<div>I often double check anything sourced from Wikipedia, for factual and logical accuracy. This entry on the Paleocene/Eocene Thermal Maximum is well documented with references from major scientific journals:</div>
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<div><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleocene-Eocene_Thermal_Maximum">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleocene-Eocene_Thermal_Maximum</a></div>
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<div>The following comment from the URL above is based on this article (and possibly others in the long list of references at the bottom for this Wikipedia entry), published in the journal "Nature," January 2008:</div>
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<div><a href="http://es.ucsc.edu/%7Ejzachos/pubs/Zachos_Dickens_Zeebe_08.pdf">http://es.ucsc.edu/%7Ejzachos/pubs/Zachos_Dickens_Zeebe_08.pdf</a></div>
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<p>The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum lasted around 20,000 years, and was superimposed on a 6 million year period of more gradual global warming,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Zachos2008_5-0"><a title="" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleocene-Eocene_Thermal_Maximum#cite_note-Zachos2008-5">[6]</a></sup> peaking later in the Eocene at the "Eocene climatic optimum". Other "<a class="new" title="Hyperthermal (page does not exist)" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hyperthermal&action=edit&redlink=1">hyperthermal</a>" events can be recognised during this period of cooling, including the <a class="new" title="Elmo event (page does not exist)" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Elmo_event&action=edit&redlink=1">Elmo event</a> (ETM2). During these events, of which the PETM was by far the most severe, around 1,500 to 2,000 gigatons of carbon were released into the ocean/atmosphere system over the course of 1,000 years. This rate of carbon addition almost equals the rate at which carbon is being released into the atmosphere today through anthropogenic activity.</p>
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<p>Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett</p></div>