News flash from 252 million years ago

We are witnessing a lot of "dumbing down" of the climate debate in the mainstream media for various reasons. But a new study published in the Journal Science this week should serve as a wake-up call. It is reported here:

http://news.discovery.com/earth/permian-mass-extinction-death-by-carbon-...

Basically, it appears that the "great dying" of the Permian extinction 252 million years ago came about by a sudden injection of most of the Earth's carbon into the atmosphere, as carbon dioxide.

Unfortunately, we seem to be on a similar trajectory today, one that began with the start of the industrial revolution. So far, the results are good: we have staved off the next ice ages by bumping the CO2 in the atmosphere from 280 to 389 ppm today. But it might not be a good idea to continue on our current path.

No one knows what the "best" level of CO2 in the atmosphere should be. It might be 350 ppm, or 400 , or even more. But all the evidence suggests we will exceed a comfortable limit within this generation.

A realistic goal? We should keep reducing our CO2 output until the atmospheric level stabilizes. That surely is possible. All indications are that we will fail to so so.