515 DXV What number that Scientists and Researchers have learned about, that are important in understanding Global Warming and Climate Change?

1) What elements were available when each of the planets and the Sun came together? Around 75% hydrogen, around 22% helium, and the last 3% is every other known element!

2) How old are the planets? Around 4.54 billion years.

3) How long ago was the moon created? The best guess is around 4.5 billion years ago.

4) When did carbon-based life first originate? Around 3.8 billion years ago.

5) When did our planet's plate tectonics begin? The best guess is between 3 and 4 billion years ago. Scientists have found evidence of at least 3.2 billion years ago, but the funny thing about plate tectonics is that, like writing on a chalkboard, the eraser is not far behind! 

6) When did "carbon sequestration" first begin? The same day that any carbon-based life first died. Remember, there were no bacteria to digest any dead carbon-based life for a very long time. So, only when this material came into contact with a sufficiently high heat source to melt it back into its original components was it recycled back into the great water or the atmosphere!

7) What is the atmosphere like on our sister planet, Venus, at this point in time? Around 92 times as dense, and comprised of around 96% carbon dioxide!

8) Without Humanity on the planet, how much "Naturally Occurring Carbon Sequestration" is removed from either the planet's atmosphere or the great water of the earth? Around 10 Gigatonnes per year!

9) On average, how much carbon dioxide is returned into the atmosphere per year? The vast majority of carbon dioxide returned to the atmosphere is due to Earth's Plate Tectonics, including volcanic activity, at around 3 gigatonnes. For a net loss of around 7 gigatonnes per year!

10) So were every planet a gas giant to begin with? YES, time, distance, and gravitational strength matter in how quickly the four inner planets lost their original atmosphere of hydrogen and helium. Thankfully, Earth was the first to do so, with the creation of the moon, giving the two lightest elements enough escape velocity to remove much of Earth's earliest atmosphere, leaving carbon dioxide as the most common gas. Scientists know this by the amount of sequestered carbon-bearing material now stored within the planet's crust.

11) Is Earth's Plate tectonics slowing down? This is one of the most difficult questions for Scientists to answer; there is evidence to support both yes and no. It seems that supervolcanic events, such as the million years of volcanic activity we know as the 'Siberian Traps', along with Yellowstone and other "Super Volcanoes," are past their due dates if history is any indicator. Plus, we know that the half-life of the two different types of uranium, one having a half-life of 700,000,000 years, would mean that less than 1% is left, while the other one has a half-life of 4,5 billion years, so that there is still around 50% of that left. Yet Scientists have found that the speed at which plate tectonics moves plates has remained relatively constant over billions of years; these two understandings are at odds with each other!

12) "Snowball Earth Events" have either caused Earth to be nothing more than a frozen rock circling a medium Star for only 100,000,000 years total or for around a billion years total, depending on which peer-reviewed paper you believe is more accurate! Many Scientists seem to think that "slush-ball Earth is needed to explain how fast new types of carbon-based life could recover, after such events!

13) Why did Earth once again start to have ice being staged on the planet around 34 million years ago, after being ice-free for millions of years prior, and why did that change into another much deeper ice age around 2.5 million years ago? A very in-depth review of the Milankovitch cycle was revisited in the 1970s, and whether or not they could explain the recurrence of ice ages and interglacial events, determined that all Milankovitch cycles did was to pace the ice ages; they could not stop or cause an ice age by themselves. The Scientists and researchers who did this study came up against two major obstacles, first, why did the new set of ice ages only start around 2.5 million years ago if Milanovitch cycles have existed for perhaps billions of years, and Two, why then if our sun is producing more energy to reach Earths surface, at an increasing rate of around 1% every 100,000,000 years, would another ice-age begin if energy received from the Sun was the only criteria?

14) The first ice age that started around 2.5 million years ago lasted only around 40,000 years, and each succeeding ice age increased in length until the last ice age lasted for around 140,000 years. Yet, the interglacial period was quite regular at around 10,000 years long (or short depending on your point of view). Yet this last interglacial period that we are still in has lasted for around 13,500 years.

Dan Kadavy