Temperatures are rising faster today than they have at any point since at least the end of the last ice age, about 11,000 years ago, according to a new study.
The finding is based on a global reconstruction of temperature records inferred from ice cores, fossils in ocean sediments and other sources. While previous studies reached similar conclusions, they covered only about 2,000 years. The new reconstruction extends the global record through the Holocene, the most recent geologic epoch.
“Another way to think of it is the period where human civilization was born, created, and developed and then progressed to where we are now,” Shuan Marcott, a climate scientist at Oregon State University who led the study, told NBC News.
If you’re one of those who still think global warming is hooey, let me ask you a question: do you really believe we can literally spend a century pumping tons of chemicals into the atmosphere and have nothing happen? Poof! It all just disappears like crap down a toilet because… Well, because why, exactly? Does that really make any sense at all to you? As always, conservative positions seem reasonable — until you fucking think about them for a fraction of a second.
This is it, people. We’re standing at the edge of the cliff without a lot of room left between us and the open air. We can turn back or we can jump.
Think we’re spending money now? Wait until you see how much we have to spend to hold the seas back, to irrigate deserts, to fight wars over water. That’s spending money. In comparison, stopping the warming trend would be chump change.
