Tiny Tim : 1963
SO FAR, GREENHOUSE EFFECT HEATS ONLY DEBATE
By WALTER SULLIVAN
Published: October 23, 1983
‘‘The ice caps are melting! The ice caps are melting! The oceans are rising and we’ll all be drowned for our sins,” sang the shrill-voiced Tiny Tim some 20 years ago.
More recent warnings of sudden climatic changes still point to ice caps melting, but the cause in these scenarios is the ”greenhouse effect,” or rise in global temperature resulting from the increase of carbon dioxide in the air. Since atmospheric carbon dioxide retains heat, the theory goes, a buildup of the gas would prevent Earth from radiating heat into space.
SO FAR, GREENHOUSE EFFECT HEATS ONLY DEBATE – NYTimes.com
James Hansen : 2011
Right now, we’re headed towards an ice-free planet. That takes us through the Eemian interglacial period of about 130,000 years ago when sea levels were 15 to 20 feet higher, when temperatures had been thought to be about 1°C warmer than today. Then we go back to the “early Pliocene, when sea level was about 25 m [82 feet] higher than today,” as NASA’s James Hansen and Makiko Sato explain
Must-read Hansen and Sato paper: We are at a climate tipping point that, once crossed, enables multi-meter sea level rise this century | ThinkProgress
This video should help you understand what is going on in Hansen’s head.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcSlcNfThUA]