At the core, global climate change is driven, da capo, by the physics of galactic orbital dynamics and structural radiation encountered by the Earth during our orbital passage through the Milky Way and further fine-tuned by solar, geological, and planetary orbital processes to produce the exquisite climate variabilities we have seen throughout the ages. The big climate change picture reveals that the Earth’s global climate is continuously periodic in nature and cycles between unique hot and cold periods for 675 million years then repeats the same pattern.
This cyclized temperature modulation has been preserved in the geologic record for nearly four billion years, and as such, indicates a very strong galactic influence indeed. There is no doubt that greenhouse gases and other forcings also have some consequential influence on the global climate but should not be considered primary climate drivers over long time scales. As illustrated in the Antarctic ice core record and Veizer’s Phanerozoic temperature reconstruction, carbon dioxide levels follow temperature and do not act as a primary driver for long term temperature change, suggesting that CO2 is really only a bit player in the modern anthropogenic climate change scenario. Apart from influences at the margins, humanity does not seem to be the anthropocentric driver of big climate changes but merely along for the ride.
The Last Loop
The astronomy of the Mayans was driven by a unique and rich mythology and their belief in the structure and order of the universe, which they perceived as interdependent overlapping cycles. Discerning these cycles was their key to prediction and to understanding the whim of the gods and spirits. Time was the most important factor to Mayans and the most pervading aspect of their culture. The most enigmatic of all of the Mayan contributions to astronomy is their calendar, a complex system of interlocking celestial cycles that keep time even more accurately than our own. We too can perceive these astronomical cycles; as night into day marks our planetary axial rotation; the months’ progress can be traced by the cycles of the moon; today our calendar documents the precession of the seasons driven by the yearly orbit of the Earth around the sun. Cycle within cycle - the Milankovitch planetary orbital cycles produce the marching orders for the decamillennial timescale glacial-interglacial periods that punctuate this current Pleistocene Ice Age. Million-year timescale cycles driven by our galactic orbital out-of-plane oscillations produce the climatological "heartbeat" we see in the geologic record - warming then cooling again and again for billions of years. Over the hundreds of millions of years, the climate cycle that produces the geological Hothouse and Icehouse periods marks the orbital passage of our planetary system across the structure of the Milky Way galaxy. Round and round we go, cycle upon cycle, revealing a periodic climatological manifestation of our revolving universe.
Almost 4 billion years ago, simple living organisms appeared in the Earth’s primordial seas. Since then, climate change has been the major driving force that produced the evolutionary path forward for all life on this planet. Global climate change originates with the Milky Way galaxy and the structurally derived radiation that lies at the heart of it. This galactic force is the major driving influence of our global climate to this day.
Giving God His Due
In Genesis it is written: “In the beginning, God created heaven and the Earth”, “and God said, let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creatures that hath life”, “and God created man in his own image”. All in a day’s work for God, and mankind is elevated in our own eyes.
We are emergent in the galaxy that molded us. We, all creatures alive on the Earth today, are the living links in an unbroken chain of life stretching back almost 4 billion years. Now THAT is a miracle and we are humbled.
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There is a legend among the /Xam Abathwa tribe of ancient Africa, a group of hunter-gatherers who dared not travel farther than they could in a single day. They were afraid of the dark night. As the story goes, "a thousand centuries ago", a young girl defied the village elders and ventured out into the night. As the darkness deepened, she built a small fire of sticks and huddled there, alone and afraid. As her fire began to wane, she dug her hands into the wood ash and embers and threw them high into the night sky thus creating the Milky Way. As she gazed, awestruck, she saw a hidden message there among the stars, visible only, it is said, to "those whose hearts were open enough to receive it."
The Girl Who Made the Stars
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Milky Way spiral arms in order of crossing on our galactic orbital transit
● Sagittarius-Carina Arm: Miocene Epoch
● Perseus Arm: Ordovician to Silurian Periods
● Norma Arm: Carboniferous
● Scutum-Crux Arm: Jurassic to Early Cretaceous Periods
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