What is Deep Time? Why does it matter?

The universe is ancient - 50,000 times older than our species. On a cosmic time scale, human history is as brief as the blink of an eye.   www.melodysheep.com

In discussing my upcoming column in the FCFP with a few people, it seems that Deep Time is still a new and challenging concept for many.  

It's something I've been contemplating on for decades, and it seem to me if one wants to defend Reality Thinking, that is defend Earth's geophysical facts against the GOP's God of ME FIRST ad hoc PR reality, an appreciating Deep Time is an indispensable tool.  For one its key to making sense of Evolution, that is Earth's four and half thousand million years of Creation unfolding one day at a time.*  And evolution is the only way we can hope to put today's radical geophysical transitions into a realistic perspective. 

I'll share my most fun interaction, 

"Whoa, Peter! You’re blowing my mind!  

Are you a geologist?  

DEEP TIME!?!?!  

I haven’t read through or watched all the links, but I will definitely have to come back to the one about “Deep Time!”  

I don’t, not believe it, but it does frustrate me because I want to grasp the whole picture!  

How did it all come to be & why?   

Is there a reason & will I ever know it ?????          HA! 

After this, how could I not try a little harder to find worthy YouTube video.  One that better conveys our current understanding in as humanly accessible  a way as possible.  The folks at Melodysheep have taken it one leap beyond what's been produced up to now.  Watched more than once, it gets better.

Published by melodysheep, March 9, 2018
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBikbn5XJhg

Fruits of Ignoring Deliberate Deception

Psalm1Tree, a YouTube drive-by shooter, inspired me to write a column for the FourCornersFreePress which in turn caused me to compose the previous three 'footnote' posts, "meeting" James Hutton, William Smith, Blakey and Ranney.  I won't be posting the column until after the first of month, {the complete column has been posted } still the previous three footnotes demand some sort of follow up, so I'm sharing a key portion of what I'm trying to get across in this month's column. 

... Unfortunately, after decades of ignoring such belligerent denial of reality about important aspects of our life and planet, in the service of GOP political war strategies, it has become so insidious and commonplace that we find our government increasingly controlled by Republicans who feel empowered to blatantly disregard obvious down to Earth physical realities on personal whim. 

Justified only by a hubristic conceit that they are doing “God’s duty,” when in honesty they are all about pursuing their own EGO’s bidding. 

Since it matters to me,

Psalm1Tree, no Geologic Column??? Blakey & Ranney

 Have you met Blakey or Ranney?

This post is my 3rd and final 'footnote' for an upcoming essay inspired by Psalm1Tree on YouTube, who possesses a fervent rejection of evolution and who preaches that the "Geologic Column" doesn't exist.  Previously we looked at the legacy of geology pioneers James Hutton and William Smith.

Psalm1Tree: "Fossils are jumbled, in no pattern whatsoever!"

Colorado's Grand Staircase's Geologic Column - Wayne Ranney

(click on image for a better view)

https://earthly-musings.blogspot.com/2013/08/ancient-landscapes-of-colorado-plateau.html

also see: http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/rcb7/Grand_Staircase.html

Using Ron Blakey’s amazing geological maps over time, Wayne Ranney explains life on the Colorado Plateau over the last 500 million years and how those environments lead to today’s formations.  He also explains (23:20) how the data gathered by thousands of field surveys are distilled into this new breed of useful geologic maps of the surface of our planet.  

Which brings us to the Geologic Column, in essence it’s a vertical geologic map, a cross-section of Earth’s crust.  Wayne’s talk is filled with insightful information that brings alive our planet’s deep history while underscoring the makeup and validity of Geologic Column.

Psalm1Tree, no Geologic Column??? William Smith

Psalm1Tree: "Fossils are jumbled, in no pattern whatsoever.”

 Have you met William Smith?

William Smith's Map, completed 1815, decades in the making.

https://eoimages.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/imagerecords/8000/8733/strata_england_wales_1815.jpg

_________________________________________________

This post is my 2nd 'footnote' for an upcoming essay inspired by Psalm1Tree on YouTube, who possesses a fervent rejection of evolution and who preaches that the "Geologic Column" doesn't exist.  But who won't stick around to hear the answers to his challenges.  The first post was about James Hutton.

“There never was a Devonian period, just as there never was a Cambrian, Jurassic, Triassic etc. period.  That's because there never was a Geologic Column.  That is a 19th century construct that has no data whatsoever to support it."

No data?  Seriously?  Has Psalm ever looked?  I ask because it’s easy to track down when our understanding started in the late 1700s. That’s when a handful of curious observant individuals struggled to make sense of what they saw laid out across their country.  In my previous post I shared James Hutton's legacy.  Here I introduce another leading pioneer, William Smith a colorful mapper of coal mines, a canal, railway and road surveyor, a man who spent a life time dedicated to comprehending the landscape and creating the first modern geologic map that visually distilled hundreds (soon to be thousands) of land surveys into a form all could learn to read and comprehend at a glance.   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoUf1-_Lp54

British Geological Survey

From all I've read, William Smith was a might saltier than this nice gent. Still a good summation.

Psalm1Tree, no Geologic Column??? James Hutton

Have you met James Hutton?

James Hutton: 1726-1797 - Discovery of Deep-Time 

Theory of the Earth (1785)

This post is my 1st 'footnote' for an upcoming essay inspired by Psalm1Tree on YouTube, who possesses a fervent rejection of evolution and who foolishly preaches that the "Geologic Column" doesn't exist.

