Dr Peter Ward 2013 Lectures on Global Warming & Mass Extinctions

Past CO2 concentrations have been between 200ppm to 280ppm for the last 800,000 years and
have now risen more than 30% higher to 402ppm and are still increasing fast.
- Dec 2013 Professor Thomas Stocker, University of Bern, Switzerland and Co-chair of IPCC WGI see Pg 5 below -
Peter Wards video lectures explains how four global mass extinction events all occurred as CO2
went above 1000ppm. In the next 25 years CO2 is projected to rise to ~460ppm by 2040; to
~560ppm before 2060; and up to 965ppm by 2100 unless drastic cuts are made to carbon energy use
and GHG pollution. CO2 is a cumulatively increasing gas that lasts for centuries in the atmosphere.
Our Future In a World Without Ice Caps - video lecture



Apr. 11, 2013 - Peter D. Ward, Ph.D., is a paleontologist and professor of Geological Sciences at the
University of Washington. Ward specializes in the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event (the one that
killed the dinosaurs), the Permian-Triassic extinction event, and mass extinctions in general.
How bad can climate change be?
How concerned should we be? Maybe dont do anything if it will ruin the economy?
http://youtu.be/HtHlsUDVVy0?t=1m44s
Does deep time inform the near future? We can look at what has happened with carbon dioxide
levels in the deep past. http://youtu.be/HtHlsUDVVy0?t=2m20s
5 major mass extinctions of animal life on earth; 65 million years ago earth was hit by a meteorite,
comet or asteroid. http://youtu.be/HtHlsUDVVy0?t=5m26s to 10mins.
The Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction event was sudden and may have happened in less than a
year, or even in a week. http://youtu.be/HtHlsUDVVy0?t=10m
The huge Yucatan Mexico impact crater, Nautilus and the Allonautilus.
http://youtu.be/HtHlsUDVVy0?t=11m35s
By the 1990s many assumed impacts caused all the other mass extinctions, but they didnt, only the
last extinction event was caused by asteroid impact; a close look at the Permian Mass Extinction 250
million years ago. http://youtu.be/HtHlsUDVVy0?t=14m20s
Huge quantities of Hydrogen Sulphide Gas, aka Rotten egg gas, comes out of the ocean.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_sulfide) can be used for suspended animation. More
reptiles survive the Permian extinction. http://youtu.be/HtHlsUDVVy0?t=18m30s to 21m30s
What caused the other extinctions was sudden volcanism (flood basalt flows) extruding CO2 and the
world warmed by 10 degrees centigrade over 50,000 years and this warming produced hydrogen
sulphide. Cold poles causes ocean and atmosphere circulation (a biological pump) but ice free poles
in a 10C world stops this and the oceans die. http://youtu.be/HtHlsUDVVy0?t=21m30s
Summary of extinction records, global circulation and CO2. http://youtu.be/HtHlsUDVVy0?t=24m43s
Every time we hit high CO2 (1000ppm) we lost the ice caps. Now CO2 402ppm rising 2-3ppm per
year. (Business as Usual carbon energy use projects CO2 @ 450 by 2040, 560ppm by 2060 to
~950ppm by 2100) Effects of sea level rise. http://youtu.be/HtHlsUDVVy0?t=27m12s
Ocean Heat Content, sea level rise, sea level delta crops, Greenland and Antarctic Ice loss. Sea level
airports, ship terminals docks with ~1 metre rise by 2100. http://youtu.be/HtHlsUDVVy0?t=32m22s
Sea level changes higher in different locations http://youtu.be/HtHlsUDVVy0?t=36m36s
The Global warming is false arguments, science literacy, academic scientist public outreach, what
would 1m sea level rise do in the SW USA? Culture change needed to inform the public. Best to get
the worst of the bad news out on climate change. http://youtu.be/HtHlsUDVVy0?t=37m40s

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Who is Afraid of the Big Bad Climate?
What is the Worst That Global Warming Could Do? video lecture

