Just cause nature changed climate thousands of years ago doesn't mean it won't hurt us if we cause climate change while civilization is here.

Some right wingers think that climate change is no problem because earth's climate has changed naturally for years.

Does that mean it's okay for much of Florida's homes and businesses to be flooded in the near future just because those same areas were under water 2.5 million years ago during the Pliocene Era?

Problem is, there are houses on that land now.

Back in the Pliocene, the houses and businesses were not there to care. Today, people might worry if their houses flood, or maybe their children and grandchildren will experience that.

What caused the warming in the Pliocene before humans walked this planet? I did some Google and AI searching. A period of volcanism may have touched off the warming along with other things. There were probably feedback loops; such as the melting of polar ice which caused the earth to be less reflective of sunlight. Panama may have not blocked the flow of ocean water between Pacific and Atlantic Oceans so circulation was different. Remember, this was millions of years ago; not just a few centuries during human times.

Nature can make some dramatic changes, but while our human economy is here, we'd rather the changes not happen in the near future. We are shooting ourselves in the foot if we cause warming to happen in the next few decades, but if we wait for nature to do it, which inevitably happens, it could still give us thousands of years for civilization to flourish.

Some right wingers may not understand the difference between geological time scales and human time scales that we use to run the economy, live our lives, write insurance policies, do what we think of as "long range planning" and so forth.

Map I found from Wikimedia commons.