More questions than answers

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The more I learn, the more I don't know. The more I learn the scarier it gets.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...1219142907.htm
Major Climate Change Occurred 5,200 Years Ago: Evidence Suggests That History Could Repeat Itself

ScienceDaily (Dec. 24, 2004) — COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Glaciologist Lonnie Thompson worries that he may have found clues that show history repeating itself, and if he is right, the result could have important implications to modern society.

From the mountains of data drawn by analyzing countless ice cores, and a meticulous review of sometimes obscure historic records, Thompson and his research team at Ohio State University are convinced that the global climate has changed dramatically.
But more importantly, they believe it has happened at least once before, and the results were nearly catastrophic to emerging cultures at the time

Quelccaya ice cap in the Peruvian Andes as that glacier retreats. This monstrous glacier, some 551 feet (168 meters) deep, has shown an exponentially increasing rate of retreat since his first observations in 1963

The plants were carbon-dated to determine their age and tests indicated they had been buried by the ice for perhaps 5,200 years. That suggests that somehow, the climate had shifted suddenly and severely to capture the plants and preserve them until now.

Thompson points to a study of tree rings from Ireland and England that span a period of 7,000 years. The point in that record when the tree rings were narrowest – suggesting the driest period experienced by the trees – was approximately 5,200 years ago.

Evidence shows that around 5,200 years ago, solar output first dropped precipitously and then surged over a short period. It is this huge solar energy oscillation that Thompson believes may have triggered the climate change he sees in all those records

The evidence is clear that a major climate change is underway.”

[gaiasdaughter]

Tony, that image of the plants frozen in ice for 5200 years is a real kicker! Scientists have revised their understanding of how fast climate changes from millenia to centuries to decades and now to years, but those frozen plants indicate something even faster.

It's ironic, but studies like this are often fodder for the deniers/delayers "It's happened before . . . it will happen again . . . it's just natural cycles." What they don't seem to get is that this time it isn't solar cycles; this time it's manmade. If it were nature, there would be nothing we could do. But if it is us, the time to act is yesterday.

If you've been following Joe Romm, he's been exploring what needs to be done and how soon and what will it take to get the level of commitment this challenge requires. If you read between the lines, however, what he really seems to be saying is that what needs to be done and how soon are virtually impossible to achieve without climate catastrophe to motivate us. And climate catastrophe may signal that we've passed critical tipping points and it is already too late.

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If it not too late it must be very close. We need action now.

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http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ai...irst_view.html
NASA Satellite Captures First View of 'Night-Shining Clouds'

It is clear that these clouds are changing, a sign that a part of our atmosphere is changing and we do not understand how, why or what it means," stated AIM principal investigator James Russell III of Hampton University

This new data reveals the global extent and structure of these mysterious clouds

Still so much we don't know

http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/1989/88JD03998.shtml sort of related

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http://www.sciencemag.org/content/ea...08163.full.pdf
The Southern Ocean’s Role in Carbon Exchange During the Last Deglaciation
Andrea Burke1,2 and Laura F. Robinson2,3

Changes in the upwelling and degassing of carbon from the Southern Ocean are one of the leading hypotheses for the cause of glacial-interglacial changes in atmospheric CO2. We present a 25,000-year-long Southern Ocean
radiocarbon record reconstructed from deep-sea corals, which shows radiocarbon-depleted waters during the glacial period and through the early deglaciation. This depletion and associated deep stratification disappeared
by ~ 14.6 ka (thousand years ago) consistent with the transfer of carbon from the deep ocean to the surface ocean and atmosphere via a Southern Ocean ventilation event. Given this evidence for carbon exchange in the
Southern Ocean, we show that existing deep-ocean radiocarbon records from the glacial period are sufficiently depleted to explain the ~190‰ drop in
atmospheric radiocarbon between ~17 and 14.5 ka.

In spite of these difficulties, much effort has been made to
identify an isolated carbon reservoir in the glacial ocean but direct evidence remains elusive

Here we provide a glacial and deglacial time-series of radiocarbon from deep-sea corals collected from sites in the Southern Ocean at depths corresponding to modern-day Upper Circumpolar Deep Water (UCDW) and AAIW. Uranium-thorium (U-Th) dating is used to provide an independent calendar age that does not depend on reservoir ages or stratigraphic correlation

The Mystery Interval. One of the more intriguing features of the atmospheric radiocarbon record is the ~190‰ drop in radiocarbon beginning at ~17 ka and ending at the beginning of the BA/ACR at ~14.5 ka (2). Production records from paleomagnetic and 10Be reconstructions can explain, at
maximum, 40‰ of this drop

By the end of the ‘Mystery Interval’ and the onset of the BA/ACR, the
ocean as a whole is better ventilated, and there is no evidence for the large radiocarbon depletions found in glacial times.

Given that I understood only a fraction of the paper, my selected quotes could be wildly misrepresentative of the total paper. I had not even heard of isolated carbon reservoir theories. Curiously or perhaps entirely relevent William Ruddiman's paper was about insolation of the Southern Ocean corresponding with the ice ages (with lags)

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http://www.sciencemag.org/content/32...2-def0ed0ac743
The Invisible Hand Behind A Vast Carbon Reservoir

Richard Stone

There's no simple recipe—and some scientists are not convinced that it's feasible or even safe. “I do not think it is possible to enhance carbon sequestration by the MCP. We have no handle on any controls” of how refractory DOC is generated, says Simon. With the present knowledge, any sequestration effort, argues Weinbauer, “could come back like a boomerang and worsen the problem.” At the same time, humans may already be “inadvertently stimulating the MCP,” says Salgado. Global warming is increasing stratification, reducing deep convection, and stimulating microbial respiration—all of which favor the MCP, he says.

There is a huge body of literature on this subject