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Abstract The rate and consequences of future high latitude ice sheet retreat remain a major concern given ongoing anthropogenic warming. Here, new precisely dated stalagmite data from NW Iberia provide the first direct, high-resolution records of periods of rapid melting of Northern Hemisphere ice sheets during the penultimate deglaciation. These records reveal the penultimate deglaciation initiated with rapid century-scale meltwater pulses which subsequently trigger abrupt coolings of air temperature in NW Iberia consistent with freshwater-induced AMOC slowdowns. The first of these AMOC slowdowns, 600-year duration, was shorter than Heinrich 1 of the last deglaciation. Although similar insolation forcing initiated the last two deglaciations, the more rapid and sustained rate of freshening in the eastern North Atlantic penultimate deglaciation likely reflects a larger volume of ice stored in the marine-based Eurasian Ice sheet during the penultimate glacial in contrast to the land-based ice sheet on North America as during the last glacial. 

Throughout Earth's history, CO 2 is thought to have exerted a fundamental control on environmental change. Here we review and revise CO 2 reconstructions from boron isotopes in carbonates and carbon isotopes in organic matter over the Cenozoic—the past 66 million years. We find close coupling between CO 2 and climate throughout the Cenozoic, with peak CO 2 levels of ∼1,500 ppm in the Eocene greenhouse, decreasing to ∼500 ppm in the Miocene, and falling further into the ice age world of the Plio–Pleistocene. Around two-thirds of Cenozoic CO 2 drawdown is explained by an increase in the ratio of ocean alkalinity to dissolved inorganic carbon, likely linked to a change in the balance of weathering to outgassing, with the remaining one-third due to changing ocean temperature and major ion composition. Earth system climate sensitivity is explored and may vary between different time intervals. The Cenozoic CO 2 record highlights the truly geological scale of anthropogenic CO 2 change: Current CO 2 levels were last seen around 3 million years ago, and major cuts in emissions are required to prevent a return to the CO 2 levels of the Miocene or Eocene in the coming century. ▪  CO 2 reconstructions over the past 66 Myr from boron isotopes and alkenones are reviewed and re-evaluated. ▪  CO 2 estimates from the different proxies show close agreement, yielding a consistent picture of the evolution of the ocean-atmosphere CO 2 system over the Cenozoic. ▪  CO 2 and climate are coupled throughout the past 66 Myr, providing broad constraints on Earth system climate sensitivity. ▪  Twenty-first-century carbon emissions have the potential to return CO 2 to levels not seen since the much warmer climates of Earth's distant past. 

Membrane permeabilities to CO₂and HCO₃⁻constrain the function of CO₂concentrating mechanisms that algae use to supply inorganic carbon for photosynthesis. In diatoms and green algae, plasma membranes are moderately to highly permeable to CO₂but effectively impermeable to HCO₃⁻. Here, CO₂and HCO₃⁻membrane permeabilities were measured using an¹⁸O‐exchange technique on two species of haptophyte algae,Emiliania huxleyiandCalcidiscus leptoporus, which showed that the plasma membranes of these species are also highly permeable to CO₂(0.006–0.02 cm · s⁻¹) but minimally permeable to HCO₃⁻. Increased temperature and CO₂generally increased CO₂membrane permeabilities in both species, possibly due to changes in lipid composition or CO₂channel proteins. Changes in CO₂membrane permeabilities showed no association with the density of calcium carbonate coccoliths surrounding the cell, which could potentially impede passage of compounds. Haptophyte plasma‐membrane permeabilities to CO₂were somewhat lower than those of diatoms but generally higher than membrane permeabilities of green algae. One caveat of these measurements is that the model used to interpret¹⁸O‐exchange data assumes that carbonic anhydrase, which catalyzes¹⁸O‐exchange, is homogeneously distributed in the cell. The implications of this assumption were tested using a two‐compartment model with an inhomogeneous distribution of carbonic anhydrase to simulate¹⁸O‐exchange data and then inferring plasma‐membrane CO₂permeabilities from the simulated data. This analysis showed that the inferred plasma‐membrane CO₂permeabilities are minimal estimates but should be quite accurate under most conditions.