Making sense of palaeoclimate sensitivity

  • E. J. Rohling
  • , A. Sluijs
  • , H. A. Dijkstra
  • , P. Köhler
  • , R. S.W. Van De Wal
  • , A. S. Von Der Heydt
  • , D. J. Beerling
  • , A. Berger
  • , P. K. Bijl
  • , M. Crucifix
  • , R. Deconto
  • , S. S. Drijfhout
  • , A. Fedorov
  • , G. L. Foster
  • , A. Ganopolski
  • , J. Hansen
  • , B. Hönisch
  • , H. Hooghiemstra
  • , M. Huber
  • , P. Huybers
  • R. Knutti, D. W. Lea, L. J. Lourens, D. Lunt, V. Masson-Demotte, M. Medina-Elizalde, B. Otto-Bliesner, M. Pagani, H. Pälike, H. Renssen, D. L. Royer, M. Siddall, P. Valdes, J. C. Zachos, R. E. Zeebe

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

261 Scopus citations

Abstract

Many palaeoclimate studies have quantified pre-anthropogenic climate change to calculate climate sensitivity (equilibrium temperature change in response to radiative forcing change), but a lack of consistent methodologies produces a wide range of estimates and hinders comparability of results. Here we present a stricter approach, to improve intercomparison of palaeoclimate sensitivity estimates in a manner compatible with equilibrium projections for future climate change. Over the past 65 million years, this reveals a climate sensitivity (in K W-1 m 2) of 0.3-1.9 or 0.6-1.3 at 95% or 68% probability, respectively. The latter implies a warming of 2.2-4.8 K per doubling of atmospheric CO2, which agrees with IPCC estimates.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)683-691
Number of pages9
JournalNature
Volume491
Issue number7426
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 29 2012

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