These days we are polluting our environment with drastically huge amounts of carbon emission. The rise of industries, motor vehicles, and the population is more than ever before, resulting in tremendous carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere. Such amounts can be compared to about 56 million years ago- the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, or PETM.
This is the time period when a mysterious event led to carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere to sky rocket, much higher than right now. This eventually led to a rapid warming of the planet and the death of major marine organisms due to acidification of the oceans.
There are many numerous theories behind what was the cause of huge carbon emissions into the atmosphere during the PETM. Some believed the PETM was caused by a release of subsea methane into the atmosphere which was triggered due to volcanic eruptions. Others believed it is due to the explosion of carbon from the Arctic. Whatever the reason, this release of carbon led to increases in temperature. The earth saw an increase in temperature of almost 5 degrees Celsius warmer.
However, research now is telling us that we are polluting the atmosphere is such huge amounts of carbon and at such a rapid rate, that even the PETM would be put to shame. According to Richard Zeebe from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, there is nothing comparable to what humans are doing now when we go back into the past. Due to this, the responses of the climate system to the drastic increases in carbon dioxide levels will be incomparable and unforeseeable.
A study of the deep ocean core of sediment was carried out to determine the ratio between different isotopes of carbon and oxygen. This relationship determines how carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere affect temperatures. The lag time between the carbon release and temperature indicates a large carbon release whereas no lag time indicates very slow release of carbon into the atmosphere. Results, however, showed a short lag time between carbon emission and subsequent warming indicating that that the 2,000- 2,500 billion tons of carbon played out its effect over 4,000 years. This means that the current release of 10 billion tons annually by humans will change the planet and climate at a very rapid pace.
According to Zeebe, this drastic change will result in severe ocean acidification and a hard hit to the ecosystem. This means that many important species and organisms will be put in threat. The era of climate change that we have now entered into has no analogue in the past 66 million years, meaning that the climate change we will see in the future will be incomparable and like never before. This is definitely a factor that should raise a red flag with our politicians and environmentalists and a control needs to be brought about by the tremendous emission of carbon dioxide into the environment that human beings are now subjected our planet too.