Tales from the Island of Serendip 4 4

[Flex Mentallo]

SNOWBALL EARTH

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

Snowball Earth is a compelling, though controversial theory based upon the evidence of glacial deposits in tropical latitudes in the distant past. 650 million years ago, life only survived because photosynthesis could take place even beneath ice sheets, because these would have been translucent. Life survived by the barest of margins. It is also theorized that the gradual thawing of the ice triggered the great Cambrian explosion of life across the globe.

 

[Flex Mentallo]

I heard a really cool program on NPR about the extinction event that brought about the end of the dinosaurs. When I was a kid we were taught that after a large object crashed into Earth the resulting cloud of debris cooled Earth's atmosphere for many years and the Dinosaurs gradually died off. Now scientists are proposing that the asteroid actually liquefied the material it displaced on impact. This material turned to steam and ejected into the atmosphere where it began cooling and turning into glass. The glass rained back down and heated the entire atmosphere covering the Earth to temperatures above 750 degrees. Everything exposed was cooked. The total time for worldwide extinction is now guessed to be a matter of hours.

 

Another interesting thing is that they are pretty sure the impact happened in May or June based on the presence of specific pollen in the impact rock and the time of year those plants pollinate.

 

Fascinating stuff. Imagine the polar ice caps melting as a result and then possibly evaporating?

 

In fact, they are.

 

A recent study by researchers at NASA and the University of California has found that a section of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is melting at an alarming rate and could raise global sea levels by up to four feet. Meanwhile, the Arctic is also showing the strain of global warming, with an ice-free Arctic summer predicted by 2016, according to research by the U.S. Navy. This research comes as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that April 2014 ranked as the hottest April on record, tying with April 2010. It also follows the recent release of the National Climate Assessment that says that signs of climate change are all around us.

 

This would also release tons of methane trapped in permafrost, which is a far more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

[Flex Mentallo]

'The situation that we find ourselves in today and the rapidity with which climate change is happening and ever increasing, that the 63 percent of all human-generated carbon emissions have occurred in just the last 25 years since the Industrial Revolution began. And we have scientific reports that show there's actually a 40-year time lag from when those emissions are released into the atmosphere and when we actually feel the effects.'

Dahr Jamail, investigative journalist and author

 

And to think, it might all have been so different...

 

[MrBedrock]

This would also release tons of methane trapped in permafrost, which is a far more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

Unfortunately we have just passed the Thanksgiving/Christmas feast season and the great Gator methane release is eminent.

[Flex Mentallo]

This would also release tons of methane trapped in permafrost, which is a far more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

Unfortunately we have just passed the Thanksgiving/Christmas feast season and the great Gator methane release is eminent.

 

Sounds like a mass extinction event to me!

[Flex Mentallo]

DINOTOPIA by JAMES GURNEY

 

[Flex Mentallo]

[Flex Mentallo]

[Flex Mentallo]

[Flex Mentallo]

[Flex Mentallo]

[Flex Mentallo]

[Flex Mentallo]

[Flex Mentallo]

[Flex Mentallo]

[Straw-Man]

This would also release tons of methane trapped in permafrost, which is a far more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

Unfortunately we have just passed the Thanksgiving/Christmas feast season and the great Gator methane release is eminent.

 

Sounds like a mass extinction event to me!

 

he used to have 11 kids.

[G.A.tor]

This would also release tons of methane trapped in permafrost, which is a far more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

Unfortunately we have just passed the Thanksgiving/Christmas feast season and the great Gator methane release is eminent.

less than a month away you can experience it first hand

[Flex Mentallo]

This would also release tons of methane trapped in permafrost, which is a far more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

Unfortunately we have just passed the Thanksgiving/Christmas feast season and the great Gator methane release is eminent.

 

Sounds like a mass extinction event to me!

 

he used to have 11 kids.

 

Sounds like a load of old coprolite.

[Flex Mentallo]

This would also release tons of methane trapped in permafrost, which is a far more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

Unfortunately we have just passed the Thanksgiving/Christmas feast season and the great Gator methane release is eminent.

less than a month away you can experience it first hand

 

Darn, and only a single ocean in between - but at least it's there.