What if CO2 is a Good Thing?

Stephen Hudson

The Huronian Ice Age lasted from 2400 to 2100 million years ago, 300 million years.  The Cryogenian Ice Age lasted from 800 to 635 million years ago, 165 million years. The Andean-Saharan Ice Age lasted from 450 to 420 million years, 30 million years. The Karoo Ice Age lasted from 360 to 260 million years, 100 million years.

Welcome to the Ice Age

Welcome to the Quaternary Ice Age, it began 2.58 million years ago.  But when did it end? You may ask... it hasn't.  We are in the Quaternary Ice Age.  The current interglacial period began about 11,800 years ago and is probably (worst case) due to end in the next 1500 years, some say 2000 years, best case... a few millennia. When people talk about the next ice age, they don't really mean the next ice age, they mean the next period of glaciation in this ice age.

But wait! Rome fell 1500 years ago, just a blink of an eye.

Geoengineering

Some anthropomorphic global warming activists think we ought to be performing geo-engineering to get the atmospheric CO2 levels back down to a normal 200-300 ppm, but is that wise?  If we can get atmospheric CO2 up to about 750 ppm we might, just might push the next glaciation off by about 50,000 years.

David Archer, a computational ocean chemist and professor of Geophysical Sciences at the University of Chicago, is a published researcher on the carbon cycle of the ocean and seafloor.  He seems to think that if we could get our hands on all the fossil fuels on earth, releasing 5000 Gigatons of carbon dioxide we might, just might be able to push the next period of glaciation off by 500,000 years.  We can't stop it mind you, only delay it.

Just something to chew on

What is the greater catastrophic risk to mankind? A 5-7 degree rise in temperature? Or the next glacial period?  If the climatologists of the 70's were right about entering the next ice age, would we be burning carbon like crazy now trying to prevent it? 

Ittiz