Hacker News Reader

> 4. At different points in the Earth's history it has been both substantially hotter and colder than it is now;

The atoms in your house were much hotter when they were being formed by fusion inside a star, but that doesn't mean you'd be happy about someone committing arson.

I'm saying it's not really relevant whether Earth has experienced higher temperatures before, what matters is how long it will be able to support 8 billion humans for.

View on HN

My takeaway was that Earth as a system has operated outside of these temperatures and did not result in a runaway effect.

This means that there are self correcting systems that allow Earth to be relatively stable and life bearing for billions of years.

My first thought is that with increase in temperature, you get an increase in plant life which reduces CO2 levels resulting in lower temperatures and less plant life.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com