There was an excellent podcast from Den of Lore that was in two parts, each three hours with “...Dr. Gerald Dickens joins us to discuss the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), which occurred around 56 million years ago. It is the most recent naturally occurring Earth warming event that we can compare today’s warming to. During this time, global temperatures rose at least 5°C (9°F), and the PETM warmth lasted 200,000 years before the Earth system was able to remove the extra CO2 from the atmosphere.”
http://www.denoflore.com/ep-035-petm-ancient-hell-on-earth-w-dr-gerald-r-dickens-part-2/
It is a very detailed explanation regarding carbon 12 and carbon 13. The Carbon cycle has to be understood even before one can begin to think about climate.
Climate does change and is probably changing now as carbon levels are rising. That is both a good and not so good thing. Why are carbon levels rising? That is the question and after listening to Dr. Gerald Dickens I gather that at this point its a bit of a mystery to him and he’s been studying the carbon cycle for decades now.
I suggest to members of FR to download both episodes as well as the pdfs which detail the slides being described within the podcast. For the scientifically minded here, as well as the lay person, I think you will come away with a better understanding of how our Earth works. It’s heady and sometimes tedious, but worth the effort.
Bull. The end of the Younger Dryas was less than 10,000 years ago, and the temperature rose an average 8-10 C worldwide in a very short period of time. We have several guesses as to the mechanism, but no explanation that everyone accepts.
And of the CO2 we put into the atmosphere as humans, each year half is removed, mostly to the ocean, the rest to living things. Earth is much greener than 80 years ago, to the tune of feeding an extra 1.2 billion due to more CO2 in the atmosphere and the ocean. The remaining billions are due to more efficient agriculture, from many different techniques.