I am well aware that humans are causing climate change, and it is an important concern to me. I just want to understand the details better.
That is immensely encouraging and I apologise for reading into your post motivations and viewpoints that were not there.
As I continued to think about it I realized that humans have caused desertification. I don’t think that’s the whole reason for the difference in the models though. There may be some differences caused by the Rocky Mountains getting higher since then, and the Panama strait closing, and I’m sure the models are not perfect. Here’s another article on the topic I just read.
http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/14866/1/Salzmann_et_al_2011_Pliocene.pdf
I would certainly not attribute all of the differences to human intervention, nor is desertification the only one. The destruction of the Amazon rain forest has a profound effect upon weather patterns. There are doubtless many other examples. I believe that until there is a broad acceptance, by the general public, of human responsibility for a substantial number of these changes, politicians will resist taking the necessary steps to slow, halt and ultimately reverse them.
Thank you for the link.
I don’t feel that insulting the human race will help anything.
A key part of addressing the problems of alcoholism, as I understand it, is for the alcoholic to stop denying they have a problem, to declare openly "I am an alcoholic". Perhaps some people would consider calling an alcoholic an alcoholic is an insult. I, and Alcoholics Anonymous, do not agree.
So, I am a predatory parasite. I'm not proud of it, but unless I accept that status I assuredly continue to be part of the problem.
Every creature has changed its environment to the extent it was capable of, we are just more capable, and we are more capable of fixing the damage we have caused.
We cannot do to much to bring back the hundreds of thousands of species we have led to extinction, but I agree we can halt the process, reverse parts of it and let nature heal the rest over the course of millenia. But the first step is to recognise that, while we have the potential to be the best thing that ever happened to the planet, we are currently, just about the worst.
Of course the first oxygen producing organisms have made the biggest change to the environment of any creature.
Absolutely, but I was taking your phrase "living creature" to mean currently living. I probably misread that.