08 September 2006

Always look on the bright side of life

Every cloud has a silver lining.

The cloud: Global warming is returning the Earth's to Mesozoic conditions. 80% of animal species have had range changes. Between 10% and 99% of species currently exisiting have never experienced the upcoming atmospheric conditions (numbers are so uncertain partially b/c we don't know the historical atmosphere that well, and partly b/c we don't know exactly when species evolved). Mass extinctions are predicted.

The silver lining: Mass extinction events are usually followed by massive evolution - this process is the most accepted model of evolution, called punctuated equilibrium. When dinosaurs start reevolving, even the fundies will have incontrovertible evidence before them of the existence of evolution!

1 comment:

utenzi said...

Dinosaurs? LOL That's a good one, ZP.