Extinction Level Event (ELE) & Climate Change on Earth - are we at the Brink of Imminent Destruction?

Now as most of my readers will know, I am a true Trekkie and really enjoy watching Star Trek and all that goes along with science fiction - indeed anything that goes along with space and exploration.

As a matter of fact, you will already know that I have two articles surrounding the Star Trek Universe which can be read at the links below:

Star Trek Universe (part one)

and

Star Trek Universe (part two)

But have we really actually lost sight of our true existence and our own destiny right here on -

our very own Home planet Earth?

The Human existence indigenous to this planet has been around on Earth for around a staggering six million years. We evolved 300,000 years ago from the 'Homo erectus,' from the Latin word meaning 'upright man' resulting from the evolutionary process.

But who is aware that there have been FOUR Extinction Level Events (ELE) on our planet Earth to date so far - that could all too easily have put a complete end to all life on this planet we have come to know, understand, and love up until now?

I highlighted the word 'understand' here because have we REALLY come to understand everything that needs to be known about this spinning globe of blue & green, that quietly rotates on a slightly flattened circular orbit around our Sun. It takes one year or 365.26 days to complete one entire orbit.

In my own opinion, I really do not agree that we know everything there is to know about our planet. Sure, we know all about the planet regarding its size, rotation, orbit, structure, but what about the vast oceans that cover around three-quarters of the planet's surface?

According to data published by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), there still remains more than 80% of Earth’s oceans are yet to be mapped & explored to date– especially the ocean below the surface. The rest remains mostly undiscovered and unseen by humans (NOAA, updated 26/02/2021, subject matter accessed by author on 10/06/2021.)

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Just some quick facts about the planet we live in symbiosis with -

-- our planet has a diameter of roughly 8,000 miles ( or 13,000 kilometres)

-- our planet spins continuously on its own imaginary axis, taking 23.934 hours to complete a whole spin

-- Earth is 92,956,050 miles from the Sun (or 149,598,262 kilometres)

-- The planet was formed some 4.6 billion years ago

-- Earth's core is around 4,400 miles wide (or 7,100 kilometres)

--Water covers roughly 71% of the planet's surface (according to the United States Geological Society (USGS)

-- Atmospheric consistency is around 78% Nitrogen, 21% Oxygen, the remaining 1% is made up of trace water elements, argon, carbon dioxide & other gases.

The National Aeronautics % Space Administration (NASA) gave the friendly zone name to the region of space where our planet occupies, known as The Goldilock's Zone,' literally from the children's fairy-tale because Earth resides where 'it is not too hot and, it is not too cold,' for life to exist on the planet.

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These are well entrenched in our history as recorded on the Geologic Time Scale on Earth as the -

The Ordovician Period of the Paleozoic Era thought to have been caused by the shift in the continents and drastic climate change. This happened in two different waves. The first wave was an ice age encompassing the entirety of our Earth. Sea levels lowered and many land species could not adapt fast enough to survive the harsh, cold climates. The second wave was when the ice age finally ended— this part ended so suddenly that the ocean levels rose too quickly to hold enough oxygen to maintain the species that had survived the first wave. Again, species were too slow to adapt before ELE took them out completely. It was then up to the few surviving aquatic autotrophs to increase the oxygen levels so new species could evolve.

In the Devonian Period of the Paleozoic here several hypotheses were formed, regarding why this second ELE occurred at that time. The earlier discussed first wave, which had already dealt a cataclysmic blow to aquatic life, may have actually been caused by the quick colonization of land—many aquatic plants adapted to live on land, leaving fewer autotrophs to create oxygen for all of the sea life. This led to mass death in the oceans. The plant's sudden move to land also had a major effect on the carbon dioxide available in the Eath's atmosphere. By removing so much of the greenhouse gas so quickly, temperatures plummeted. Land species had trouble adapting to these changes in climate and went extinct as a result.

