CO2 Levels Highest in Two Million Years

That 14 degree F sudden rise in sea temperatures is really scary. For one thing, it would surely cause large problems for many living beings in the ocean. Then, gas, including CO2 is less soluble in warmer water. And I would think it would melt the methane hydrates at the bottome of the sea.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/06/090618-co2-highest-carbon-dioxide.html

Maggie Koerth-Baker
for National Geographic News
June 18, 2009

What happens when carbon dioxide levels skyrocket? Most climate scientists think they know the answer: global warming.

But to determine just how high temperatures may climb and how climate patterns may shift, researchers may need to pinpoint, for comparison, a time in our planet's past when a similar carbon dioxide jump happened.

Doing that may have just gotten a lot tougher—a new study says atmospheric carbon dioxide levels haven't been this high in more than two million years.

.....

"We know from the geologic record that, around 55 million years ago, the deep-sea temperature suddenly rose by 8 degrees C [14 degrees F]," said Hönisch, of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, New York.

"It's a time that we would like to study, because it's probably the closest thing we'll find to what's happening today. And that's the best way to make estimates for our future."