The Last Time the Globe Warmed

Imagine an enormous, lush rainforest teeming with life...in the Arctic. Well, there was a time -- and not too long ago -- when the world warmed more than any human has ever seen. (So far)

Produced for PBS Digital Studios.

Special thanks to Nobumichi Tamura for allowing us to use his work:

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[JM-blih]

If only there was an organism on earth that consumed excess CO2 and let put oxygen. We could put these things everywhere. 🤔🤔🤔

[unvergebeneid]

What's important to keep in mind is that a quantitative difference in the rate of change can mean a qualitative difference in the effect of that change. E.g. if the change is slow enough for a species to adapt, it adapts. If it's faster than it can adapt, the species is gone. Which in turn might cause other species to go extinct, even if they could've otherwise adapted.

[oldie]

I have a friend who was stationed in the high artic in the early 60's with the military. He recalled petrified tree stumps with roots 3 to 4 feet around, under neath a glacier.

[Anonymous-nnsk]

Imagine how many plant and animal species in the arctic went extinct during the cooling after PETM but sea animals may have thrived due to the cooling?

[firstnamelastname]

I live in Siberia and I want my rain forests back NOW!
:)

[TenThumbsProductions]

Basic cable news should be swapped for Eons, that would be fantastic.

[idiomasentusiasticos]

It’s so weird to think that at one point in time, the internal human body temperature was a cold day.

[RICKONORATO]

We always hear about how balmy it was in the Arctic during this time, but then what was life like at the equator during this period? Deserts? Unlivable and devoid of life? More tropical rainforests? I'd like to know what the rest of the planet was experiencing when temperatures were so much higher...

[alfinito]

the title of this video should be: when Greenland was green

[ShirinRose]

I wonder what it was like in the rainforests at the poles during the long night of winter.

[nebulaunfolding]

Hot tub ocean? Lush green forests? No more ice? Bring it on baby!

[SeanFication]

The globe has been warming for the last thousand years at least. That's why the last ice age is "the last ice age" and not the current ice age.

[davidhobbs]

Australia's inland sea would be an interesting topic. Especially how it slowly dries up and the effect it had on climate.

[pom]

Not to mention that life can adapt quite well over millions of years, not in a few decades.

[askmagoo]

simply put, if earth goes hey wire very hot or very cold. Humans will be affected and likely go extinct. While earth goes meh, I'm just chilling

[BrianEthridge-wkhz]

I can't even begin to tell you how much I love these videos! Thanks so much!!!

[sion]

The video should have either being subtitled or just titled _"When Greenland was _*_actually_*_ green!"_

[reevethomas]

“There was a time, not too long ago...” yep, sure, I remember it like it was yesterday

[sebachinger]

Love this channel and the information that you share in a way that is great for all folks to absorb and understand :)

[stephenmorse]

The transient mantle plume under the Faroe Shetland basin at the end of the Palaeocene caused massive uplift of the ocean floor (minimum of 700m to 1000m) and cut off the ocean circulation to and from the north at the time. This has been mooted as one of the contributing factors. Also, a warming sea cannot hold as much CO2 so there is a chicken and egg scenario wrt CO2 and warming.