Expert debunks dangerous misinformation about the history of the Earth: 'That logic doesn't hold up'

While the planet has experienced much warmer periods in the past, scientists have found that the current rate of temperature rise is much faster than any warming seen in the last 65 million years. 

TikToker and environmental advocate David William Rosales (@davidwilliamrosales) cleared up misinformation about the overheating planet in a video, in which he shared a graph taken from a study on the history of Earth's surface temperature, published in the journal Science. 

@davidwilliamrosales Climate deniers love to argue that because earth was hotter 60 million years ago, destroying our climate isn't dangerous. Here's why that logic doesn't hold up. #climateaction #climatecrisis #environmentalprotection ♬ original sound - David William Rosales

"Climate deniers love to argue that because Earth was hotter 60 million years ago, destroying our climate isn't dangerous," he said. "Here's why that logic doesn't hold up." 

While the graph shows that global surface temperatures have been far warmer than today for most of the last 485 million years, David explained that animals and plants that existed during hotter periods were adapted to those temperatures. If humans went back in time, we wouldn't survive. 

"When temperatures have changed over the course of millions of years, then species on Earth adapt and evolve along with that … it's not just how hot the planet is, but how quickly it heats up," David said.

According to a study by researchers from the University of Washington and the University of Arizona, the magnitude and rate of warming today are unprecedented over the last 24,000 years. 

NASA explained that warming is happening around 10 times faster than normal temperature increases following an ice age. Furthermore, carbon dioxide produced from human activities is rising roughly 250 times faster than it did after the last ice age. 

The main driver of this alarming planetary heating is the burning of dirty fuels such as oil and gas, which release heat-trapping pollution. In turn, warmer temperatures are leading to longer, stronger, and more frequent extreme weather conditions. 

"This is once again affirming that the rate at which we are heating up the planet is dangerous," David concluded. 

Rising global temperatures have had devastating consequences across the planet, including more intense hurricanes, crop failures, scorching heatwaves, record wildfires, historic flooding, and a rapid increase in vector-borne illnesses, which have resulted in deaths, property loss, and infrastructure damage in some cases. 

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The shifting climate is also putting immense pressure on animals and ecosystems, leading to more human-wildlife conflicts, biodiversity loss, and a rise in invasive species. 

To protect life on Earth, society must rapidly transition to cleaner energy sources to cool the planet and reduce the amount of pollution entering the atmosphere. Even small changes, such as reducing energy consumption at home, can help the environment and your energy bill. 

"People forget that when the Earth got hot in the past, it took tens of thousands of years. Meanwhile, we've [done] that in one century," one commenter said.

"Also I think they are forgetting, even if the Earth is naturally warming, that doesn't make the dangers of climate change any less real," another shared. 

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