Dr. Peter Ward presents the University of Washington's 34th Annual Faculty Lecture on one of the
most controversial topics of our times: global warming. Ward, a professor in the Department of
Earth and Space Sciences and the Department of Biology at UW, asks just how serious are the actual
threats from a warmed world and takes a look at clues from the rock and fossil record.
Dr. Peter Ward, professor, Department of Earth and Space Sciences; professor, Department of
Biology, University of Washington. 01/07/2010
Similar content to Our Future In a World Without Ice Caps lecture above.
Lecture begins here http://youtu.be/HP_Fvs48hb4?t=5m40s


Some key information to consider is time marked in the following links:
End of the Permian period into the Triassic http://youtu.be/HP_Fvs48hb4?t=17m7s
No evidence of impact or sudden extinction but there was evidence of high CO2 in carbon isotopes.
Signs of global warming, low oxygen, hydrogen sulphide, green and purple sulphur bacteria, and lava
flood basalts. http://youtu.be/HP_Fvs48hb4?t=20m2s to 30mins
High CO2 levels in time, warming, ice, sulphur salts, and mass extinctions. No ice sheets when CO2
was above 1000ppm therein is our problem. Cool poles and warm tropics keep the ocean currents
moving and oxygenated. http://youtu.be/HP_Fvs48hb4?t=32m8s
Carbon Dioxide, is Carbon Dioxide, is Carbon Dioxide and its rising fast.
Communicating science to the public and engaging in outreach
http://youtu.be/HP_Fvs48hb4?t=41m15s [end of Peter Ward video]
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No Slowdown in Global Warming Sep 4, 2013 by Yale Climate Forum
In recent months, a lively media conversation has taken place in regard to what the surface
temperature record is telling us. Here, a group of leading Atmospheric and Ocean experts put the
data in context. "90% of the heat trapped by global warming is stored in the oceans. Some of that
heat is going into melting ice on Greenland and the Arctic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=047vmL6Q_4g
The Thermohaline circulation is a global current that is the major driver of mixing in our oceans. It is
often referred to as the ocean conveyor system. This sequence of events could slow or even stop the
conveyor belt which could result in potentially drastic temperature reduction in Europe
http://ingienous.com/the-challenge/green-technology/tipping-points/thermohaline-circulation-and-
the-medea-hypothesis/
Mass extinction is finally fighting its way back into the news cycle, thanks to recently scary reports
on climate change from the International Programme on the State of the Ocean, the United Nations
Environment Program and the July issue of Science. But University of Washington paleontologist and
author Peter Ward has been there, done that, and he's still depressed as hell. "I wrote a book in
1994 called The End of Evolution: A Journey in Search of Clues to the Third Mass Extinction Facing
Earth that said, within in a decade or two, we'd be seeing these monumental destructions, and
people laughed at it," Ward explained by phone from Seattle. "I wrote a book just last year about
sea-level rise called The Flooded Earth: Our Future in a World Without Ice Caps saying that things
look pretty desperate for the next 60 to 80 years, and got almost no reviews. Luckily, I'm not going
to be alive to see the worst of it. But the sad thing is that it's horrible to be right, just horrible.
Somebody gave me the foresight to see what's coming, and I don't like it."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-thill/weve-entered-the-age-of-m_b_924940.html


Changes Came With the Emergence of Oxygen
As the Earth system matured and new organisms came into being, CO2 reducing photosynthetic life
emerged and began to produce an abundance of oxygen. Toxic to the ancient organisms, the
abundance of oxygen pushed the sulphate reducing bacteria into the worlds low-oxygen corners.
The deep ocean, or anaerobic mud became a haven for these tiny primordial monsters. Never again
would they dominate as they once did. But, from time to time, when priomordial ocean states would
infrequently emerge during various hot-house phases in Earths climate progression, these life forms
would explode, producing prodigious volumes of what, to more complex life, was the very toxic
hydrogen sulfide gas. []
Separate depletion of atmospheric oxygen through both the plant killing mechanism of hydrogen
sulfide gas and its long-term reaction with oxygen would also make life far more difficult to
terrestrial creatures. Finally, the massive amounts of sulfur dioxide produced in such a world would
combine with the hydrogen sulfide pulsing into the atmosphere to create an ongoing, long-term
degradation of the ozone layer, further harming surface dwelling plants and animals.
During the Permian Extinction, such conditions, together with other impacts of a global hothouse
featuring a massive flood basalt, are thought to have wiped out more than 70% of terrestrial
organisms and a total of more than 95% of all life on Earth.
https://robertscribbler.wordpress.com/tag/dr-peter-ward/