“There never was a Devonian period, just as there never was a Cambrian, Jurassic, Triassic etc. period.  That's because there never was a Geologic Column.  That is a 19th century construct that has no data whatsoever to support it. ... Fossils are jumbled, in no pattern whatsoever.”

No data?  Seriously?  Has Psalm ever looked?  I ask because it’s easy to track down when our understanding started in the late 1700s. That’s when a handful of curious observant individuals struggled to make sense of what they saw laid out across their country.  In particular there was James Hutton the geologist, physician, farmer, canal builder who spent decades trying to understand the varied, sometimes downright bizarre rock exposures and landscapes throughout England and beyond.  

Open University BBC S236 Ep 1 of 16 James Hutton

Cascading consequences: Atmosphere - Jetstream - Cyclones - Hydrological cycle

There’s a new study that comes as no surprise, still since it's such an excellent example of Cascading Consequences, to say nothing of fascinating for the added dimension in understanding it offers, I want to share it over here.

  

The evidence is in and since about the 1950s the speed at which hurricanes travel across oceans and land has been slowing down appreciably.  It’s no surprise because as the Arctic warms the air column above it increases in height relative to the slower warming tropical atmospheric column.  This decreasing gradient of course impacts all natural vectors and oscillations that flow through it. 

Rossby waves and cascading consequences.   It’s the same phenomena that’s causing our jet stream to become more sluggish and erratic these past decades.  Jennifer Francis is an expert and I want to share what she has to explain since it offers an introduction to the concepts at work here.  

Jennifer Francis - Understanding the Jetstream

The Religious Right’s True Colors - A Threat to America

Which is worse, Trump under Russian and Oligarch thumbs, or the amoral Evangelicals who want to turn America into their spite filled theocracy?

The Humanist Report with Mike Figueredo

Published on Jun 10, 2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ls346umURRs

Visit Our Website: http://www.humanistreport.com/

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For more on this story:

Trump signs order seeking to allow churches to engage in more political activity

By John Wagner and Sarah Pulliam Bailey  May 4, 2017

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/opinion-young-religious-right_us_5b117168e4b02143b7cc217d

PEER wins lawsuit - Pruitt must produce his bogus science by July 11th.

For Immediate Release: Jun 04, 2018

Contact: Kirsten Stade 

COURT ORDERS PRUITT TO PRODUCE HIS ALTERNATE CLIMATE SCIENCE

EPA Must Look for Any Scientific Study Supporting Pruitt’s Doubts on Human Role

Posted on Jun 04, 2018 | Tags: climate, EPA, PEER

---

Washington, DC — A federal court has rejected the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s refusal to search for scientific information Administrator Scott Pruitt relied upon in claiming that human activity is not a “primary contributor” to climate change, according to a ruling upholding the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit brought by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The agency must also produce any studies EPA possesses that support Pruitt’s stated skepticism of anthropogenic climate change by July 11.

Judge Howell rules: Pruitt must justify his climate science denial. (Complete Ruling Text)

With a tip of my hat to Arstechnica, I reproduce a verbatim copy of Chief Judge Beryl's ruling in PEER's Freedom Of Information Act case against Scott Pruitt, the GOP's Environmental Protection Agency vandal.  

I have only added some bold highlights a few extra paragraph breaks to help with clarity and one link to background regarding Pruitt.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

PUBLIC EMPLOYEES FOR ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY (PEER),

Plaintiff,

v

U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY ,

Defendant.

Civil Action No. 17-652 (BAH)

v. Chief Judge Beryl A. Howell

June 1, 2018

MEMORANDUM OPINION

On March 9, 2017, Scott Pruitt, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”), appeared on the CNBC program “Squawk Box” and stated, regarding carbon dioxide created by human activity, that “I would not agree that it’s a primary contributor to the global warming that we see,” and “there’s a tremendous disagreement about of [sic] the impact” of “human activity on the climate.” Compl., ¶ 18–19, ECF No. 1. 

Noting that these public statements by the EPA Administrator “stand in contrast to published research and conclusions of the EPA,” id. ¶ 20, the plaintiff, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (“PEER”), a “non-profit organization dedicated to research and public education concerning the activities and operation of [the] federal . . . government[],” id. ¶ 2, submitted a request to EPA, pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”), 5 U.S.C. § 552, for agency records “relied upon by Administrator Pruitt in making these statements and any EPA documents that support the conclusions that human activity is not the largest factor driving global climate change,”

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility needs help to block Pruitt's war on EPA

I received the following email from Jeff Ruch, Executive Director of PEER  (Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility) that I want to share.  PEER needs more help to block Pruitt’s insurgency against our nation’s EPA.  Can you offer them some support?

A new scheme by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt to raise private donations for a personal legal defense fund violates criminal conflict of interest laws and federal ethics rules, according to a new PEER complaint. 

Earlier this month, Pruitt admitted under questioning at a Senate subcommittee that he has created a “legal defense fund” even though he is not yet personally facing any civil suits or criminal charges.

Responding to congressional and other official inquiries is part of Scott Pruitt’s day job and he is not supposed to accept gifts for doing that job – a violation of the criminal conflict of interest prohibition against a government official having two paymasters. 

That offense is punishable by – Imprisonment up to one year for a knowing violation;

• Imprisonment up to five years for a willful violation; and/or
• Civil penalties of up to $50,000 for each violation.