What does the lag of CO2 behind temperature in ice cores tell us about global ... - The Diigo Meta page

• 19 Dec 12
  

  Melanie Gabriel
  • The reason has to do with the fact that the warmings take about 5000 years to be complete. The lag is only 800 years. All that the lag shows is that CO₂ did not cause the first 800 years of warming, out of the 5000 year trend. The other 4200 years of warming could in fact have been caused by CO₂, as far as we can tell from this ice core data.
  • Then CO₂ further warms the whole planet, because of its heat-trapping properties. This leads to even further CO₂ release
  • So CO₂ during ice ages should be thought of as a “feedback”, much like the feedback that results from putting a microphone too near to a loudspeaker.
  • other words, CO₂ does not initiate the warmings, but acts as an amplifier once they are underway
  • So CO₂ might be stored in the deep ocean during ice ages, and then get released when the climate warms

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• 16 Jan 10
  

  Patrick Scheuerer

  climate science globalwarming co2 research environment

• 07 Aug 08
  

  Benno Hansen

  RealClimate

  climate change ice ages co2 earth temperature climatology

  • At least three careful ice core studies have shown that CO₂ starts to rise about 800 years (600-1000 years) after Antarctic temperature during glacial terminations.
  • CO₂ could have caused the last 5/6 of the warming, but could not have caused the first 1/6 of the warming
  • other factors besides CO₂ affect climate
  • Some (currently unknown) process causes Antarctica and the surrounding ocean to warm. This process also causes CO₂ to start rising, about 800 years later. Then CO₂ further warms the whole planet, because of its heat-trapping properties. This leads to even further CO₂ release.
  • CO₂ does not initiate the warmings, but acts as an amplifier once they are underway

  3 more annotations...

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