Science journalist Peter Brannen and Nate Hagens delve into Earth's geologic history, discussing mass extinctions, the carbon cycle, and the impact of CO2 emissions. They explore past extinctions, the evolution of life, and the challenges of detecting and responding to these events. The podcast also touches on the complexity of the human ecosystem and the possibility of life on other planets.
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Quick takeaways
Carbon levels and fluctuations contribute to mass extinctions and environmental changes throughout Earth's history.
Studying deep time reveals insights into historical events and highlights the urgency of addressing current climate change.
Human alteration of the carbon cycle poses unprecedented risks and highlights the need for immediate action to mitigate CO2 levels.
Deep dives
The Importance of Carbon in Earth's History
Carbon plays a crucial role in Earth's history, with its levels and fluctuations contributing to mass extinctions and environmental changes throughout geologic time. While past research initially focused on asteroid impacts as the main cause of mass extinctions, recent studies have revealed other factors intrinsic to the Earth system itself. These include volcanic activities, CO2 emissions, ocean acidification, warming, and loss of oxygen. Such events highlight the sensitivity of Earth's systems and the potential for current human activities, particularly the rapid release of CO2, to mimic these historical pattern and lead to future catastrophic consequences.
Exploring Deep Time and Earth's Extinctions
Deep time, the vast expanse of Earth's history, challenges our understanding due to its incomprehensible scales. Geologists use various methods, including radiometric dating and fossil analysis, to reconstruct past events and understand the causes and implications of mass extinctions. These extinctions, whether major or minor, often correlate with CO2 pulses and dramatic changes in carbon cycles. The profound insights gained from studying deep time not only shed light on historical events but also emphasize the relevance and urgency of addressing current climate change issues.
The Impact of CO2 on Life and Planetary Processes
The ongoing carbon pulse and the rising levels of CO2 represent an unprecedented planetary experiment with potentially dire consequences. While plants benefit from increased CO2 in terms of photosynthesis, other factors like unpredictable weather patterns, plant nutrient shifts, and higher CO2 emissions pose significant risks. Moreover, the vast timescales required for natural CO2 regulation by Earth's processes contrast with the rapid rate at which humans are altering the carbon cycle. This highlights the need for immediate action to mitigate the risks associated with elevated CO2 levels and to adapt to the changing dynamics of Earth's systems.
The Need for a Holistic Approach and Public Awareness
The oceans, vital to the Earth's habitability, play a crucial role in the carbon cycle and are significantly impacted by human activities. However, public awareness and understanding of ocean-related issues often lag behind. Effectively communicating the importance of oceans, climate change, and deep time to the general public is essential. By embracing a holistic perspective and recognizing our role as both agents and stewards of the planet, we can foster greater awareness, engagement, and informed decision-making to address the urgent challenges of climate change.
The Uncertain Future of Human Civilization
The podcast episode explores the uncertainty surrounding the future of human civilization in the face of the current CO2 pulse. The speaker emphasizes that while the Earth will likely be fine in the long run, the trajectory of human society is less certain. The potential for the world to become an uninhabitable wasteland in the next supercontinent cycle is discussed, highlighting the need to prioritize finding ways to live in harmony with the planet's cycles.
The Complexity of the Carbon Cycle and its Unknown Response
The podcast delves into the complexities of the carbon cycle and the potential for unpredictable responses as a result of pushing the system out of bounds. The unknown dynamics of extinction events and the need for a century-by-century accounting of these events are highlighted. Additionally, the interplay between solar forcing and CO2 forcing over hundreds of millions of years is discussed, emphasizing the challenges of understanding and predicting the future of the Earth's climate.
On this episode, Nate is joined by Peter Brannen, science journalist and author specializing in Earth’s prior mass extinctions, to unpack our planet’s geologic history and what it can tell us about our current climate situation. Humans have become very good at uncovering the history of our planetary home - revealing distinct periods during billions of years of deep time that have disturbing similarities to our own present time. How is the carbon cycle the foundation of our biosphere - and how have changes to it in the past impacted life’s ability to thrive? On the scales of geologic time, how do humans compare to the other species who have inhabited this planet - 99% of which have gone extinct - and will we end up being just a blip in the fossil record? How can an understanding of geologic and climate science prepare us for the environmental challenges we’ll face in the coming decades?
About Peter Brannen
Peter Brannen is an award-winning science journalist and contributing writer at The Atlantic. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Wired, Aeon, The Boston Globe, Slate and The Guardian among other publications. His 2017 book, The Ends of the World covers the five major mass extinctions in Earth's history. Peter is currently a visiting scholar at the Kluge Center at the Library of Congress and an affiliate at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado-Boulder. He was formerly a 2018 Scripps Fellow at CU-Boulder, a 2015 journalist-in-residence at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center at Duke University, and a 2011 Ocean Science Journalism Fellow at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Woods Hole, MA.