I enjoy “sleeping in” on Sundays, probably because I go deprived during the work week. I also treat myself to intentional Sunday laziness as reward for busting my ass the rest of the time. So my alarm went off at 9:30 = a full 8h blessed sleep.
Wife already at church; the house is extra-peaceful. I pour generic Wheaties, milk and turn on the History channel. The series “How the Earth Was Made” showing how the last Ice Age scoured right here where I live with 200 ft tall frozen H2O that created the Great Lakes, Finger Lakes and more. What astounded me was this happened a mere 10,000 years ago! As an astronomer, I usually think of millions of years as pretty short. In context, this Last Ice Age was like yesterday.
That’s like a mere 100-200 modern lifetimes. So (unlike the National Debt) it’s a number we can wrap our arms around. Just imaging living 100-200 times longer and you would actually get to see the whole thing unfold! Or just a couple Bible universe ages – even fundamentalists can imagine this short duration.
To their credit, the episode points out that if Global Warming, if legitimate, will actually postpone the next (due soon) Ice Age. That is – Global Warming will actually help maintain an environment suitable for man. So any long-term true humanist/environmentalist would encourage us to assist global warming. New York becomes the world’s chief banana supplier, Alaska provides oil and places hugging the equator buy a few more ceiling fans.
Next episode: Eventually the glaciers will win out and after that a giant asteroid will destroy most life and the cycle starts all over again with evolution of a new dominant species. But that’s so far off – it’s not worth worrying about.
Tom
© 2011 Thomas Dey - 7/11/11
