven by concentrations of greenhouse gases hundreds of times greater than today.

The culprit, the researchers reported Thursday in the journal Science, was a series of volcanic eruptions that set off a chain reaction releasing massive quantities of carbon into the atmosphere.

The eruptions occurred on the rift between two continental plates as Greenland and Europe separated.

In 10,000 years — a blip in Earth's history — the polar seas turned into tropical baths, deep-sea-dwelling microorganisms went extinct and mammals migrated poleward as their habitats warmed. It took about 200,000 years for the atmospheric carbon to be transferred to the deep ocean, allowing the planet to cool.

Still only carbon is blamed, which is odd considering they are blaming volcanic activity for the carbon, but there are a couple of things about this article that you should not overlook or forget.

First, it is a natural result of change.

Second, humans didn't have the technology to help it along. I said this before.

If drastic climate changes happened on the face of the planet before humanity existed or before humans had the present technological ability, it's more likely that any changes we see now are either part of a natural cycle or something imposed from outside.

In other words, if changes happened before without human help, then any possible changes probably shouldn't be blamed on humans. that is assuming any changes are happening in the first place.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Tue - May 1, 2007 at 12:47 PM  Tag


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