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A groundbreaking study published in Nature in 2020 by researchers from the University of Bern, Switzerland, analyzed ice cores drilled in Antarctica, reaching back 1.5 million years. This ancient ice has revealed that atmospheric carbon dioxide levels during past glacial periods were significantly lower than previously thought, dipping below 200 parts per million (ppm). This finding challenges existing climate models and offers a new perspective on the Earth's climate sensitivity.
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Why It’s Fascinating
For decades, climate scientists have relied on the assumption that atmospheric CO2 levels during the last glacial maximum (around 20,000 years ago) hovered around 180-200 ppm, a baseline for understanding past climate dynamics. However, the analysis of these ultra-old ice cores, pushing back to a period known as the Mid-Pleistocene Transition, indicates CO2 levels could have dropped even lower, perhaps to as low as 160-180 ppm. This suggests that the Earth's climate system might be even more sensitive to changes in greenhouse gas concentrations than current models predict. It prompts a crucial question: if the Earth's climate system can operate with such low CO2 concentrations, what are the long-term implications for our current, rapidly rising CO2 levels?
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