dohboi wrote:
I'm saying it's not about 'getting there' so much as how fast we are changing.
Our 'rate' is already 'there.'
You are 100% right that climate is changing much more rapidly now then during most past geologic periods. However, the climate has changed at even higher rates in the past during a few extreme events.
The transition into the Younger Dryas cold period took less than 10 years, for a rate of about -1°C per year.
The transition out of the Younger Dryas and back to warm conditions took less than 20 years, and would've had a slightly lower rate.
The K-T boundary, recording the impact of a giant bolide, changed global climate in about ca. 1 day, an almost inconceivably high rate of climate change.
The current anthropogenic global warming, for comparison, began with the widespread combustion of fossil fuels and the release of CO2 ca. 175 years ago, but probably really didn't get going until the end of the Little Ice Age ca. 115 years ago. Currently climate is changing at a rate of about 0.2° C per decade.
The current rate of climate change is a little less than 0.2°C per decade---much more rapidly then climate had been changing prior to Greenhouse Warming, but about 50 times slower then the natural rate of climate change seen during the Younger Dryas event.
Cheers!