Time-travel with atmospheric scientist Edward Graham as he leads a 4.6-billion-year journey through the climate history of Earth. Starting in the Precambrian, he employs the fundamentals of geology to determine the age of the most ancient rocks on early Earth and what they reveal about its environments, which he describes as distinctly alien. He fast-forwards through various geological epochs, discovering how the eventual blossoming of life helped to regulate Earth's atmosphere, increasing its oxygen content and making the sky blue.
He also describes the wide range of geochemical and marker techniques used to analyze the ice cores and sediments deposited during Earth's Quaternary period and the Ice Ages, such as isotope geochemistry, radiocarbon dating, and dendrochronology—uncovering in the process how rapid and surprising past climate changes have been. He also considers the important lessons from a study of past Earth climate to understand the escalating climate crisis of the Anthropocene.
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