zlacker

>>gmays+(OP)
It has been far hotter in the past, including geologically recent times. See for example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleocene%E2%80%93Eocene_Therm...

>>idlewo+Rv
You've been far deader in the past, so nothing to worry about.

>>titzer+kA
You can worry about stuff without getting your facts wrong.

>>idlewo+OE
You could also post relevant facts, like stuff that happened more recently than 55 million years ago, when there were no humans, not even apes or monkeys.

I feel like this is a really old, easily debunked argument. Rapid change toward a much warmer climate is likely to kick off a very abrupt extinction event. Which, incidentally, has already begun.

>>titzer+AW
The point of this argument is that humans as a species are not going to go extinct (we have thumbs!) and life on Earth existed for millions of years at far hotter temperatures than even the worst-case warming scenario.

None of this makes climate change a good thing, but it's a useful corrective to headlines that suggest we're entering some kind of uncharted territory for the planet. The planet can take a lot more than we're dishing out, even if individual species can't.