While Venus' atmosphere is worth study, due to the theory that it underwent some sort of hyperactive climate change a few billion years ago, there are limits to the comparison:
- Venus is about 3/4 the distance from the Sun as Earth.
- Venus has slow, retrograde rotation that leaves a given portion of the surface exposed to the Sun for 56 Earth days at a time.
- Venus has no magnetic field, which causes the loss of water vapor and other light gases due to the solar wind
The currently published worst-case scenarios result in a couple degree centigrade increase until 2100; and in a millenium would turn my hometown into an equivalent of Florida. Granted, Florida itself would likely be a desert after such changes, but civilization would definitely be possible, and it's nowhere comparable to melting lead.
