As far as humanity is concerned, there's no comfort in such deep history. The current situation is unprecedented in the human era, and the rate of change
I first became aware of it roughly in year 2000, was lucky enough to meet and work with some people with good understanding and excellent communication skills a few years later.
2025 seemed far away then!
I don't share the pessimistic outlook I think I detect here.
What is done is already done and there is little we can do about the 2 trillion tons of co2 already added to the atmosphere. It is easy to work out how much co2 we have added, because we only need to know how much coal has been burned, and oil and methane gas. We know exactly how much co2 is produced by burning any amount - at least any chemist does. Methane for example when burned combines with oxygen in the air (a molecule of CH4 adds to oxygen and makes two water molecules and one of co2).
The other thing of course is that we have no control of what the big emitters do. The Chinese, Russians and Americans are not going to stop burning carbon. Anyone who thinks they are is just not awake, so although I have reduced my carbon output dramatically, it makes no difference. If the UK sank below the waves tomorrow, China would take up the slack in carbon emission by next year. People protesting oil and gas fields in the UK are protesting in the wrong place. They need to go to China and Russia, or America and Canada where emissions are vastly higher.
However - the human species has always lived in a changing world and has been more than capable of adapting to every possible harsh living environment from desert to rain forest to frozen tundra. No way will a rise of even five degrees end human life, let alone all of life. The planet was never fuller with life than during the Cretaceous and other ancient hot periods. Remember that palaeontologists dig up the bones of large fossilised animals such as crocodiles in the arctic and the remains of forests in Antarctica.
I am not suggesting warming will not lead to wholesale disruption and death. It will, but I just laugh at the fools like the mad eco-granny that I used to know who think the planet will turn into a dried up cinder, devoid of life. They just haven't thought about what the planet was like when life began. The mean global temperature back then was not 15.3 like now - it was somewhere around 30 to 35c.
The human species is breeding like rats right now and it has been for too long. The population of the planet has doubled in about forty years. This is mad. We are beyond due for a big cut back.
