Why's you switch out Gilligan? Since the baseline is a running average, what's above it and below it will change. So what's minus and what's plus in your subsequent post only tells you which way the baseline is trending. But you're right that the absolute amplitude between the high and low points over a time period is indeed a fixed fluctuation value that you can look at. The magnitude of metemperature change has certainly been larger over earth history. But the rate of change right now is what draws attention. Fastest rate of change over the entire Holocene according to the models and proxies. JMO we'll ride out whatever may or may not be in store and muddle along. It's what we do. But if we keep talking like this Iz is going to come charging in here with alarm this and alarm that like there's a herd of badgers digging up his kalo patch and trying to scratch their way into his chicken coop. So we need to find a way to cast a long cold eye. If you're the type to mull over a good paper, consider the last stand of the ichthyosaurs about a 100 million years ago. You can read all about it here, and its a freebie (PMC link upper right).
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26953824
Increasingly genetically bottlenecked, climate changing faster than they could adapt, what's a lizard-like fish to do? Old Charlie stole the handle and the train it won't stop going no way to slow down.