via JunkScience at wattsupwiththat.com
A new study reports that Northwest Greenland was ice free 400,000 years ago when the atmospheric CO2 level was an estimated 286 ppm. But the study authors don’t look at that finding the same way you probably do.
Here is the study media released abstract:
So I look at then result and I think: Northwest Greenland was ice-free 400,000 years ago when CO2 was at 286 ppm. Yet today Northwest Greenland is a frozen wasteland at 424 ppm CO2. That must mean that atmospheric CO2 is not determinative of whether Northwest Greenland is ice-free.
But the study authors interpret it quite differently. They need to spin readers away from that obvious conclusion.
Their bizarre take-away is essentially that we are overdue for Greenland melting because atmospheric CO2 has already increased so much past 286 ppm and all that CO2 is warming the planet.
Also note that the study authors somehow estimate it will take 30,000 years for CO2 levels to get to 380 ppm if atmospheric CO2 starts to decline by 2040. Accepting that at face value, the 350 ppm level espoused by Jim Hansen and Bill McKibben, ex of 350.org) is never happening.Not that we need this study to tell us that.
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