Dinosaurs (ok, it's really Climate Change)

Editor’s Note (2025):
This post started as part of a conversation I was having with my friend Jim—the same Jim I talk about here. We often veered from geology into philosophy, climate science, and the absurdity of trying to argue facts with people who think science has a political party. I ended up writing this one as a standalone post, but I can still hear his voice in the back-and-forth that inspired it.

Original Post

If you are a Creationist and believe the Earth is only 6,000 years old, give or take, this is not meant for you. Your beliefs are founded in faith and I won’t argue with you. If you fall into this category and continue to read, keep your comments to yourself. 

To everyone else, read on, if you wish.

The Earth was formed 4.6 Billion years ago, plus or minus a few million years. 4.6 Billion years is pretty freaking old. 

Until around 2,050,000,000 years (2.05 Billion Years, I just wrote it out like that to impress you with the number of zeros) ago, the Earth had an Oxygen deficient atmosphere. That means for much of the planet’s history, Oxygen dependent organisms couldn’t have existed. Over time, as life evolved and turned Carbon Dioxide into Oxygen, the atmosphere became oxygenic.

Are you still with me? I think this stuff is interesting, it’s probably why I became a geologist.

Another 1.5 Billion years goes by (give or take a few million) and voila! Dinosaurs. Cool huh? Did you like Jurassic Park? I did. Anyway, during the history of life on our planet, there have been several large extinction events where huge percentages of life on the entire planet died. Dinosaurs first came into existence during the Triassic Period. Prior to that there was an extinction event that killed approximately 90% of all life on Earth. The recovery from that was pretty slow (from a Human’s perspective) and took a few million years. Then there was an explosion of diversity and voila! Dinosaurs! (I got a little ahead of myself earlier). Anyway, dinosaurs evolved and then disappeared. Then about 63 million years later (give or take a million or so) voila! Humans.

Humans have been around for about 2.5 million years. That is pretty impressive considering the first power plant was built in the United States in 1882. Humans survived some incredibly harsh environments without the benefit of electricity. I can’t imagine living in Phoenix without air conditioning.

The last ice age started around 2.6 million years ago and lasted for, well, 2.6 million years so far, because we are still in an ice age. The last glacial period (when glaciers covered most of Alaska, Canada and the northern portion of the “Lower 48”) began about 85,000 years ago and ended about 11,000 years ago. During “non ice age” times (not sure what to call them), the Earth is relatively ice free, even at high altitudes.

Pretty cool huh?

If you are sitting there, nodding your head and yet you argue that Climate Change isn’t real simply because someone said it on Fox News, you are an idiot. If you believe that the northern part of the US was once covered with glaciers and now it isn’t, clearly the CLIMATE CHANGED.

Science is not political, it is science.

Get your news and your politics from Fox News and get your science education from someone who knows what the hell they are talking about. You can debate (with someone else) all you want about how much of it is human caused, I don’t care about your opinion on that, but it is real and it has existed for 4.6 Billion years, long before humans existed and it will exist long after we are gone.

Sorry about the language folks, I get a little pissed when people think scientific facts change based on which political party you belong to.