re: #116 goddamnedfrank

In any event the mechanism for AGW is basic, readily provable via a sixth grade science fair level experiment. Couple that with the fact that the geologic record never shows C02 levels changing at anything even remotely approaching current rates and you’ve ruled out everything but human activity as the cause.

Actually, there is a theory which says that the Permian extinction event was caused massive lava flows in the Siberan traps which pumped out a lot of CO₂ and other nasty gasses into the atmoshpere, which in turn caused global warming of about 5 C, which in turn caused a release of methane (CH₄, a very potent GHG), which caused the global warming to increase by another 5 C for a total of 10 C temp increase.

The result? An 90% extinction pulse. For comparison, the K-T extinction pulse was in the ballpark of 60-70%. Granted it was spread over an appreciable amount of time, but who says a long, drawn-out demise will be easier than an immediate one.

And IIRC, the only CO₂ increase event which is anywhere near what we are currently experience is the one around the time of the Permian extinction event.