HOW VARIATIONS IN THE RATES OF EFFUSIVE BASALTIC FLOOD VOLCANISM VERSUS AEROSOL-FORMING EXPLOSIVE VOLCANISM HAVE DRIVEN CLIMATE CHANGE AND RATES OF MASS EXTINCTION THROUGHOUT EARTH HISTORY AND HOW HUMANS HAVE MODIFIED THIS INTERACTION

Given the inherent uncertainties in predicting how climate and environments will respond to anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases, it would be beneficial to society if science could identify geological analogues to the human race’s current grand climate experiment . This has been a focus of the geological and palaeoclimate communities over the last 30 years, with many scientific papers claiming that intervals in Earth history can be used as an analogue for future climate change. Using a coupled ocean–atmosphere modelling approach, we test this assertion for the most probable pre-Quaternary candidates of the last 100 million years: the Mid- and Late Cretaceous, the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), the Early Eocene, as well as warm intervals within the Miocene and Pliocene epochs. These intervals fail as true direct analogues since they either represent equilibrium climate states to a long-term CO 2 forcing—whereas anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases provide a progressive (transient) forcing on climate—or the sensitivity of the climate system itself to CO 2 was different. While no close geological analogue exists, past warm intervals in Earth history provide a unique opportunity to investigate processes that operated during warm (high CO 2 ) climate states. Palaeoclimate and environmental reconstruction/modelling are facilitating the assessment and calculation of the response of global temperatures to increasing CO 2 concentrations in the longer term (multiple centuries); this is now referred to as the Earth System Sensitivity, which is critical in identifying CO 2 thresholds in the atmosphere that must not be crossed to avoid dangerous levels of climate change in the long term. Palaeoclimatology also provides a unique and independent way to evaluate the qualities of climate and Earth system models used to predict future climate.

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Climate change through Earth history

Climate Change ◽

10.1016/b978-0-12-821575-3.00003-7 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 49-65

Author(s):

Jan Zalasiewicz ◽

Mark Williams

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Earth History

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Ocean euxinia and climate change “double whammy” drove the Late Ordovician mass extinction

Geology ◽

10.1130/g40121.1 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 46 (6) ◽

pp. 535-538 ◽

Cited By ~ 40

Author(s):

Caineng Zou ◽

Zhen Qiu ◽

Simon W. Poulton ◽

Dazhong Dong ◽

Hongyan Wang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Mass Extinction ◽

Late Ordovician

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Was millennial scale climate change during the Last Glacial triggered by explosive volcanism?

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/srep17442 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

James U.L. Baldini ◽

Richard J. Brown ◽

Jim N. McElwaine

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Explosive Volcanism ◽

Last Glacial ◽

The Last Glacial ◽

Millennial Scale

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Anthropocene: A Very Short Introduction

10.1093/actrade/9780198792987.001.0001 ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 22

Author(s):

Erle C. Ellis

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Mass Extinction ◽

Scientific Community ◽

Geological Time ◽

Short Introduction ◽

Geological Record ◽

Species Invasions ◽

Rapid Climate Change ◽

The Relationship

Humanity’s impact on the planet has been profound. From fire, intensive hunting, and agriculture, it has accelerated into rapid climate change, widespread pollution, plastic accumulation, species invasions, and the mass extinction of species—changes that have left a permanent mark in the geological record of the rocks. Yet the proposal for a new unit of geological time—the Anthropocene Epoch—has raised debate far beyond the scientific community. The Anthropocene has emerged as a powerful new narrative of the relationship between humans and nature. Anthropocene: A Very Short Introduction draws on the work of geologists, geographers, environmental scientists, archaeologists, and humanities scholars to explain the science and wider implications of the Anthropocene.

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Environmental Exigencies and the Efficient Voter Rule

Economies ◽

10.3390/economies8040100 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 8 (4) ◽

pp. 100

Author(s):

David A. Anderson

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Mass Extinction ◽

Decision Makers ◽

Pigouvian Taxes ◽

Optimal Decisions ◽

Private Incentives ◽

Manufactured Goods ◽

Energy Transportation ◽

Coasian Bargaining ◽

Voting Mechanism

Externality problems hinder solutions to existential threats, including climate change and mass extinction. To avert environmental crises, policymakers seek mechanisms that align private incentives with societal exigencies. Successful solutions bring individuals to internalize the broad repercussions of their behavior. In some cases, privatization, Coasian bargaining, or Pigouvian taxes effectively place the weight of externalities on the relevant decision makers. Yet, the available remedies often fail to provide satisfactory outcomes, and inefficiencies persist in the markets for energy, transportation, and manufactured goods, among others. This article explains how a simple voting mechanism can achieve socially optimal decisions about many of the innumerable externality problems that remain.

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