Why is Earth Unique?

Mars is too small; exhausted its internal heat too quickly

Venus no oceans, no tectonics, no subduction, no lubricant – water

Tectonics

Subduction buries rock, some melts which –

Recirculates the rocks which contain the CO2 locked up in them, releases it back into the atmosphere where –

Plants draw it in, release oxygen, die and become fossilised containing the CO2

The oceans also act as vast carbon dumps as sea creatures and plants die and sink to the ocean floor; compression at depth

 

The moon is also essential to climate stability

On earth life pulled CO2 from the atmosphere and in dying became limestone

Chalk or coal locked it in and life took over the role of tectonics in the carbon cycle and keeps the climate stable!!

Earth’s activity shapes life but life also shapes it and is dependent on it.

 

As we are only now learning the climate is a fragile balanced system and human activity is oversetting that balance.

 


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