Re:Antarctic CO2 Hit 400 PPM for First Time in 4M Years
by refurb on Friday June 17, 2016 @12:23AM
(#11920674)
A bigger problem is positive feedback loops.
Historically we've had much more CO2 in the atmosphere than we do now. Why didn't the methane bubble up and kill everything then?
Re:Antarctic CO2 Hit 400 PPM for First Time in 4M Years
by nikdaheratik on Friday June 17, 2016 @01:21AM
(#11920824)
The methane was primarily caused by decaying biomass falling to the ocean floor. It didn't exist at the time the CO2 levels were higher.
A bigger problem is positive feedback loops. Melting ice means more dark water to absorb sunlight, and more melting. Melting permafrost releases CO2 and Methane and causes more warming. And somewhere around ~5 degrees warming the frozen methane on the ocean floor will bubble up and cause the mother of all feedback cycles. We'd be in for about 10 degrees warming and a mass extinction that would wipe out 90% or more of all species on Earth. From what I've seen of global warming predictions we won't get there - but I'm mentioning this because at some point warming temperatures doesn't just mean major changes and flooding our cities - at some point it means a terrible calamity like the Earth has only occasionally seen.