The Mundi Club's The Terra Firm

Terra Firm no.12

THE ESSENCE OF THE HISTORY OF THE EARTH

List of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many thanks to the few who have sent in information or articles about the topics covered in this work. Especial thanks to drg. The mundi club welcomes any criticisms of, or contributions to, this work.

WELCOME TO ISSUE 12

This issue presents five works on geophysiology - the science of the Earth's life support system. The first is an essay highlighting the essence of the Earth's development. The key to the life of the Earth, and to life on Earth, is Photosynthesis. Photosynthesis influences virtually every one of the multitude of phenomena making up the Earth's life support system. Whilst this essay explores the impacts that Photosynthesis has had on the Earth as a whole, the second article focuses on the role of Photosynthesis in determining the concentration of atmospheric oxygen. It is not possible to assess the geophysiological importance of each Photosynthesizer throughout the Earth's history, but estimating the concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere helps to determine the overall impact of Photosynthesis over time. The third work is primarily a patchwork of quotes giving examples of the inter-reactions between Photosynthesis and the Earth's climate. It shows the ways in which Photosynthesizers have affected the climate throughout the Earth's history and, conversely, the ways the climate has affected Photosynthesis. It provides some background information to the first essay. Having stressed the critical role played by Photosynthesis in the climate throughout the Earth's climate, the fourth essay explores greens' multitude of objections to Reforestation. Greens are far too busy demanding reductions in Carbon emissions to worry about Reforestation and the restoration of the Earth's life support system. The final work is a review of the television documentary 'Earth and Life' which glossed over the failure of the so-called 'biosphere II' project when eight oomans tried to survive for two years in a glorified greenhouse containing what was supposed to be a miniature replica of the Earth's life support system. A simple Carbon budget could have warned about the likelihood of this disaster but the last issue which ecologists seemed to be concerned about is developing a model of the workings of the Earth's life support system.

Apologies for the repetitions in this work but the first three essays were written independently of each other.