…With all the carbon dioxide that humans are now pumping into the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels, the new findings suggest that temperatures could rise more than expected over the coming millenniums, said the study's lead author, Emily J. Judd, a climate research analyst at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research in New Zealand.
"We're not saying it's going to heat up immediately," Dr. Judd said. But "in the long term, the planet will likely get warmer than we previously thought."
In the meantime, she said, humans are adding carbon dioxide to the skies so quickly, nearly 40 billion tons per year, that it will have much more catastrophic effects than the gradual, geologic shifts of Earth's past.
"When carbon dioxide and temperatures change rapidly, that's when everything on the planet just can't keep pace," Dr. Judd said. "The environment is changing at a rate that's too fast for organisms to keep up with. And that's when we experience mass extinctions."
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