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Just pointing out a few misconceptions;
1. On geologic time scales, the climate is dominated by the configuration of the continents. Comparing carbon dioxide levels (or temperature for that matter) of a billion years ago to today is nearly meaningless.
2. On shorter (<1 million years) time scales the interglacial periods are kicked off by Milankovitch cycles. After the initial warming (super-summer in the northern hemisphere) released carbon dioxide keeps the climate warm for a few thousand years (hence the saw-tooth pattern, and the apparent lag mentioned by a previous poster).
3. The magnitude of temperature forcing due to a known increased concentration of each greenhouse gas is well known. It's just freshman physics. Local climate change is harder to predict.
And yes, I'm one of those US government scientists. Feel free to ask me about my motives.
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