I very rarely, if ever, criticize the writing of others. This avoidance comes from my own shortcomings; I suck at writing. Despite graduating high-school at 17 I had to repeat Junior English in my senior year. While I 4.0’ed my undergraduate degree I had to take English Composition 3 times (‘withdrawing passing’ twice) before I could get it right. I languish over every comma and often read through what I’ve put down several times to determine if makes sense. This may be why I have so many meme’s on my site, they are like shorthand for my thoughts.
With that said, there is no way I could let what I saw on Yahoo yesterday pass without comment. The author’s English may be correct (I really, really am not the one who could fairly judge) but their understanding of what words mean, how the sciences inform us of earths history, and their ability to comprehend the import of what is said is sorely lacking. All of this points to a US educational system that not only fails the author, but fails all of us as well: we have to live with all of these ignorant folk stumbling around breathing our air.
The article is so poorly written it’s entertaining. Read through and see if any of this makes any sense to you. Originally posted by Yahoo here.
A new study with a Canadian connection reveals that all human life on earth was obliterated two billion years ago.
Researchers came to this conclusion after testing barite, a mineral found in Belcher Islands, in the southeast part of Hudson Bay, which is part of Nunavut.
The rocks were helpful for researchers as they “lock in chemical signatures” needed to understand what the atmosphere was like when they first formed, co-lead author and Stanford University Ph.D. candidate Malcolm Hodgskiss told CNN.
Ultimately the study determined that there is such a thing as too much oxygen, by examining the circumstances surrounding the “Great Oxidation Event.”
Billions of years ago, long before dinosaurs, the only creatures that were able to survive on Earth were micro-organisms. When they photosynthesized, they changed the chemical composition of the air, leading to a surplus of oxygen that couldn’t be sustained.
The Earth’s atmosphere was ultimately sent askew, as the micro-organisms drained all the nutrients they needed in order to create oxygen. In turn, the biosphere – also known as life on Earth – experienced an “enormous drop,” and scientists only recently began to understand just how enormous it was.
According to their findings, anywhere between 80 to 99.5 per cent of organisms at the time were abolished, since there were too many of them creating too much oxygen.
“Even our most conservative estimates would exceed estimates for the amount of life that died off during the extinction of the dinosaurs approximately 65 million years ago,” Hodgskiss told CNN.
Since the planet is still vulnerable to atmospheric changes, these ancient findings are pertinent to the current day. Warming oceans affect nutrient levels and runoff in oceans interferes with underwater ecosystems. This in turn threatens photosynthesizing organisms that supply more than half of the oxygen in the planet’s atmosphere.