After reading this article at Drudge I fully expect to hear a raft of (Right)WingNuts latch onto something that was already relatively well known and run with the “see, this is nothing to worry about, the earth has been warmer in the past and we’re still here, it’s perfectly natural” line.
– I wonder if they’ll bother to mention the fact that around the same time the oceans were as much as 10 degrees warmer then they are now, or the type of weather that sort of thing could generate?
If I had land on the south east coast of North America I’d be selling.
It is entirely possible that a tropical arctic was the long-term result of a meteor impact, possibly that which created the Gulf of Mexico and led to mass extinctions, approximately 65 million years ago, or maybe another similar one. I’m not basing this on scientific evidence or otherwise, only simple posturing, but who knows.
Somebody saying that the Arctic was tropical 55 million years ago does only a little bit more to stop me from worrying about global warming than saying that much of the Earth was a covered in sulphuric acid or other nasty stuff 3 or so billion years ago.
You can’t use excuses from the distant past to make a case against global warming. Even if vehicular exhaust fumes do not contribute to some sort of greenhouse effect, people still shouldn’t drive SUVs in the city.
Eat locally, fund mass transit, and bike.