
Earth barreling toward 'Hothouse' state not seen in 50M years - sci_prog
https://www.livescience.com/oldest-climate-record-ever-cenozoic-era.html
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radford-neal
An quote from the article:

    
    
        This event, known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, 
        saw temperatures up to 60 degrees Fahrenheit (16 degrees Celsius) 
        above modern levels
    

I think one cannot assume that anything in this article is correct.

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fallingfrog
The original paper presumably does not have such errors; these most likely
come from the journalist trying to be helpful and translate celsius into
fahrenheit. An increase of 16 degrees C is of course 28.8 degrees fahrenheit.

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rosstex
I'm confused, why is this the case?

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netsharc
Because they don't have the same zero point. 16 deg Celsius on the thermometer
is 60.8 deg Fahrenheit, but if you're measuring difference, you have to do 16
- 0 C = 60.8 - 32 F = 28.8 F. Or to make it clear, 16 going to 32 C is 60.8 F
going to 89.6 F, also a difference of 28.8 F.

Or just do 16/5*9 without adding 32, so you'd get 28.8 F.

~~~
rosstex
Ah, silly me. Thanks!

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gnat
[https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08hpmmf](https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08hpmmf)
is an interesting and accurate discussion of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal
Maximum.

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ocbyc
The sky is falling soon...promise.

