Earth Day

Well, Earth day was a week ago, so I figured I'd talk about the changes happening on and to the Earth.

Carbon is one of the most abundant elements on the planet.  It is found in everything including animals, plants, rocks, and gas, but it also plays a part in global climate change.  The carbon cycle is a naturally occurring cycle on Eart
h, but humans are throwing the carbon cycle off course by adding more carbon into the atmosphere than it is being removed, causing what is called the "Greenhouse effect".  Humans add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere because of deforestation, causing the carbon to stay in the air because it is not removed by the trees, and also burning fossil fuels adds tons of carbon into the air.  Humans alone add nearly 10 Pgs (1 Pg = 1 billion metric tons) of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, with no natural cycle to remove it.

Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, which is a gas that absorbs thermal radiation (heat from the Earth) and reflects the heat back to the Earth.  With an excess of carbon dioxide, there is more to reflect back to the Earth, which will heat it.  Through the centuries, there have been several natural fluctuations in the average temperature, but this is the first time it is occurring unnaturally, all because of humans.  Ever since the Industrial Revolution in the 1800's, the average temperature has slowly been climbing.

The Earth is changing because of the increase in temperature, which is causing a huge change in animal life, mainly in the poles because they are experiencing the greatest change.  Many native animals to the poles are becoming extinct, and ice bergs are slowly melting, causing a slight rise in sea level, which can eventually cause flooding.

All the changes happening on Earth seem minuscule to us now, but without changes in our lifestyle, there can be horrible consequences.

Deforestation

Deforestationhas been dramatically altering the Earth for years.  It is one of the leading causes of global climate change and it is drastically changing the natural course of evolution or all organisms.  Humans have all taken part, both directly and indirectly, in destroying forests all over the world. We use the wood from the trees for fuel and building materials and the cleared land can then be used for either agricultural or business purposes, such as constructing unneeded strip malls on all major roads.  Because of deforestation, hundreds on species of plants and animals have either become extinct or critically endangered.  The animals and plants that have neither become extinct nor endangered have been adapted to suit their new lives in there new habitat.  Without the trees and other plants of the forest, the Earth is slowly becoming depleted of much needed oxygen.

                There was once a bird in the family of parrots, the Carolina Parakeet that was native to the eastern coast of the United States, including New Jersey.  It became extinct in 1918 due to the mass deforestation to make room for farms for the new European immigrants.  Because of the loss of their forest habitat, the parakeets turned to eating the crops of farmers, who thought of them as pests and killed them, finishing off the last of the Carolina Parakeet.  

The Greatest Scientific Hoax of the Century.

A missing link to the human evolutionary tree has been discovered.  It was a revolutionary discovery that completely changed the way we look at our phylogenetic tree.  The new creature has been named and placed on the tree where scientists can agree where it belongs,  but it took years to complete because there was so much controversy over the new species discovered, like whether it was real or not.  The human ancestor has caused complete uproar because it was discovered in a highly religious age, creating tension between scientists and religious leaders.  The primitive creature has been determined to exist around 500,000 years ago, long before humans existed and was named Eoanthropus dawsoni, and was given the nickname “Piltdown man”.  It immediately became a worldwide phenomenon. 

Piltdown man was an extremely well thought out hoax, but the mastermind behind it is still unknown. In a quiet town in England in the early 1900s, Charles Dawson, an amateur naturalist, strolled by a quarry and discovered a skull.  He began his research and gained many followers in the scientific community because of this skull and also a few jaw bones and teeth discovered in a nearby area.  Many could not believe Piltdown man was real, so research was constantly being conducted to unveil the hoax, but Dawson became a rich and famous man from his discovery.  Eventually, long after Dawson's death, from the use of modern dating techniques, Piltdown man was named a hoax: the greatest scientific hoax of the century.  

Human Evolution

            The fact that humans once came from “lesser” and simpler animals has baffled many and caused uproar in the scientific and general community alike.  It was once thought that humans evolved in a linear fashion, starting with monkeys, then going to apes, and ending with humans.  But with much research among anthropologists, within the past few decades, it has been decided that we did not come to be so easily.  Humans came from a long line of hominid, or animals more related to humans than chimpanzees are, that struggled to survive and became extinct, leaving humans, one of the only animals to live and be able to flourish on every continent, to virtually take over the entire world.  Everything had to be perfect to create humans as we are today, as one of the only animals with complex social structures and the ability to speak.  

            Along with all these traits that evolved over many, many generations, came the ability to speak, a trait unique to only humans.  Nearly all animals communicate through different ways such as body language, snarling, and high frequency noises like dolphins and whales.  But the development and teaching others of language, and the ability to understand speech through symbols we call letters is extraordinary   

http://humanorigins.si.edu/resources/intro-human-evolution