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The earthquakes in the Indian Ocean a few years ago not one set off a 
huge tsunami that had a huge human impact it force one plate beneath 
another. This resulted in making the earth slightly smaller and slightly 
more dense. Conservation of angular momentum predicts that the earth's 
rotation rate would increase a measurable amount. That increase has been 
detected.

Over time the earth rotation rate has varied and the eccentricity of the 
earth's orbit around the sun also varied. There is correlation between 
these physical parameters and the cycles of global warming and global 
cooling. While human activity does impact the environment we live in - 
we are but just a small part of the unbalanced forces for the system to 
respond to.

At some point our sun will become a Red Giant - it is already starting 
its heating phase. Then it will then either explode - taking the solar 
system plus lots more with it or it will shrink to a cold dwarf and the 
solar system will be too cold to sustain life. But that's a few billion 
years down the road. There will be a lot of cycles during that time.

Truman

Karen Franklin wrote:
> I’ve enjoyed this thread, especially the discussion today. A lot of 
> this is right up my alley. At this moment my computer monitor is 
> displaying a slice of seismic data, allowing me to literally look into 
> the past. I see constant cycles of change, vast tracts of time passing 
> in the blink of an eye. What I also see are interdependent systems, 
> the rising and falling of sea levels, evidence of global warming and 
> cooling on a massive scale. In my backyard here in Texas there is 
> absolute evidence of the life that lived on this same spot 100 million 
> years ago.
>
> Those fossils remind me of a small creature that evolved on the North 
> American continent. Without a warming cycle that favored low growing 
> plants and the development of a new plant, this creature might never 
> have evolved into the one we are enjoying today in the sport of 
> distance riding. Horses and grasses evolved together. When 
> environmental pressures became too great on this continent, what was 
> left of the pre-equine species moved to the Eurasian continent and 
> developed further into a beast that was manageable for early humans, 
> first as a source of food, later as a tool for the evolution of 
> civilization.
>
> While we do affect the planet to an extent, when we’re gone, life will 
> continue on in whatever manner it may. I recognize that we are a force 
> of change/evolution and while I very much don’t wish to see species 
> die off due to our influence, in my geological mind I can’t help but 
> wonder – what’s next?
>
> Karen E. Franklin
>
> Geologist


--

“It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter how 
smart you are. If it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong” Richard 
Feynman, Nobel Laureate in Physics


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