The History of Earth’s Weather
What Happened to the Dinosaurs?
The Original Climate Change
Let’s talk about weather throughout early time. I promise not to be boring.
There are two theories. https://ucmp.berkeley.edu/diapsids/entinctheory.html. This article divides theories between intrinsic (planetary causes) and extrinsic (extra planetary causes).
We can also look at theories in terms of ancient meteorology.
The History of Earth’s Weather
- Constant theory: Planet Earth has always had the weather it does now, including eras of severe chilling and warming known as Climate Change.
This was the favorite view because it explained today’s weather (except for the very beginning of weather) and supported evolution, which required billions of years and no interruption in the process.
However, it did not explain why dinosaurs disappeared. They should have evolved. It also did not explain a marine biological system collapse. - Cataclysmic theory: Planet Earth’s original weather (whatever that was) was interrupted by a cataclysmic event. This is now the preferred view because it explains certain geological data and what happened to the dinosaurs.
What Happened to the Dinosaurs?
Within the Cataclysmic theory are several hypotheses, each depending on the event envisioned. Let’s talk about the two favorite hypotheses.
- There was an enormous asteroid or comet. The earth’s original weather was variable, like it is now, when a comet slammed into the earth leaving certain identified markings. A frequently mentioned site is the crater of Chiczulub on the Yucatan Peninsula. The comet would have been the size of a mountain.
According to this theory, the impact raised an enormous poisonous dust cloud that rose into the atmosphere and spread over the earth, blocking out much of the sunshine. This caused stunting of the size and amounts of plants. This killed off the enormous reptilian dinosaurs because they couldn’t get enough to eat. The smaller dinosaurs continued to evolve into fish and birds. https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/dinosaur-extinction.html#:~:text=Evidence%20suggests%20an%20asteroid%20impact,happened%20over%20millions%20of%20years.
Questions: If the impact was disastrous, why wasn’t earth knocked off its orbit and why didn’t all life end in the flames of the sun or in the cold of deep space? Why didn’t the enormous reptiles just take all of the food and let the little guys starve, ending the smaller species, including humans? - Earth’s weather was created by God to be perfect, but a cataclysmic event changed earth’s weather, not only temporarily during the event but for all time, requiring various kinds of animals to adapt quickly to the new environment or die.
There was no evolution before this event, and there was certainly no time for interspecies evolution after it. This event happened in 2343 or 2345 B.C.
News flash! People lived with dinosaurs.
(Even one of the comet hypotheses dates the comet to only thousands of years, in which case people would be living with dinosaurs.) https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/how-an-asteroid-caused-extinction-of-dinosaurs.html
The Genesis theory does not rule out one or more comets during or after the event.
Now, that wasn’t too bad, was it?
By now you have probably deduced that the last hypothesis is commonly referred to as Noah’s Flood: a misnomer if there ever was one.
Noah didn’t cause the flood. And it was much more than a flood. It was a cataclysm of meteorological events!
It was the end of the Dream Time.
And we will venture into those waters next time!
Photo credit: Photo by Jake Fagan on Unsplash