Humans Are Disturbing Earth's Carbon Cycle More Than the Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid Did

https://www.livescience.com/anthropogenic-warming-like-dinosaur-killing-asteroid.html
Since 1750, humans have disrupted Earth's carbon cycle more severely than have some of the most cataclysmic asteroid impacts in history — and, new research suggests, the long-term effects on our planet (see: out-of-control global warming, ocean acidification, mass extinction) could be much the same.This striking finding comes from a suite of papers published today (Oct. 1) in the journal Elements, authored by several teams of researchers from the Deep Carbon Observatory (DCO) — a global collective of more than 1,000 scientists studying the movement of all Earth's carbon from the core of the planet to the edge of space.

In a special edition of the journal, DCO scientists take a close look at what they call "perturbations" to Earth's carbon cycle over the last 500 million years or so. In that period, the authors wrote, the movement of carbon through our planet has been relatively stable — carbon gas (in the form of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, among others) being pumped into the atmosphere by volcanoes and subterranean vents is more or less balanced with the carbon sinking into the planet's interior at tectonic plate boundaries. This balance results in breathable air and a hospitable climate on land and sea that enables our planet's rich biodivers

However, every now and then, a cataclysmic event (or "perturbation&quot throws this balance out of whack, flooding the sky with the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2), disrupting the planet's climate over hundreds of years and often resulting in widespread extinction. In the new papers, the researchers identify four such perturbations, including several gargantuan volcanic eruptions and the arrival of the famous dinosaur-killing asteroid that struck the planet about 66 million years ago. Studying these disruptive events, the authors argue, may be key to understanding the next great climate cataclysm that's unfolding right before our eyes, and by our own hands.