Inquiring Minds

I saw a report (which I can't find so I can't reference) on PBS about how Antarctica is melting and we're all gonna die. Okay, I'm exaggerating. They're quite sure, however, that we're in trouble due to global warming. They predicted something like a 20-35 foot rise in the ocean levels if the western shelf melts, which it appears to be doing now. If, as they said it would, the eastern shelf follows the western shelf, estimates are that sea level would rise by 200 feet or more. They were concerned, you see, because the levels of carbon dioxide are reaching dangerous levels. As I said, I couldn't find that report, but I did find another piece written as a similar warning up in the Arctic. In it we read that "Modern levels of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide are now flirting with the same CO2 concentrations that triggered" temperature cataclysms of the Pliocene Epoch. That was something like 2 to 5 million years ago. Both accounts tell me that we are again reaching the levels of greenhouse gases that were reached during that time period ... and we're all gonna die. No, no, again, an exaggeration. But it will be bad.

Now, since we all know that global warming (sorry, "global climate change") is caused by humans with our industries and autos, here's what I want to know. What low-life mammals of the Pliocene Epoch were so careless as to drive their SUVs, build their massive factories, and clear-cut the forests so as to cause their own extinction? Okay, of course that's silly. But there were some large mammals around then. Maybe it was their methane (don't let your mind form that image too clearly) or maybe ... well, someone was to blame. (Kidding aside, I did find an accusation that Paleolithic hunters caused global climate change.) I mean, we know that this kind of "greenhouse gas" problem doesn't happen naturally, so who was to blame then?

Inquiring minds want to know.