From the POTSDAM INSTITUTE FOR CLIMATE IMPACT RESEARCH (PIK) and the “take what PIK says wth a heavy dose of salt” department. On the plus side, if true, this means that burning coal will prevent a global glaciation.
Formation of coal almost turned our planet into a snowball
CREDIT (Image courtesy of NASA)
While burning coal today causes Earth to overheat, about 300 million years ago the formation of that same coal brought our planet close to global glaciation. For the first time, scientists show the massive effect in a study to be published in the renowned Proceedings of the US Academy of Sciences. When trees in vast forests died during a time called the Carboniferous and the Permian, the carbon dioxide (CO2) they took up from the atmosphere while growing got buried; the plants’ debris over time formed most of the coal that today is used as fossil fuel. Consequently, the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere sank drastically and Earth cooled down to a degree it narrowly escaped what scientists call a ‘snowball state’.
“It is quite an irony that forming the coal that today is a major factor for dangerous global warming once almost lead to global glaciation,” says author Georg Feulner from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. “However, this illustrates the enormous dimension of the coal issue. The amount of CO2 stored in Earth’s coal reserves was once big enough to push our climate out of balance. When released by burning the coal, the CO2 is again destabilizing the Earth system.”
The study examines the sensitivity of the climate in a specific period of Earth’s deep past by using a large ensemble of computer simulations. While some of the changes in temperature at that time can clearly be attributed to how our planet’s axis was tilted and the way it circled the sun, the study reveals the substantial influence of CO2 concentrations. Estimates based on ancient soils and fossil leaves show that they fluctuated widely and at some point sank to about 100 parts CO2 per million parts of all gases in the atmosphere, and possibly even lower. The model simulations now reveal that global glaciation occurs below 40 parts per million.
Burning that same coal dangerously raises greenhouse gas concentration in our atmosphere
Today, CO2 levels in the atmosphere have reached more than 400 parts per million. Carbon dioxide acts as a greenhouse gas: the Sun warms Earth’s surface, but most of the heat radiated by the surface escapes into space; CO2 and other greenhouse gases hinder part of this heat from escaping, hence warming the planet.
“We should definitely keep CO2 levels in the atmosphere below 450 parts per million to keep our climate stable, and ideally much lower than that. Raising the amount of greenhouse gases beyond that limit means pushing ourselves out of the safe operating space of Earth,” says Feulner. “Earth’s past teaches us that periods of rapid warming were often associated with mass extinction events. This shows that a stable climate is something to appreciate and protect.”
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Article: Feulner, G. (2017): Formation of most of our coal brought Earth close to global glaciation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)
http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2017/10/03/1712062114.abstract
Actually, it’s called Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. You’d think they could get that right, at least.
I know, it’s only the news release, but still, scientists are supposed to be meticulous in their facts.
And BTW, the idea that low CO2 due to sequestration caused the Carboniferous ice age, has been around for as long as the “CO2 is the control knob” concept, I first read it back in the 1980s. It’s rather obvious when you look at the amount of Lower Carboniferous coal and Upper Carboniferous limestone.
But the cold preceded the drop in CO2. With more CO2 in the oceans, limestone production picked up. A positive feedback effect! But not what alarmists have in mind.
They’re confusing it with the Soviet Union’s Academy of Sciences. Freudian slip.
I call BS on this article.
While burning coal today causes Earth to overheat,
When an article starts with a sentence like “while green men on the moon are responsible for Liverpool football club’s recent poor away form”, how is one meant to take seriously anything that follows?
Since the coal stayed put, why isn’t the earth still a snowball?
“Today, CO2 levels in the atmosphere have reached more than 400 parts per million. Carbon dioxide acts as a greenhouse gas: the Sun warms Earth’s surface, but most of the heat radiated by the surface escapes into space; ”
HEAT RADIATED ESCAPES INTO SPACE !
Yes. So how comes your conclusion
“CO2 and other greenhouse gases hinder part of this heat from escaping, hence warming the planet.”
Anthony Watts, my sympathy.
““It is quite an irony that forming the coal that today is a major factor for dangerous global warming once almost lead to global glaciation,””
No evidence for any of this nonsense, past glaciation nor present warming.
Potscam Institute
This is infant logic, “CO2 causes warming, so any process that took CO2 from the atmosphere causes cooling” “But lets forget anything else the earth might be doing and lets not admit we have 0 idea what happened 700 million years ago because there is no data for anything from then more or less”
It’s like white holes “Black holes suck in, and eventually must fill up” << Child's intuitive thinking, as is the above
There is ample evidence of past Snowball Earths.
Snowball earths are not being questioned, CO2 being the cause is the question. 😛
The fact they used models proves the point. Output, pfft, No data here, nothing to see folks, move along
Theoretical sciences are so full of bunk these days, not just climate science.
Mathematicians have created a kind of thing now where they create something with mathematics and then apply real physical properties to the output.
UGH Mathematics are only useful when we can validate the results. Otherwise you end up with Dark Matter (Cern admitted 0 trace of this magical stuff FYI and it’s going to be bunk by 2020 and dropped going by the research coming in in 2017)
Schmidt is creating “real world warming” with his average maths and poor statistical skills. The IPCC models
These are the same thing, mathematics turned into real things, real threats.
This scientism via mathematics has to be stopped.