3 ms·

Yeah, but that happened slowly enough that species adapted. This is going far, far too rapidly.

• neffy 10y ago
  Some species survived and adapted, some didn't. Hey, evolution! The available evidence on the onset/offset for major climatic swings over the last 1 million years does suggest between a 10 - 100 year switching time, probably linked to the global conveyor belt currents switching between different states. We have a fairly good understanding of the onset of the current inter-glacial. We don't, because ice cores and other information gets progressively harder to read, the further you go back, know all that much about the onset of a glacial period, but it does appear to be fairly quick. (Not Day after Tomorrow quick, but definitely within a lifetime quick.) We're coming to what would normally be the end of the current inter-glacial, we have record C02 levels, and the gulf stream has been slowing down for the last 20 years. Nobody really knows whats going to happen next - but the UK Met office was apparently sufficiently alarmed to issue a blog post saying absolutely nothing if you read it carefully. Interesting times.