The last time Earth was this hot, hippos lived in Britain - ScienceAlert

The last time Earth was this hot, hippos lived in Britain - ScienceAlert



The closing of the article is very interesting... ''
However, during the later Miocene period CO2 declined to below preindustrial levels, but global temperatures remained significantly warmer. What kept things warm, if not CO2? We still don’t know exactly - it may have been orbital shifts, the development of modern ocean circulation or even big geographical changes such as the Isthmus of Panama narrowing and eventually closing off - but it does mean direct comparison with the present day is problematic.

[...]
Currently orbital conditions are suitable to trigger the next glacial inception. We’re due another ice age. However, as pointed out in a recent study in Nature, there’s now so much carbon in the atmosphere the likelihood of this occurring is massively reduced over the next 100,000 years. ''