Good news for rainforests in a hotter world

[fifthcolumn]

And after a quick Google...

a couple of papers...

http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2004AGUFMPP53D..02P
http://www.scienceonline.org/cgi/conten ... /5795/1928

Which put Eocene atmospheric CO2 levels at between 1000 and 1500ppm.

Sorry, no.
The Eocene was not a homogenous period.
It spiked prior to the thermal maximum to much higher than 1000ppm.
I can't (yet) locate the source for 6000, but I can locate this, for the period at the very end of the eocene:

"The event coincides precisely with a catastrophic decline in carbon dioxide levels, which fell from 3500 ppm in the early Eocene to 650 ppm[4] during this event."

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azolla_event

[skeptik]

"The event coincides precisely with a catastrophic decline in carbon dioxide levels, which fell from 3500 ppm in the early Eocene to 650 ppm[4] during this event."

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azolla_event

It's a pity Wiki doesn't reference the source of that 3500ppm figure.

I suppose we shall just have to take their word for it.

What is evident from reading the literature is that estimates for past atmospheric CO2 levels prior to the availability of ice cores are highly variable, being derived from a variety of methods and proxies, and should be taken, where not given, with large imaginary error bars.

[kenneal - lagger]

At the time this snake lived (eocene tbermal maximum), co2 concentration was 6000 parts per million.

Right now we are at 350 parts per million.

Though I doubt we could sustain 7 billion people through such a transition as that, it's clear that nature itself won't be completely wiped out by our malfeasance.

The amount is only part of the problem, the rate of increase is the major problem as plants and animals can't adapt fast enough to the changing climate at their present location.