The Risk
We are returning fossil carbon to the sky - the carbon that made the planet hot.
Do we want to return to a prehistoric climate?
Take a look at the age of the dinosaurs and the climate they had.
Earth was quite happy with that climate for more than 100 million years - there was no ice - Dinosaurs lived in the Arctic and Antarctic - sea levels were more than 70 metres higher. Temperatures across much of the planet would I fear have been unbearable for the likes of us. It was very hot. Earth was happy with no ice and sauna-like tropics for all that time
Back then and earlier, the forests and swamps produced the coal and gas we use today. Stagnant seas produced the oil. Nature very slowly took the carbon out of the sky and locked it underground.
Note again - the dinosaurs lived for more than 100 million years. We humans have been on the planet for only a quarter of a million years - all at temperatures less or equal to what we consider normal today. Our species has no experience of what our world would be like with temperatures 10+ degrees centigrade higher than today.
All our 'civilisations' have existed in just the last 10 thousand years with our current climate.
Luckily we havent pushed the greenhouse gases to the same level as when the dinosaurs were around (600-2500ppm CO2), yet. But we have them up around 500ppm CO2eq and continuing to rise as fast as ever. They were less than 300ppm for all of human history before the industrial revolution.
Why are we risking our home this way?
I asked ChatGPT to see what it thought about temperatures at the equator and poles in the age of the dinosaurs (when atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were 600-2500ppm) . Here was the reply:
ChatGPT:
"During the age of the dinosaurs, which spanned from approximately 66 million years ago to around 230 million years ago, the Earth's climate was generally warmer than it is today. However, providing precise average temperature comparisons for the poles and the equator during that time period is challenging, as there is no direct temperature data available from that era. Scientists rely on various proxies and models to estimate these temperatures.
Here are rough estimates for the average temperatures during the Mesozoic Era (the era when dinosaurs lived) compared to today:
Equator:
During the Mesozoic Era, equatorial regions were significantly warmer than today. The average temperatures at the equator were estimated to be well above 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) and potentially even higher. This is considerably warmer than current equatorial temperatures, which typically range from 24 to 30 degrees Celsius (75-86 degrees Fahrenheit).
Poles:
At the poles, temperatures were also warmer than today, but they were cooler than the equator. The average temperatures at the poles during the Mesozoic Era are estimated to have been several degrees above freezing. These estimates suggest polar temperatures in the range of a few degrees Celsius (32-50 degrees Fahrenheit). In contrast, today's polar regions experience average temperatures well below freezing, with the Antarctic averaging around -57 degrees Celsius (-70 degrees Fahrenheit) and the Arctic averaging around -30 degrees Celsius (-22 degrees Fahrenheit) in winter.
It's important to note that these estimates are based on scientific research, which utilizes various climate proxies such as fossil evidence, sedimentary rocks, and computer models to reconstruct ancient climates. These estimates are not uniform across the entire Mesozoic Era, as climatic conditions likely varied during different periods within this era. Nonetheless, they provide a general idea of the temperature differences between the age of the dinosaurs and the present day.