During the Paleozoic Era (last period) known as the Permian Period was where ALL aquatic and terrestrial life forms alike died relatively quickly as the event took place. This ELE saw a staggering 96% of all species on Earth completely lost. The exact cause remains unknown but whatever was the cause, then saw in the next era.

And finally to the Triassic Period during the Mesozoic Era (occurring over 18 million years through a combination of smaller ELE events) This ELE was widely the cause responsible for wiping out the dinosaurs. The dinosaurs were not the only species to go extinct, however—up to 75% of all known living species died during this mass extinction event. It is well-documented through Earth's history that the cause of this mass extinction was a major asteroid impact.

Courtesy of YouTube & VEVO, released in the United States of America (USA) on July 1st, 1998, becoming the highest gross earning blockbuster about yet another disaster - by Touchstone Pictures (accessed by author dated 09/06/2021) - Song written and produced by Aerosmith for this very film.)

According to data released by NASA on 28/09/2020, its own planetary defence officer (Johnson, L.) said in a statement on the official NASA website, 'the first step to stopping a killer asteroid is finding it,' going on to say 'there are literally hundreds of thousands of asteroids out there, and we want to separate out those we should keep a closer watch on and monitor over time.'

2022 will see this asteroid (known as Didymos) potentially cause a problem for Earth (with the power of creating another ELE) with plans in the active pipeline to deal with this event. Didymus will have in tow its 500-foot-wide moon already orbiting it.

Further up-to-date information can be accessed on NASA's website at https://www.nasa.gov/

I do not intend to write further on this area, as NASA is updating continuously on this potential threat, but I definately suggest following up on this closely and searching 'Didymo' into their search parametres. (perhaps NASA should pay me for increasing their website traffic now!!)

So it does not take a genius to work out that three out of four of the ELE were resultant of climate variations. So my big question is then -

why have we not learned anything from this to date?

Climate change is wholly due to us guys. YES. US HUMANS. It is because of our own activities that we have put ourselves at heightened risk of -

-- Global Warming as stated by NASA (source dated 03/06/2010, accessed by author dated 10/06/2021) reported that it is an unusually rapid increase in Earth’s average surface temperature over the past century primarily due to the greenhouse gases released by people burning fossil fuels.

NEED I SAY anything else here... I do not think so.

-- Flooding over the past 10 years has been linked to an increase in extreme weather events as the country’s climate changes.

Did you know that since 1910 there have been 17 record-breaking rainfall months or seasons – with 9 of them occurring since the year 2000? As intense storms are becoming more frequent, sea levels are also rising because of climate change (source access, Meteorological Office Environment Agency 16/02/2018, access by author dated 10/06/2021.)

I recall growing up in this area of Worcester (image below) when I transitioned from junior to secondary school. The days when our schools were forced to close because of the flooding, and walking along the towpath from the town centre to the Cathedral, and down to Diglis Docks, was totally blocked by flood water from the river Severn. As a child I never saw anything other than the fun & beauty of this. But now, I see and fear far more, the dreadful power of the destructive capabilities of flooding... and it WILL only get worse over the many years to come.

-- Heat Waves as far back as the late 1800s, human-caused climate change has warmed the Earth’s average temperature by around 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) but whilst that is not much, I am certain that it is not hard to see where this is going?

-- Droughts increase as a result of climate change and the chances of odds of worsening drought rise further upward too. See below, an example of just what a drought can do.

According to Reuters News & Media division, the lake surface of the Hoover Dam fell to 1,071.56 feet above sea level, dipping below the previous record low set on July 1, 2016. It has fallen 140.1 feet (42.7 metres) since the year 2000 - which is nearly the height of the Statue of Liberty from torch to base (Reuters 10/06/2021, Hoover Dam.)

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Resulting from the rise in carbon dioxide levels and other greenhouse gases (such as methane) present in the atmosphere, this has caused what we know today as the ‘greenhouse effect,' whereby trapping the Sun’s energy and causing the Earth, and its oceans, to warm. The overall temperature increase of the oceans accounts for over nine-tenths of that trapped energy.

