A rapid warming event 55.8 million years ago was caused by extensive carbon emissions. The rate of change of carbon and oxygen isotopes in marine shelf sediments suggests that carbon emission rates were much slower than anthropogenic emissions.
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Stassen, P. Global warming then and now. Nature Geosci 9, 268–269 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2691
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2691
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