Global warming/claims/self-correcting

Argument

A counterargument to claims of global warming is that the Earth's climate is self-correcting, and that any general warming (or cooling) trend will therefore soon be counteracted. This idea is also known as Gaia theory.

Response

While it is entirely possible that the climate may be self-correcting in the long run, there is also strong evidence that Earth has been significantly warmer or colder than at present for quite long stretches of time — apparently even freezing over completely on at least one occasion (Snowball Earth), remaining that way for over 200 million years (far longer than our species has existed) and only unfreezing when the accumulation of geothermally-released carbon dioxide in the atmosphere became sufficient to create a counteracting greenhouse effect.

The self-correcting capability is not, therefore, something we should depend on when making plans for our civilization.