Big Picture Science - Geology is Destiny
(Repeat) The record of the
rocks is not just the history of Earth; it’s your history too. Geologists
can learn about events going back billions of years that influenced – and even
made possible – our present-day existence and shaped our society.
If the last Ice Age
had been a bit warmer, the rivers and lakes of the Midwest would have been much
farther north and the U.S. might still be a small country of 13 states. If
some Mediterranean islands hadn’t twisted a bit, no roads would have led to
Rome.
Geology is big
history, and the story is on-going. Human activity is changing the planet
too, and has introduced its own geologic era, the Anthropocene. Will
Earthlings of a hundred million years from now dig up our plastic refuse and
study it the way we study dinosaur bones?
Plus, the dodo had the
bad luck to inhabit a small island and couldn’t adapt to human
predators. But guess what? It wasn’t as dumb as you think.
Guests:
- Walter Alvarez – Professor of Geology, University of California, Berkeley, and author of A Most Improbable Journey: A Big History of Our Planet and Ourselves
- Eugenia Gold – Instructor, Department of Anatomical Sciences, Stony Brook University
- David Grinspoon – Senior scientist at the Planetary Science Institute, and author of Earth in Human Hands: Shaping Our Planet’s Future
This repeat podcast was previously released on January 16, 2017
Download podcast at - http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/geology-is-destiny
You can listen to this and other episodes at http://bigpicturescience.org/, and be sure to check out Blog Picture Science, the companion blog to the radio show.
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