Rice professor: Theories about global warming could be wrong

Scientists who forecast catastrophic changes in our weather due to global warming, often refer to data that suggests carbon dioxide levels will double within the next century unless we do something about it.

A new study, co-authored by a Rice University professor, says "scientists' best predictions about global warming might be incorrect."

Gerald Dickens, an oceanographer and professor of Earth science at Rice, studied a period of rapid warming that occurred 55 million years ago, known as the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, or PETM. Using sediment core samples taken from around the world, Dickens and his colleagues determined carbon dioxide levels increased 70% during that period and in turn temperatures rose 13°F over a period of 10,000 years.

Applying some of the climate models in use today, Dickens' data shows that carbon dioxide could only account for half of that warming. "There appears to be something fundamentally wrong with the way temperature and carbon are linked in climate models," he wrote.

So if carbon dioxide alone didn't cause the warming 55 million years ago, something else helped warm the Earth. Something we haven't discovered yet and something not included in the current climate models.

Photo copyright Rice University.

Comments

[DE Sheranko]

Why is Mars having Global warming also. Its the SUN or increased radiation from deep space. Al Gore just wants to get rich at tax payers expense by promoting his stuff.
Only GOD knows.

[Justen Simpton]

Absolutely ridiculous. Perfect example of man's reach far exceeds his grasp!