Let’s Talk Paleoclimatology

Image Credit : Hans Joachim Schellnhuber

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/climatechange/news/latest/four-degrees.html

The word that no one dares mention, for fear of tripping over their own tongues : paleoclimatology, the study of Earth’s Climate history, on the long scale.

The presentations from the 4 Degrees conference are being uploaded to the Internet website :-

http://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/4degrees/programme.php

At the top of this page is an image from the talk from Professor H. J. Schellnhuber CBE :-

http://www.eci.ox.ac.uk/4degrees/ppt/1-1schellnhuber.pdf

If you look back in time at various stable states of the Earth, and make the crude first-order assumption and connect the dots to make a line, it shows we could be in for around 50 metres of sea level rise, after the Earth system has done stabilising to a doubling of atmospheric Carbon Dioxide levels.

That, at least, should make you sit bolt upright in your chair and stop snoozing.