Robert B. Laughlin’s What the Earth Knows (American Scholar, Summer 2010) is a fascinating and thought provoking piece. Laughlin considers climate and environmental changes from a truly long-term perspective.
http://www.theamericanscholar.org/what-the-earth-knows/print/
He examines climate change from the perspective of geological time. To help the reader understand the concept of geological time, Laughlin notes:
"Geologic time is such a vast concept that it’s helpful to convert it to something more pedestrian just to get oriented. I like rainfall.
He examines climate change from the perspective of geological time. To help the reader understand the concept of geological time, Laughlin notes:
"Geologic time is such a vast concept that it’s helpful to convert it to something more pedestrian just to get oriented. I like rainfall.
• The total precipitation that falls on the world in one year is about one meter of rain, the height of a golden retriever.
• The total amount of rain that has fallen on the world since the industrial revolution began is about 200 meters, the height of Hoover Dam.
• The amount of rain that has fallen on the world since the time of Moses is enough to fill up all the oceans.
• The amount of rain that has fallen on the world since the Ice Age ended is enough to fill up all the oceans four times.
• The amount of rain that has fallen on the world since the dinosaurs died is enough to fill up all the oceans 20,000 times—or the entire volume of the earth three times.
• The amount of rain that has fallen on the world since coal formed is enough to fill up the earth 15 times.
• The amount of rain that has fallen on the world since oxygen formed is enough to fill the earth 100 times."
Also, see this interesting piece on geo-engineering: