This finding contradicts the position held by many climate-change skeptics that the Earths climate is resilient to such carbon dioxide emissions and suggests that Earths temperature will rise substantially with atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations that are expected to double around mid-century.

"The last time carbon was emitted to the atmosphere on the scale of what we are doing today, there were winners and losers," remarked Ken Caldeira, a co-author from the Carnegie Institutions Department of Global Ecology. "There was ecological devastation, but new species rose from the ashes. Our work provides even more incentive to develop the clean energy sources that can provide for economic growth and development without risking the natural world that is our endowment."