Video Warns: Take no Comfort in Fact that Earth has seen Much Higher Atmospheric CO2 levels

Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO₂) have been higher in the distant past. Citing those periods, some argue that much higher carbon concentrations pose no serious threat and may even be beneficial.    In his latest "Climate Denial Crock of the Week" video titled "The Earth is Carbon Starved," Peter Sinclair reviews the paleoclimatic evidence and shows that the conditions associated with extremely high CO₂ levels were hardly hospitable.  They were catastrophic and included mass extinctions. 

As Sinclair says, if our emissions of carbon dioxide continue to rapidly rise and if we do not sharply reduce emissions, "human beings and the climate of the ancient world, could find themselves on a collision course."
 

This video is part of a series called “Climate Denial: Crock of the Week” from Greenman Studio LLC, a graphic design and animation studio in Midland, Michigan.

Online Resources:

Climate Denial: Crock of the Week Web site.

Links provided by Peter Sinclair with the video:

• Richard Alley, Bjerknes Lecture, American Geophysical Union, December 2009.
• Paleocene/Eocene Thermal Maximum sediments.  European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling.
• Global Change Through Time > Objective 3: Super-Greenhouse Worlds.  From GNS Science, a New Zealand government-owned research organisation.