Humans Extinct Can It Be Term paper
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Humans soon to be Extinct!!
Say it ain't so!!
by
Ryan Shoquist
English 121
Dr. Gilliard
November 23, 1996
Table of Contents
Abstract.....................................page
Body.........................................pages
Bibliography.................................page
Appendix.....................................pages
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Abstract
Ever since Dewey McLean (1978) proposed a dinosaur extinction theory that states that a climatic change killed the dinosaurs, it has become the single most accepted theory for the dinosaur extinctions within the scientific community. It is called the dinosaur- greenhouse extinction theory. It says that a climate change via the greenhouse effect killed off the dinosaurs. My paper takes this proposed theory and relates it to the world today. Some of the things that happened back then are also happening now, and if the dinosaur-greenhouse extinction theory is indeed true, then we are also in danger of dying from the greenhouse vertebrate killing mechanism, abrupt atmospheric changes, and the other effects caused by the increased greenhouse effect and people should know about the consequences of what we are doing to the earth. My paper examines the similarities occurring in the two time periods and the possible results that we may soon be facing in the very near future. I am hoping that exposure to the inevitable danger that we are soon going to be facing, will spark action and concern within whomever reads my paper. It is a problem that we all have tended to shrug off and not worry about, but if we don't start worrying about it soon, there will not be anyone around to worry about. The time for action is now. We may still be able to change the future.
Humans Soon to Become Extinct? Can it be?
Roughly sixty-five million years ago a tremendous extinction of global proportions hit the planet earth. This global extinction was so severe that it has defined the boundary between two periods of geologic history called the Cretaceous and the Tertiary periods. All but a few mammals on land and water became extinct. (McLean,1978,p.1) The best known of these extinct animals from this mass extinction are the huge and mighty dinosaurs. What killed them nobody really knows and probably will never know, but scientist haven't hesitated to theorize about it. There have been theories ranging from human involvement to disease to even aliens. However, of all the theories of the so called K-T extinctions, the single most accepted theory is called The Volcano Greenhouse Theory. This theory states that a chain of volcanoes in India, called "the Deccan Traps", released vast quantities of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into earth's atmosphere trapping heat from the sun, (McLean,1988,p.2) and turning earth's surface into "the hot, sterilizing, hell of a major greenhouse." (McLean 1981,p.1) If the dinosaurs did in fact die from the Volcano-Greenhouse theory, then we are also in danger of becoming extinct from the Vertebrate Killing Mechanism, abrupt atmospheric changes, and other results from the greenhouse effect that they too died from.
The earth is what is referred to as a "Greenhouse Planet". This means that the earth is warmed by certain gases (fig a1) that without which our earth would be as cold and barren as the moon, and unsuitable for even the most basic life to exist. These greenhouse gases, mostly carbon dioxide and water vapor, in the earth's atmosphere trap heat from the sun causing the earth to be thirty degrees warmer than it would be without them. (fig a3) (McLean, 1978, p.1) It is this extra warmth that allows earth to harbor life.
Carbon dioxide was and still is released into the atmosphere continuously by natural sources such as volcanoes, hot springs, fumaroles, and geysers. The natural processes on the surface of the earth will absorb this normal effect. (fig a9) Over long periods of time, the process was accepted and became in balance with the earth. (McLean, 1985, p.1) Then a time of volcanic activity arrived as the Deccan Traps of the late Cretaceous Period erupted and the pieces had almost all fallen in place for a change.
Volcanic dust and CO2 was strewn into the upper atmosphere for a period of around two hundred plus years. (McLean, 1985,p.1) This caused a time of cooling on the earth due to the dust blocking out the sunlight. The dinosaurs began to adapt to the climatic cooling from the volcanic dust very well. The large body size of the dinosaur was beneficial on the cooling earth, because it easily kept in their body heat allowing them to comfortably survive without harboring their ability to find food. (McLean, 1995 p.1) It seemed as if they were going to stay for a while.
Then the ash cleared and, that was when the whole process was thrown out of balance. The carbon dioxide had been produced faster than the natural systems could absorb it. Also, instead of coming down with the ash to the surface, the carbon dioxide stayed in the upper atmosphere making it thicker and thicker. Now embracing the greenhouse effect, the earth began to heat up like a hot oven, triggering ecological instability the world over. (McLean, 1985, p.1)
The Dinosaur's large size made it impossible for them to even make an attempt to recover from this sudden increase in heat. (McLean 1995) Whereas the thermal inertia contained in their bodies would have been a great benefit in the cooler climate, their small surface to volume ratios were huge disadvantages in the warming and caused the dinosaur's bodies to essentially overheat. (p.1) A smaller size, like that of the mammal, would have helped them to survive better. (p.2)
The abruptness of all these circumstances wreaked havoc in the internal systems of the dinosaurs causing the Greenhouse Vertebrate Physiological Killing Mechanism (fig a16) to begin occurring. (McLean,1995) The Greenhouse-Vertebrate Killing Mechanism states that climate triggers extinctions through it's effects on a species' females. Here's what happens. In response to the growing environmental heat, a female's body will give part of it's blood supply away to the skin surface to help get rid of excess bodily heat. The result of this causes a reduction in the blood flow to the uterus of a pregnant female. (p.2) Since the uterus is the place where the embryo gets all of it's life providing oxygen, food, water, and nutrients, the reduction in blood will make these necessities less available and cause the embryo to die or become abnormal with dwarfing abnormalities or mutations. (p.1) Large animals that couldn't shed off their excess heat, such as the dinosaurs, were the animals most effected. (p.1)
The same thing that happened to the dinosaurs during the K-T extinctions is happening right now right in front of our own faces today as you read this, and most of us don't even know it. Like the dinosaurs, we have also just had a cooling off period. (Broeker,1996,p.3) Volcanic eruptions are thought to be responsible for the global cooling that has been observed. When large masses of gas reach the stratosphere, the uppermost layer of the atmosphere, they produce a worldwide cooling effect. (Volcanoes and Climate,96) The amount and extent of this cooling action is dependent on the eruption size and it's latitude. (Nasa, 1996) If it occurs in a place of great winds and air currents, then it will spread differently than one not in an air current would have on the world and have a different amount of a cooling or heating effect. (p.2)
The full extent of the current global warming probably hasn't even come close to reaching us yet. That is because the effects of the Mt. Pinatubo eruption may just now be finally wearing off. (Nasa,1996) Due to the overlapping cooling effects of Mt. St. Helens, El Chichn, and the Cerro Hudson eruptions there was a continuing cool-off period that is just ending. (p.1) One top meteorologist said (Broeker,1996) "If man made dust is unimportant as a cause of climate change, then a strong case could be made that the current cooling trend will give way to a pronounced warming induced by carbon dioxide." (p.1)
One thing though that has already begun to happen to us again is the Greenhouse Vertebrate Killing Mechanism. Via this mechanism, summer heat kills mammalian embryos on a vast global scale. (McLean 1995,p.2) That is why there are more miscarriages in summer months than there are any other time of the year. How many miscarriages it has actually caused cannot be accurately measured due to the lack of a way to determine if they actually died from the mechanism.
Now another coincidence, just as with the dinosaurs, the greenhouse gasses are once again increasing. (Fig a7, a8) Now though, instead of volcanoes causing the increase, humans are indirectly causing the increase. (unep/umo/94) Previously, the global climate was what changed the world, but now us humans are changing the world by changing the climate. (p.2)
The principle change to date is within the makeup of the atmosphere. (p.2) The greenhouse gasses carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide have always formed a blanket around the earth. The problem...
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