Posted by
chrisd
on from the but-are-they-using-their-power-for-evil dept.
ammonoid writes "The BBC news website reported this story about the possibility that the biologically selfish interests of microbes in the atmosphere to reproduce may be partly responsible for the formation of clouds, and observed patterns of rainfall. "
Re:Not particularly surprising.
by
ammonoid
·
· Score: 2, Informative
I take it by pseudoscience you are refering to the Gaia hypothesis. If not you may disregard my reply. While I don't agree with the strong hypothesis of planet Earth as a single "superorganism", the notion that the biosphere has been shaped by a feedback between selection on organisms, and the effects that their metabolic products have on geological systems, is entirely reasonsable. The shift in atmospheric oxygen levels can be linked clearly to the rise of cyanobacteria, which produced oxygen as a by-product of their metabolic activities. This gave rise to ozone, that handy compound that stops UV playing too much pinball with metazoan DNA.
-- "Hope is a duty from which paleontologists are exempt."
David Quammen
Re:could be usefull
by
SpdyVkng
·
· Score: 2, Informative
AFAIK forest fires are natural. Our fight to control forestfires makes forests less vital. A good and normal forestfire gives room for a different flora and fauna than which a forest has.
Our continual fight against forest fires makes it easier for future fires to gain catastrophic proportions. (Ie. we protect a lot of land against forest fires; a few dry years come, and wooosh, a lot more burns than if the normal cycle of events were allowed.)
Slashdot Mirror
I take it by pseudoscience you are refering to the Gaia hypothesis. If not you may disregard my reply. While I don't agree with the strong hypothesis of planet Earth as a single "superorganism", the notion that the biosphere has been shaped by a feedback between selection on organisms, and the effects that their metabolic products have on geological systems, is entirely reasonsable. The shift in atmospheric oxygen levels can be linked clearly to the rise of cyanobacteria, which produced oxygen as a by-product of their metabolic activities. This gave rise to ozone, that handy compound that stops UV playing too much pinball with metazoan DNA.
"Hope is a duty from which paleontologists are exempt." David Quammen
AFAIK forest fires are natural. Our fight to control forestfires makes forests less vital. A good and normal forestfire gives room for a different flora and fauna than which a forest has.
Our continual fight against forest fires makes it easier for future fires to gain catastrophic proportions. (Ie. we protect a lot of land against forest fires; a few dry years come, and wooosh, a lot more burns than if the normal cycle of events were allowed.)
Paul
The Speedy Viking