The Story of Earth: The First 4.5 Billion Years, from Stardust to Living Planet Paperback – July 30, 2013

I read this fascinating book for a book club we belong to, and I highly recommend it. Written to be accessible to the average reader (scientific terms aside), it is a crash course in geology, chemistry, astronomy, biology, cosmology, mineralogy, meteorology, paleontology, geophysics and other scientific disciplines. Hazen cites case after case where the "settled science" was overturned by new discoveries and new theories, saying, "It's a funny thing about conventional wisdom, though. Eventually, someone will challenge what everyone knows to be true, and once in a while something fairly interesting will be found." (p-87) He describes a theory he and colleagues were working on that went against the settled science: "Stanley Miller and his followers did what they could to squelch our conclusions and abort our research program. ... 'The vent hypothesis is a real loser,' Miller complained in a 1998 interview. 'I don't understand why we have to even discuss it.'" (P-136) Sounds like the way the efforts of any scientist who questions Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) is treated today. Hazen and his colleagues theory is now the "settled science." He cites the "settled science" that the continents had never been together...until they had. And the "settled science" that there was almost no water on Mars...until there was. He notes that there have been six ice ages in the last three million years, and that both hot and cold cycles have ruled the Earth and will certainly come again. "Change is the central theme of Earth's story. The oceans and atmosphere, the surface and deep interior, the geosphere and biosphere--all aspects of our planet have changed incessantly over the aeons." (P-193) "As in the past, Earth will continue to be a planet of incessant flip-flop patterns of change. The climate will become warmer, then cooler, over and over again." He cites the hopefully-far-away certainty of a massive asteroid strike or a mega-volcano eruption, which if massive enough would exterminate the higher life forms--like us. (I have read elsewhere of the possible mega-eruption of the Yellowstone Caldara, which would release hundreds of tons of ash in the air, making much of the US uninhabitable, and doing the world no good. Apparently theses "super-eruptions" happen every 600,000 to 800,000 years. The last one was 630,000 years ago.) Though he couches his statements carefully, Hazen clearly believes that AGW is the "settled science." That may be sincerely held belief, or reflective that any academic who wishes to study the subject without being already firmly committed to an outcome demonstrating AGW will find that he is shunned, his research funding dried up, and tenure or promotion unlikely. Earlier he states that most of the carbon in the atmosphere is put there by volcanoes. Maybe we need an executive order against volcanoes. As the US has cut back in carbon, China and India have doubled down, building new coal-fired electric plants at a terrific rate. I personally think free, unbiased research should be allowed, but if GW is man made, what the US does, even destroying the middleclass and beggaring the poor, won't help. The Third World will sign agreements hoping for a cash transfer, but won't keep them when it is inconvenient. As John Kery said, "If all the industrial nations went down to zero emissions – remember what I just said, all the industrial emissions went down to zero emissions – it wouldn’t be enough, not when more than 65 percent of the world’s carbon pollution comes from the developing world." In my view, we not only need more research, but preparation for dealing with warming if it comes. But I remember the 70s, when a new ice age was the "settled science," and also all my professors telling me the "Population Bomb" was settled science and there would be mass famine in the US by the 1990, plus a depletion of all the important minerals. I decided not to have kids, and it was all as false as Al Gore's prediction of an ice-free arctic by the summer of 2013. Still, despite the obligatory PC Kowtow to AGW, required on pain of getting a job in the private sector of all academics today, I think Hazen is an honest scientist, and this book well-worth reading.Robert A. HallAuthor: The Coming Collapse of the American Republic

I strongly recommend this books who are curious to learn the history of our world, not human history but natural history. Starting at the Big Bang, Hazen’s tome served as a refresher on basic principles of astrophysics. Then, it turned to the creation of our solar system, the formation of our planet, and the history of the moon. The book covered billions of years of geology, providing answers to most of my questions about how rocks formed and why the world looks the way it does today, in addition to the different directions our collective story may turn in the future. Where the book didn’t answer a question (either an independent question or one triggered by the book), it shared enough information to point me in the right direction for Chat GPT. Finally, I would note that on top of being remarkably credentialed and knowledgeable, Hazen is a great writer who made this extraordinary information incredibly fun to absorb.

Comprehensive review of the earliest Hadean history of the planet. The weak sun puzzle explained by a combination of dense greenhouse atmosphere and enhanced heat flow from interior. Insightful portrayal of the Hadean earth with a transition from chaotic vertical convection to the organization of horizontal gyres that lead to continental drift sometime after 3.5 billion years ago. Life may well have been present by 3.5 by but only existing as part of the slow oxidation process (surface rusting) and not creating any new chemistry at all. There is the suggestion that all of the five major extinction events of the Phanerazoic times are associated with massive volcanic eruptions – a continuing form of vertical convection where large bubbles of magma arise as plumes from pools of magma at the core-mantle boundary. The pulse of change is measured by the assembly and break-up of mega-continents at 2.7, 1.8, and 1.0 by. Creation of Rodinia at 1.0 leads to a period without such thick sediments since there are no basins. From the initial oxidation at 2.5, atmospheric O2 is low (2% or less) and seas are excruciatingly slow to oxidize, taking a full billion years to complete. Plus the oxidation is accomplished by a sulfate to sulfide reaction that leaves a chemical environment hostile to life with no way to metabolize N2. Hints of early microbe mat colonies of photosynthesizing algae where photons are used as an energy source but O2 not generated by these primitive reactions. New minerals are shown to appear in pulses that must be associated with certain phases of the content assembly and breakup cycle. The Boring Billion otherwise shows little sign of dramatic changes from a combination of negative climate feedback and limited presence of living organisms. Then the full oxidation occurs in the wild climate oscillations of the Iceball Earth stage. Here there is no specific explanation, just hints that the breakup of Rodinia after 800 mya resulted in a new positive feedback mechanism with massive algal blooms in new shallow seas, access to NH3 by available catalysts in oxidized oceans, and interaction with methane hydrates cycling in and out of super greenhouse conditions. This is my main reason for down-rating the book a bit because it is so "soft" on specific causes of this event. Phosphorus availability may also have been a factor, with major phosphate deposits dating from this time. Deep carbon may also be involved in the generation of methane as well as CO2. Compared to chondrites, earth’s crust is greatly depleted of C, so there may be deep mineral reservoirs. After Cambrian explosion the story is pretty much the standard course through paleontology we see in all of the older textbooks. The one specific insight is in the role of hard shells as a major part of diversification as an armor war erupts in myriads of new hard mineral defense structures for life forms. A little extra stress placed on the impact of land plants and their mycorrhizal roots on the creation of a soil–based ecosystem, and then on the third great oxidation event produced by the Coal Age. The last part is a series of nested projections into the future. Ultimate destruction by a solar red giant, evaporated oceans 2 by hence, novopangea by 250 my, mega impact within 50 my, megavolcano in the next 100 ky. Colonization of space the only option for long-term survival. Human impact on climate not likely worse than much larger changes in the past so life will survive, just maybe not us and some of our favorite fellow species.