Is Strobe Talbott a Climate Expert?

SP&T alleges (without quotes) that Clintonista Strobe Talbott said:

“Only quick, decisive action can prevent carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere
from reaching a tipping point where climate change is irreversible”

Click the image and read the story:

REALLY?

The following chart was copied directly from Geocarb III (page 20, as Adobe Acrobat sees it). Geocarb III was originally published in the American Journal of Science, Vol. 301, February 2001, P.182-204.

Click the image to enlarge:

Note that both Geocarb III and the older Geocarb II are graphed.

The raw data from Geocarb III are found in this file downloaded from this NOAA page.

According to Geocarb III, “RCO2” is:

“the ratio of mass of CO2 in the atmosphere at time t divided by the mass at present”

In plain language, the above chart shows how many times higher than today CO2 was how many millions of years ago.

According to the above chart from Geocarb III, past CO2 levels have been at LEAST 11 times higher than today (more likely 26 times higher than today). Why did this mythical “tipping point” not occur then?

If we continue on our present course, by 2100 we MIGHT wind up with an RCO2 of 2 (twice the pre-industrial level of CO2). We are currently at an RCO2 of about 1.28 (28% increase relative to pre-industrial levels).

According to the above chart from Geocarb III, about 460 million years ago (during the late Ordovician), CO2 levels were at LEAST 8 times higher than today (RCO2 of 8). And yet, at that very same time, quoting this source:

“the Ordovician ended in a brief (300-500 ky), but severe, ice age… As a natural consequence, a good deal of attention has been focused on the causes of the Ordovician Ice Age. In fact, it is not easy to see how an ice age could have occurred. Atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are believed to have been 8 to 20 times their current values.”

Actually, as the Geocarb III chart clearly shows, the CO2 levels at the time of the Ordovician Ice Age were more like 8 to 30 times (or MORE) their current values!

There is, by the way, very broad agreement that a severe ice age took place about 460 million years ago in the late Ordovician.

In the previous link, readers will find various assertions that this contradiction has been resolved. But, any application of critical thinking proves those assertions to be pure bunk! Any way you slice it, you STILL wind up with a severe Ice Age taking place when CO2 levels were at LEAST 8 times higher than today!

The answer to this apparent contradiction is pretty simple. Once one looks past the propaganda and examines the peer reviewed science as published in the peer reviewed science journals (especially the most recent examples) it is glaringly obvious that CO2 is a very MINOR bit player among the various other forcing factors which drive Climate Change. And, it is glaringly obvious that there is no such “tipping point” where CO2 causes “runaway global warming”!

All of the above points are driven home more clearly by the following chart.
Click the image and learn more:

Again, the CO2 data in the above chart comes from Geocarb III (aka Berner, 2001)
and can be found in this file downloaded from this NOAA page.

The temperature data comes from The Paleomap Project by Dr. C.R. Scotese,
a PhD geologist at the University of Texas at Arlington.

When I followed the instructions contained in Geocarb III for translating RCO2 into ppm,
the chart which I created (using the Geocarb III data file downloaded from this NOAA page) showed the exact same pattern as the above chart, but it showed even higher levels of CO2 ppm than the above chart!

This so-called “tipping point” IS A PURELY FABRICATED ALARMIST FANTASY!

Click here to learn more.