55 million yrs ago the earth warmed as it is now?

Question

according to an article in the science daily magazine http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/12/071221222544.htm
a rise in temp followed by CO2 and methane possibly due to undersea volcanic activity raising ocean temp, which melts the ice and permafrost releasing methane into the atmosphere, so what will happen next

Peggy P, i don't think it's as simple as temp rise, sea level rise and flooding

AndrewB - spot on
KoolaidC - i know that but, warming can only go on for so long, so will this trigger a new ice age

Answer 1

You don't even need to go back 55million years, I did a PhD in environmental proxies looking at the comparisons to be made between the current and previous interglacial (the peak of the last glacial period was 14000 ya so the previous temp peak was ~20000ya) the patterns of temperature fluctuations are pretty comparable, and if it continues to do so we should be in for a rapid and then gradually slowing temperature fall in the next few hundred years.

As one of you other answerers said it's the difference in habitation levels that cause the more massive effects of the current climate cycle, however we must remember that we are merely the current dominant species and many previous dominant species have been wiped out or severely decimated by climate change we're nothing special along those lines.

As you point out in your question CO2 appears to increase as a result of temp increase not the otherway around, probably due to increaing instability in methyl hydrates and the warmer seas being less able to dissolve gases.

Geological evidence highlights the fact that more than once there has in fact been little or no water locked up in ice caps on the globe and yet there has still been sufficient land available for highly diverse life, in fact the dinosaurs themselves evolved in a world without polar ice and far harsher conditions than we have.

We have a choice as a race, t is probable that should the temperatures continue to increase the sea levels will rise, and that living conditions will become more difficult, we either use our superior talents to plan prepare and survive or we waste time trying to reverse it via the completely futile process of reducing our carbon footprints and be caught unawares.

The planet itself will be completely fine, as the temperature increases the global systems should respond according to the principles of fluctuating equilibrium albedo will decrease as the ice caps melt increasing temperature rise brifly until the increased evaporation and therefore cloud cover cause it to increase again causing global cooling again. There are obviously thousands of other variables and this is highly simplistic, however I and many other scientists are convinced of the ability of the global system to recover equilibrium, the only problem will be the fact that though these fluctuations will be geologically pretty rapid, we living for such short periods of time might interpret them as pretty final and catastrophic.

Depends on your point of view really but in conclusion I doubt we'll see the predicted catastrophic storms and collapsing sea circulation causing the end of everything.

Answer 2

As the article says, during the PETM methane clathrates were released from the sea floor which contributed to global warming. The mechanism for this release is still open for speculation, but it could be due to general warming.

As for our current situation, there's no doubt in the minds of most climate scientists that humans are contributing to the current warming, and that it is more rapid than most of the previous warming phases, so any efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions should be welcomed.

To the future - in our lifetimes we're only likely to get warmer (though with localised cooling due to changes in ocean circulation etc). As for the future - well eventually we'll get cooler, though most cooling mechanisms operate on timescales of thousands of years, as they include things like the rearrangements of the earth's continents around the equator/poles, or changes in the shape of the earth's orbit around the sun, or the angle of the earth's axis relative to the plane of its orbit (Milankovitch cycles).

Answer 3

you have offered a faux premise. Sarah Palin suggested no such situation. The Bible does no longer teach that the international is barely six thousand years previous. on the different hand, technological expertise does no longer declare that the universe grew to become into no longer created or that the argument for a writer has been shown invalid. in actuality, the great Bang theory has a tendency to help the argument of a writer. *

Answer 4

Yep! That's the scary part of AGW! If those 'natural' CO2 events were to occur the effects could be dramaticly worse! If we were both in a canoe,and the 'natural' waves were rocking the canoe,would you feel OK with me rocking the canoe even further? So what if there are 'other' CO2 events in history,none compare with the effects that AGW is causing!

Answer 5

The current hysteria about global warming is mostly propaganda. A rise and subsequent fall in temp is cyclical and occurs about every 1000 years. An extreme case of this cycle occurred during (and after) the ice age. I'm pretty sure they did not have SUVs back then so to attribute the current global warming to emissions is asinine. Beware of Sophists like Al Gore who attempt to work up a frenzy about global warming. Gore was in the White House for 8 yrs and global warming wasn't on his agenda when he was VP.

Answer 6

No idea what will happen next, but I also read an article that sited the same as yours and mentioned how the other 3 Inner Planets are warming as well.

Answer 7

The earth has been through many changes over its time, some catastrophic. Even oceans like the Med have evaporated as many as four times to leave deserts, but yet this government is hell bent on telling us that global warming is caused by ourselves... Wrong! its another form of stealth tax, they blame all this on the things they know will guarantee them extra income, TAX,TAX,TAX...

Answer 8

It didn't have the extra stress of 6.5 billion people then. Lots more carbon, methane etc. being added now. Add all that to the destruction of the forests that soaked up carbon and it's not a favourable scenerio.

Answer 9

Phew, yes.
I remember that year well.

You should have seen the queues at the ice cream vans!

Answer 10

temperatures rise ,sea level rises and massive flooding follows.