Old Rocks
Diamond Member
http://www.atmo.arizona.edu/students/courselinks/fall07/nats101s34/Lecture34/lecture34erk.ppt
Older, but what real scientists are saying.
Below is a Smithsonian publication. Seems the scientist there also disagree with your blindness.
Though these changes to the atmosphere greatly pruned the evolutionary tree 251 million years ago, they did not make the planet permanently inhospitable. Life continued to evolve, and levels of oxygen, carbon dioxide and other gases continued to fluctuate, spurring the climate from “hothouse” to “icehouse” states numerous times.
The earth may now be entering a new hothouse era, but what is unique about the present is that humans are taking an active role in shaping the air. The appetite for fossil fuels is altering the atmosphere in a way that will change the climate, adding more carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to the mix, and these fluctuations could have major implications for both extinction and evolution.
The earth’s present conditions are different enough from those of the Late Permian that a similar catastrophe is unlikely, but the more we learn about ancient climates, the more clear it is that sudden changes in the atmosphere can be deadly. A recent study led by biogeochemist Natalia Shakhova, of the International Arctic Research Center, suggests that we may be approaching a tipping point that could quickly ramp up the global warming that is already altering ecosystems around the world. An immense store of methane, one of the most potent greenhouse gases, lies beneath the permafrost of the East Siberian Arctic Shelf. The permafrost acts as a frozen cap over the gas, but Shakhova found that that the cap has a leak. Scientists aren’t sure whether the methane leak is normal or a recent product of global warming, but if current projections are correct, as the global climate warms, sea level will rise and flood the East Siberian Arctic Shelf, which will melt the permafrost and release even more of the gas. As more greenhouse gases build up, the planet inches ever closer to this and other possible tipping points that could trigger rapid changes to habitats all over the world.
Read more: The History of Air | EcoCenter: Air | Smithsonian Magazine
Older, but what real scientists are saying.
Below is a Smithsonian publication. Seems the scientist there also disagree with your blindness.
Though these changes to the atmosphere greatly pruned the evolutionary tree 251 million years ago, they did not make the planet permanently inhospitable. Life continued to evolve, and levels of oxygen, carbon dioxide and other gases continued to fluctuate, spurring the climate from “hothouse” to “icehouse” states numerous times.
The earth may now be entering a new hothouse era, but what is unique about the present is that humans are taking an active role in shaping the air. The appetite for fossil fuels is altering the atmosphere in a way that will change the climate, adding more carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to the mix, and these fluctuations could have major implications for both extinction and evolution.
The earth’s present conditions are different enough from those of the Late Permian that a similar catastrophe is unlikely, but the more we learn about ancient climates, the more clear it is that sudden changes in the atmosphere can be deadly. A recent study led by biogeochemist Natalia Shakhova, of the International Arctic Research Center, suggests that we may be approaching a tipping point that could quickly ramp up the global warming that is already altering ecosystems around the world. An immense store of methane, one of the most potent greenhouse gases, lies beneath the permafrost of the East Siberian Arctic Shelf. The permafrost acts as a frozen cap over the gas, but Shakhova found that that the cap has a leak. Scientists aren’t sure whether the methane leak is normal or a recent product of global warming, but if current projections are correct, as the global climate warms, sea level will rise and flood the East Siberian Arctic Shelf, which will melt the permafrost and release even more of the gas. As more greenhouse gases build up, the planet inches ever closer to this and other possible tipping points that could trigger rapid changes to habitats all over the world.
Read more: The History of Air | EcoCenter: Air | Smithsonian Magazine
