Steve Torgersen, a Norwegian mining expert, shows the size of a fossil footprint of a hippopotamus-like creature, a pantodont, on the roof of a coal mine on the Norwegian Arctic island of Spitsbergen April 24, 2007. (Francois Lenoir/Reuters)
Posted on 04/25/2007 7:58:21 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
COAL MINE SEVEN, Svalbard, Norway (Reuters) - Fossils of a hippopotamus-like creature on an Arctic island show the climate was once like that of Florida, giving clues to risks from modern global warming, a scientist said.
Fossil footprints of a pantodont, a plant-eating creature weighing about 400 kg (880 lb), add to evidence of sequoia-type trees and crocodile-like beasts in the Arctic millions of years ago when greenhouse gas concentrations in the air were high.
"The climate here about 55 million years ago was more like that of Florida," Appy Sluijs, an expert in ancient ecology at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, said in Coal Mine Seven on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard.
"Where we are now was once a temperate rainforest," he said on Tuesday, at the end of a horizontal mine shaft 5 kms (3 miles) inside a mountain and 300 meters (600 feet) below the surface.
He pointed to a row of footprint impressions found in December in the roof of the mine north of Longyearbyen, the main settlement on the barren treeless Norwegian archipelago 1,000 km (600 miles) from the North Pole.
Sluijs said forests grew in the Arctic when carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, was at about 1,000 parts per million in the atmosphere because of natural swings in the climate.
And he said such concentrations point to risks with surging modern emissions stoked by human use of fossil fuels -- greenhouse gas concentrations are at the highest in at least 650,000 years and rising fast.
"It's a worrying scenario for future global warming," he told a group of students studying climate change. The ancient warming was triggered by natural shifts, perhaps linked to volcanic activity and a thaw of frozen methane.
ICE FREE
Sea levels 55 million years ago were about 100 meters higher than now -- Antarctica was free of ice.
"We are starting processes that will last for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years," he said of modern emissions from burning fossil fuels in power plants, factories and cars.
When Svalbard was hot -- the islands were also close to the North Pole 55 million years ago -- many parts of the globe near the equator would have been too hot for modern plants and animals that have adapted to a modern climate, he said.
Carbon dioxide levels are now at almost 390 per million in the atmosphere, up from 270 before the Industrial Revolution and rising fast. Sluijs said they could reach 1,000 parts per million by 2100 if not held in check.
The footprints were found by chance by two miners. "As far as we know there are only five pantodonts of this type found in the world," said Steve Torgersen, a mining expert.
Steve Torgersen, a Norwegian mining expert, shows the size of a fossil footprint of a hippopotamus-like creature, a pantodont, on the roof of a coal mine on the Norwegian Arctic island of Spitsbergen April 24, 2007. (Francois Lenoir/Reuters)
Rosie?
Places that used to be very hot have now become terribly cold — and THAT’S why we should be afraid of Global Warming!!!!!
Pantodonts, uintatheres and xenungulates:
The first large herbivorous mammals
http://www.paleocene-mammals.de/large_herbivores.htm
Looks like something besides humans was making a big carbon buttprint.
They must not have been very heavy if they could walk on the ceiling!
And the risk is what exactly? Hippos will migrage north?
Huh? A temperate rain forest with footprints inside a mountain 600 feet below the surface?????
And where was Norway in relation to the Equator 55 million years ago? The continents do drift over time.
They used nuclear powered heaters and lots of Gro-Lites.
This is really getting ridiculous! The fossils they are talking about are 55 million years old. They have nothing to do with modern global warming.
The article says that it was hot then (and evidence indicates that it was), “when CO2 levels were high.” True, but CO2 levels tend to get high when the climate is warm. The best records indicate that increases in atmospheric CO2 follow climate warming, but the article makes it sound as if CO2 increase caused the warming 55 MY ago. If so, who did it? Were the animals in America making too much CO2? Were they letting out too much methane? Were the pantodonts driving cars?
The tone of the article makes it sound as if it would be really bad to have a wee bit of Florida near Norway. The pantodonts might come back, and possibly might frighten people terribly, assuming that the pantodonts could miraculously return from their extinction long ago.
This article is one of the best examples of climate-phobic extremism I have encountered. It is really getting crazy out there in liberal-land.
Note that the Norwegians who found these fossils were mining. And guess what they were mining? Coal! You know, the black material made mainly of carbon. When you burn it, it makes CO2. So what are these sanctimonious Norwegians doing burning coal? Are they heating their houses, heedless of the possible world-wide consequences? What a bunch of hypocritical sissies. They can’t take a little freezing for the good of the world.
I thought these Green freaks love the rain forest? They want ice instead? There’s no pleasing some people.
Hey now, don’t make light of this.
Hippos can be pretty darn deadly!
Hail the mighty hippo!
It's fortunate that we humans have brains and initiative. We can probably figure out how to adapt to either global warming or cooling.
Dino flatulence?
And the downside here is....?
If you were ever concerned about global warming, this should put those fears to rest.
That's where all the coal comes from, the remains of rainforests and bogs.
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