9 May 2014
Greenland and Arctic Ice Sheet loss from AGW and Natural Climate Variations
An international team of scientists estimate that up to half of the recent global warming in
Greenland is caused by natural climate variations. The research, published today in the journal
Nature, sheds new light on the rapid melting of Greenlands glaciers. Crucially it indicates that global
warming caused by carbon dioxide emissions may not be the only factor responsible.
Dr Ailie Gallant from Monash University said these natural variations stem from an unusually warm
tropical Pacific Ocean, east of Papua New Guinea. This sweet spot is partly responsible for Arctic
warming. The team used observations and used advanced computer models to reveal that a warmer
western tropical Pacific Ocean has caused atmospheric changes over the North Atlantic, warming
the surface by about half a degree per decade since 1979.
What remains unknown is whether the enahnced warming in Greenland will continue. Professor
John Wallace from the University of Washington said that if ocean surface temperatures in the
Pacific changes, it could result in a reduction in the amount of warming in Greenland. Ice is
exquisitely sensitive to temperature, more than we ever would have thought. Natural variations
could either accelerate (speed up) or deaccelerate (slow down) the rate of melting of Greenlands
glaciers in coming decades, but in the long run, the human induced component is likely to prevail,
Professor Wallace said.
http://monash.edu/news/show/tropical-pacific-sweet-spot-partly-responsible-for-arctic-warming
http://www.scribd.com/doc/223695121/May-2014-Antarctic-Ice-Sheet-Past-the-Point-of-No-Return
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Anthropocene: The closing doors of climate targets
The Grantham Institute for Climate Change Annual Lecture 2013, given by Professor Thomas
Stocker, University of Bern, Switzerland and Co-chair of IPCC WGI
Published on Dec 6, 2013 http://youtu.be/Vn3_hviRfdU?t=8m5s
CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere are now unprecedented in at least the last 800,000 years,
and they rise more than 100 times faster than during the past 20,000 years.
This is caused by anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases by burning fossil fuels and land use
change with consequent changes in the entire Earth System.
The newest comprehensive assessment Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis by the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change documents a rapidly and profoundly changing Earth
System and provides the latest understanding of changes ahead of us.
There is no doubt that warming and many of the consequent changes are caused by human activity
which makes this new geological epoch: the Anthropocene. How climate scientists many centuries
and millennia hence will characterize the Anthropocene depends on us, on our decisions today.
The implementation of international agreements to "prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference
with the climate system" requires limiting CO2 emissions substantially and sustainably. Specific
climate targets to limit the warming to 2C, or even 1.5C, are already now ambitious.
But both further delay and insufficient emissions reductions close the door on limiting global mean
warming, and consequent impacts, permanently.

For more information please visit http://www.imperial.ac.uk/climatechange
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The Climate doesnt care what made the Carbon Dioxide, where it came from or when.
It responds to how much CO2 there is and then naturally does what a Climate must do.

Related links:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/228672466/About-Dr-James-Hansen-NASA-GISS-Climate-Scientist
http://www.scribd.com/doc/228672465/About-Prof-Kevin-Anderson-UK-Climate-Scientist-Rhetoric-to-
Reality
http://www.scribd.com/doc/223726132/April-2013-Our-Future-In-a-World-Without-Ice-Caps
http://www.scribd.com/doc/223695121/May-2014-Antarctic-Ice-Sheet-Past-the-Point-of-No-Return
http://www.scribd.com/doc/206878243/Historical-and-Future-Projections-for-Energy-Use-and-GHG-
Emissions-the-IPCC-AR5
http://www.scribd.com/doc/203619501/Scientific-Studies-on-Hydraulic-Fracking-of-Shale-Gas-Coal-
Seam-Gas
http://www.scribd.com/doc/228672468/Hypothetical-Carbon-Energy-Reduction-Plan-to-Avoid-2C
http://www.scribd.com/doc/208255048/Cognitive-Dissonance-Theory-Summary


[Last updated 2014-06-09 http://www.scribd.com/doc/223726132/Dr-Peter-Ward-2013-Lectures-on-Global-Warming-Mass-
Extinctions ]