The poetry of evolution... we are born into a flowing river of time on a continually changing planet. Today will never come again and tomorrow is the accumulation of all the days that came before.
To understand the reality of what we are doing to our atmosphere and planet requires an appreciation of four and a half billion years worth of evolution happening one day at a time. Step by step changes created this awesome biosphere most everyone seems to be taking oh so for granted these days.
To better appreciate evolution we need to understand "deep time" so I've included a couple short videos that try conveying the vast distance of time between us and then.
Very early in our Earth's life there were two key events that transformed our planet from just another conglomeration of rocks orbiting a star, to a place brimming with potential.
The ocean's early tidal waves hit proto continents like nothing we can image. Back then (actual, like 90% of Earth's history) the only thing sculpting Earth was tectonics, gravity, water, wind and temperatures. There was mountains and vast expanses of braided-stream tidal plains on growing continental shelves, that and huge endless oceans.
Realize the early moon was very close, orbiting around a much faster spinning Earth. With time the moon receded, all that drag slowed down Earth's orbit and the tides became increasingly toned down.
Still, imagine those early eons with intense currents and "tidal bore waves" that were dozens of meters tall, (if not hundreds, very early on), raging in and out for hundreds of miles, twice daily. That was right here on this planet, it's an awesome thing to mull-around in your mind. Almost like a global crushing plant in the first stages of mineral processing and refining.
Then there was the early formation of Earth's protective geomagnetic (force) field, that protects Earth from harsh Solar Wind.
Happy Learning
Happy Learning
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Deep Time
