We're headed back to at least the Pliocene, climate-wise

[Halichoeres]

Eating up land for suburbs and agriculture (especially meat), mining, burning fossil fuel, and other human activity is putting us on pace for a near-term rolling back of the climate clock to the Pliocene. A little further out, if we don't curtail emissions, we could head all the way back to the Eocene. These are the findings of a new comparison of current and near-future climate with reconstructed climates across the Cenozoic.


Note that in this figure the Pleistocene and especially Holocene are stretched out for greater resolution (that is, the time axis varies in scale).

Appears to be open access, but email me for pdf if not: https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2018/12/05/1809600115

[Faelrin]

I was wondering if our changing climate was going to get us similar to some warmer prehistoric period on Earth. Although in my case I probably guesstimated a bit too far back. Good to have a paper on this particular thing in any case.

[Halichoeres]

Yeah, for me one thing that's alarming is that we're going to a climate scenario different from any in which humans have conducted large-scale agriculture. It's going to be a race just to adapt our crops.

[Faelrin]

Now that's an implication I didn't even think of. I mean I was already aware about the ocean acidification, rising sea levels, and global temps, massive on going extinction event, and other issues, but not something as massively important as the effect on agriculture that is relied heavily on in most day to day people's lives. I'm honestly terrified of the coming future.