Earth's Changing Climate Highlighted in Atlantic Article

The Atlantic recently published an article called, "The Terrifying Record Lurking in Earth's Ancient Rock Record" by Peter Brannen. I highly recommend reading the article to get a flavor for the many interesting (and sometimes frightening) changes that have occurred in Earth's climate since the end of the Thermal Maximum about 55 million years ago. You can read the article here.

The article is a nice synopsis or review of Earth's climate since the dinosaurs went extinct, at a time when Earth's climate was much warmer. I think it could be used as a primer on seminal events that we know happened in the geologic past. 

I really like seeing geology get this much press! 

In the end, I think long and hard about our attempts to control the climate. Even if we were not the cause of the current climate change, our geology would inform us that this change has been ongoing and is a huge shaper of all living things. When we as individuals were born, the depth of knowledge concerning how the Earth operates was unknown. We were still just identifying the various “parts” that came with the planet. Our lives have commenced with the progressive “assembly" of these disparate parts with the result being something far different than the disassembled parts could convey. We have lived through a revolution in Earth knowledge, such that its immensity has not yet truly sunk in to us as a species. This article attempts to help us understand the long arc of Earth history and to connect the dots. What a scary, beautiful, unpredictable planet system we have been born into!