You have to go back tens of thousands of years to see any similar changes, and who knows if they were this rapid. Way way back in olden dinosaur times we were a lot hotter, but then I suppose we were small furry shrewlike creatures or something just happy not to get stepped on by the brontosaur on it's way to one of many conveniently located swamps.
Over the two years I was in and out of Alaska recently a lot of people were starting to say how they believed in a global warming phenomenon now. Most have a glacier practically next door which makes it harder to ignore or not believe in. Meanwhile the good ole U.S. media conglomerates has been running about 53% global warming a shaky theory stories to 47% saying how it is happening while scientists have tended to be about 98% it is happening now to under 2% that have doubts. I expect the figures would be even goofier if PBS and NPR were factored out. NPR seems to have local affiliates in every little Alaska town, so maybe that's another reason they are believers up there. I'm reminded of Limpdick saying how there are more trees in the U.S. hnow than when the country was founded and how enviromentalists are all extremists and I guess basically liars. I thought it was funny at the time because the trick is that there were only thirteen states originally; now with fifty of course there would be more trees today. Not so funny seeming now where there are a lot of people who get their info from such not entirely clear sources. People in Alaska are very critical of Greenpeace and Sierra Club excesses, and yet they are in little doubt about global warming. I suppose things will swing from extreme underreaction nationally to excessive overreaction somehow, although where they will find money for this after going from $125 billion surplus to $300 billion deficit I can't figure out.
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