But scientists have been aware of this as far back as the 19th century. Carbon Dioxide levels have increased by a whopping 45% since the Industrial Revolution - with other greenhouse gases rising just as alarmingly & rapidly.

We cannot escape from the evidence that points 100% toward us. Because the increases are due to -

-- Agriculture and Deforestation

-- Manufacturing of metals, chemicals & yes, cement

-- Fossil fuel burning

Let's just break these three down from here a bit...

The Two Main Greenhouse Gases responsible for global warming are in fact Carbon Dioxide and Methane. Although to provide further clarification on the area of 'other gases' that are known here they are Nitrous Oxide and Ozone too.

Deforestation - this is basically destroying and clearing a wide area of trees (typically carried out to make way for construction and infrastructure methods) but in doing so, the lack of trees causes the harmful process of releasing carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere. So, in short, we need trees because they absorb all the carbon dioxide that we as Humans breathe out when we exhale.

I mentioned the word symbiotic earlier in this article because Humanity and trees are symbiotic of each other - we exhale carbon dioxide, which the trees absorb, whereby they then release oxygen which we need to survive on the planet, and so forth.

This is not a Human biology lesson, so I have put it as basic as it can be (I left that to my mother when she was alive, as she was the Human Biology teacher.)

Manufacture of cement - production of this man-made material harmfully releases huge quantities of carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere.

Chemicals - typically the increased fertilizer use over the past 50 years has been responsible solely for the dramatic rise in atmospheric nitrous oxide content (according to a study carried out by the University of California, Berkeley, research & environment dept.)

Fossil fuels - let's start by describing just what these are first. These are formed from the decomposition of buried carbon-based organisms that died millions of years ago, which provide a very carbon-rich source which in turn, can be burned to make energy. These comprise -

1. Gas

2. Oil

3. Coal

They can provide a non-renewable source that currently supplies around 80% of the world’s energy today (according to a source known as ClientEarth Communications, 11/11/2020)

Did You Know That

-- In 2019, British Petroleum (BP) spent millions on an advertising campaign about its low-carbon energy and far cleaner natural gas.

-- In reality, BP's expenditure for 2019 was more than 96% spent on oil & gas alone.

-- Despite them focussing on cleaner fuels, at the same point in time, they were saying and doing the EXACT opposite.

It certainly appears that the film industry enjoys spending millions of pounds on making these disaster movies (with, I add, always have a good survival ending) but what of reality?

Would the real event have a good ending or would the accompaanying ELE mean extinction for us and our planet?

Courtesy of YouTube and released in the United States of America (USA) on November 13th, 2009, the blockbuster film, 2012, at that time it was the ultimate action-adventure film, exploding with groundbreaking special effects about the destruction of the Earth - by Sony Pictures Entertainment (accessed by author dated 09/06/2021)

This now leads me to my next piece -

The Ozone Layer

This layer is one layer of the stratosphere, the second layer of the Earth’s atmosphere. The stratosphere is the mass of protective gases cling ing to our planet.

But for now, I will not further this but will discuss this further and more in depth in a later article shortly...

Mars Manned Mission

So what of this then?

Are we not just planning to go to Mars, to colonize, and leave Earth behind?

Have we not already learnt anything from what we have done to our own planet?

What are your thoughts on this?

Because for myself - I do not think that by looking at our own mistakes we have made here on Earth, and still keep making too, that we are in any position to start landing on other planets capable of supporting human life, BEFORE we can rectify the damages we have brought upon ourselves & our planet Earth.

What Right do we have to 'Play God' with other planets evolutionary processes?

We MUST learn step-by-step to move forward in a safe, harmless, and much more ecologically-friendly way FIRST.

-- Because as the old sayings goes...

LOOK before you LEAP

and,

WALK before you can RUN.

SO, well done & thanks for reading this far!

I have not covered information here regarding the effects of Chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) gases, the ozone, landfill waste, and Thunberg, G., as I will be broaching these areas of concern to Humanity and Earth in an upcoming article that I will be writing soon.

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