Of course there are cyclic climatic changes. The atmosphere does have a groove. But central to that groove is a subtle dynamic balance; life itself plays a central role in this balance. For example, the presence in our atmosphere of oxygen (a highly reactive atom, long locked-up on dead worlds) results solely from the transpiration of life. When exobiologists look to distant worlds to see if there is life on board, they’ll first search the atmosphere for life’s signature: oxygen. The Gaia hypothesis even conjectures that the atmosphere, combined with life, constitutes a meta-lifeform — with built-in feedback loops evolved to maintain optimally habitable conditions on Spaceship Earth. Whether or not Gaia is proven real (I tend to suspect it will be), we must certainly at least admit that the properties of our atmosphere owe a great deal to the biosphere.

Life matters to the atmosphere. Interestingly, everything we burn that comes from the ground was once alive. That’s why they call it FOSSIL fuel, and here’s the thing: we’re burning a LOT of previously-living fossil fuel. In fact, right now we’re engaged in voraciously burning a substantial fraction of everything that has ever lived – and throwing it into the atmosphere. What’s more, we’re doing so in scantly more than a hundred years — less than a flutter of Earth’s eye. If we think this isn’t going to leave a mark on the beautiful, delicate jewel we’re lucky to be hurtling through the blackness of space on, we ought to think again.

Please go to, appreciate, and RECOMMEND ryerye_zanguh‘s 2012 pumpkin carving contest post. He’s been doing these since 2004 and they really ought to be appreciated by more of us. You can also link to previous years’ contests from this year’s post.

…now back inside.

Thinking QuantumStorm might particularly enjoy this. By the way, a little back of the envelope calculation even non-science types might find interesting: Neglecting air resistance, and assuming g is constant over the fall (unlike throwing out air drag, the latter is a reasonable approximation), it would take just 230 seconds (3.7 minutes) to fall straight down from the height of the International Space Station (I think it’s orbiting at about 250km). Furthermore, when you hit the ground you’d be falling at the vaguely unnerving speed of 2.2km/sec (that’s nearly 13,000 miles an hour in more familiar units). It’s safe to say you would not “bounce”.