Videos sent to me by a scientist friend describe field investigations into a period that might be a model for our own.
The PETM, Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum.
Thinking in geologic time is a skill humans may have to learn to survive the current era.
Thanks for sharing that interesting piece on scientific detective work, not sure what time period they are talking about on “rapid change” but as we are now putting co2 in the atmosphere 10 times faster than during the hottest period in the past 66 million years, it can’t be good and when do these fossil fuel zealots finally become scared (or at least concerned), by the abysmal prospects in the future.
One positive plug for legumes and beans. What a boring diet. And I agree we need the skill to think in deep time of the paleoclimatologists world, rather than just watch the lifestyle of Kim Kardashian on the goggle box.
Seems the young are keen to learn. . . let the older generation join them.
“A research team in the 1980s that showed how greenhouse gases in the oceans triggered the best-known example of a rapid warming caused by the release of geologic carbon, the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). This was a major global warming event that occurred about 55 million years ago and changed the planet forever. During the PETM, the Earth warmed by 9 to 16 degrees Fahrenheit (5 to 9 degrees Celsius) within about 10,000 years. In that hothouse world, palm trees, hippopotami and alligators flourished in the Arctic — just a few of the dramatic changes that accompanied this era of global warming.”
https://news.usc.edu/162854/usc-students-climate-change-class-earth-science/