How Is Today’s Warming Different from the Past?

earthobservatory.nasa.gov

People always talk about the last 100,000 years as though that is a good scale to talk about this issue. Reality is, current global warming is part of a cycle that has existed way longer than us. Our real problem is that we are speeding up a process, not creating it.

Whereas reaching to greater than 100,000 year cycles is a giant red herring at this point as well. We're dealing with an unprecedented rise within less than a 100 year period, regardless of whether or not this is some "ancient cycle", it's a very frightening thing and we should very much be doing something about it. Playing a blame game at this point about who "created it" versus "sped it up" seems a bit like playing hot potato with a live grenade.

Edit to clarify: unprecedented - in our species' history, in our species' survival to date. That's a part of the focus on the last 100,000 years.

That could be part of it, though there is the potential that we couldn't stop it even if we tried.

We might have to at least try, won't we? What's the other option, roll over and accept mass extinction?

Also, with this different framing, it might be possible to get the deniers on board with the idea that there is a problem.

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