GlobalWarming56MillionYearsAgo

On April 13, 2014 I had the opportunity to attend a lecture led by Dr. Scott L. Wing. He
discussed the global climate change that had occurred 56 million years ago by looking at plant
fossils & insect damage as well as the future projection from the 2014 onwards. Dr. Wing stated
that the distant part of Earths history is significantly relevant to use today. Also the planet 56
million years ago and today differ mostly because of the climate. Firstly, global warming is
defined as an increase in Earths overall temperature, thus causing a climate change. He
presented a series of graphs, which illustrated the historical global temperature and CO2 levels of
the earth; a particularly important graph to look was one of the Cenozoic Period (Figure 1) ,
which rewinds back 65 to 66 million years ago. It was mentions that since there was no ice
old enough to hold the record presented in the graph, these records were ones that come from the
deep sea. They also looked at the shells of the foramnifera (single-celled protists) that recorded
in chemical composition, the temperature of the bottom of the ocean, thus giving us precedents
to where were headed.
According to Dr. Wing, presently our CO2 levels and global temperature have almost met
those of the Pleistocene Period and our continuous burning of the fossil fuel reservoir can
potentially bring us back to an Eocene-like climate. He discussed in great detail a short period of
time when a large amount of carbon was released into the ocean and atmosphere system called
the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). Evidence of this event included: a global
warming of 7-14 degrees, dissolution of deep ocean chalk (rise in acidity of ocean water), and
carbon isotope ratio shift, all of which lasted for 200,000 years. The possible causes of the high
levels of Carbon release include: volcanic activity, permafrost, wildfires, and methane hydrates.
Dr. Wing looked at fossil plants and insect damage for information on the what type of plants
lived during the PETM. He explained that in warmer climates the plant families were pushed
northward and when cooler temperature occurred they were pushed southward.
We learned from the PETM that a big release in Carbon warmed the global climate and
made the ocean water more acidic, global warming is not a one time thing (it lasts for a long
time), and it changes where plants and animal live, how they interact and drives evolutionary
change. In the present day, the high levels of CO2 release are due to human activity. According
to Dr. Wing, since the 1750s, 384 tons of CO2 has been released into the atmosphere and many
of that still remains today due to slow carbon uptake. Some consequences of the increase in CO2
include the global temperature remaining high and the rise in sea level. Lastly, Dr. Wing
discussed the Anthropocene Perspective stating that there was never a stable state in nature,
the end of the world is not near, and we need to understand the planet and ourselves to do well in
the always necessary management of the earth. We are like those people who get to live an
interesting time. - Dr. Wing.

All information in blog credits to Dr. Wings lecture and slides

Figure1.

http://www.skepticalscience.com/print.php?n=1174

All information in blog credits to Dr. Wings lecture and slides