At the root of Republican (and Pruitt’s) inability to understand our global climate engine and what we are doing to it, is their shallow perception of our planet. To them our “environment” and “biosphere” are abstract concepts with the depth of a post card to their minds.
It requires a serious understanding of and appreciation for these past four and half billion years of dynamic evolution unfolding one day after another before you can hope to understand what’s happening to our atmosphere and what it promises for our future.
Here we consider very deep-time, the first four billion years of Earth’s evolution. Earth, birth of the global ocean, fundamental geo-physical mechanisms falling into place, such as the geomagnetic field, plate tectonics, continent formations, dim sun, near moon, massive global tides, the dance between mineral evolution and primitive life, the dance between life and our evolving atmosphere.
These are prerequisites for understanding our global heat and moisture distribution engine.
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I start with a short video that helps put the notion of deep time into perspective. Then a lucid introductory lecture from an excellent speaker, Professor Julie Ferguson, discussing our atmosphere’s evolving composition.
This is followed by Co-evolution of Minerals and Life | Dr Robert Hazen. Along with some further thoughts and links to many more relevant resources written by experts and other authoritative science communicators.
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4.6 Billion Years in the making. Our wonderful world
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Published on Apr 3, 2014 - University of California at Irvine
ESS 5. Lec 01. The Atmosphere: Composition and Evolution of the Atmosphere
Professor Julie Ferguson, Ph.D. - Earth System Science
