Wait a minute: If CO2 drives temperature, and if CO2 levels are so incredibly high now, why was it so warm 116,000 years ago?

Threshold for dangerous climate change closer than believed? | CEJournal

He and his co-author analyzed a set of global data on climatic conditions during the last interglacial period, which lasted from approximately 130,000 to 116,000 years ago. Like the current geologic period, the last interglacial was marked by relatively warm conditions and a retreat of glaciers and ice sheets. The analysis suggests that at that time, global temperatures were about 1.9°C higher than pre-industrial levels.

Most significantly, with temperatures just a little shy of 2°C higher than pre-industrial times, sea level was 6.6 meters to 9.4 meters higher than it is today, and it rose at double the rate being observed now. A sea level rise of that degree would swamp many coastal cities, affecting many tens of millions of people.

“The inevitable conclusion is emission targets will have to be lowered further still,” Turney concludes.

Flashback: Al Gore's Convenient Presentation

Gore could easily have dumped a mind-numbing array of statistics on his audience. But that's not the way to make a persuasive case, and he knows it. For example, for a slide displaying two overlapping graphs representing CO2 emissions and the average temperature going back 600,000 years, Gore says, "When there is more carbon dioxide, the temperature gets warmer." He then reveals a slide that shows the graph climbing to the highest level of carbon dioxide in our planet's history—which represents where the level is today.