4_2 Special Feature Assignment Climate Change Timeline
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4-2 Special Feature Assignment: Climate Change Timeline
Sharvonte Page
Southern New Hampshire University
ENV-305 Global Climate Change
Dr. Wilcox
According to (Kitchen 2023) the same forces that control climate today has been in action
throughout 4.5 billion years of geological time and have left abundant evidence of ancient
climate change in rocks, ice, minerals, and fossils.
The formation of life happened during the first period, which was the Proterozoic Eon.
The is when the formation of Earth, the oldest rocks appear, and fossils show (Study 2022). This
period is known as the birth of the oxygen era. Studies show that the most significant events
within the Proterozoic Eon are the Great Oxygen Event, Snowball Earth, formation of a
supercontinent, and the evolution of eukaryotic cells and of multicellular organisms. During this
period, we know that Earth completely froze into a Snowball Earth or Slush ball Earth. It was
one of Earth’s many ice ages. Because of the oxygen-enriched atmosphere, the ozone layer
thickened, and cyanobacteria were threatened (Proterozoic Eon: Eukaryotes to Multicellular Life
(2500 to 541 million Years Ago), 2018).
After the Proterozoic Eon comes the Paleozoic Era. In this timeframe they went from
having a supercontinent, to it breaking into two. Plants, trees, and animals came to life in this era
as well. We saw the shift from sea to land within this era. The Paleozoic era ended with an event
known as the Permian Extinction, which is the largest extinction event in Earth's history. After
the Permian Extinction, only about 10% of life on Earth remained. During the Paleozoic Era
there was global warming, lack of oxygen, and volcanic eruptions as well (Study 2022)
The Mesozoic Era followed, this era was known for the dinosaurs, mountains appeared, and
more continents came along. The three-part era said that continental plates and tectonic forces
came together as one large mass of land, the climate was warm and dry, and there is no scientific
evidence that there were ice caps at the poles at the time, and there were no flowering plants yet,
Cenozoic Era
(about 65.5 million
years ago until now
Mesozoic Era
(about 251 to 66
million years ago
Paleozoic Era
(about 542 to 251
million years ago)
Proterozoic Eon
(more than 543
million years ago)
Fig. 1 Timeline
and palms are a flowering plant (Study 2022). This period also had a lot of activity from
volcanoes as well, which was a contributing factor for the CO2.
The last period is the human period, that is the period that we live in now. This era is
called the Cenozoic Era. This era came about as changes to the climate began to happen,
continents started moving, mammals began to appear, and dinosaurs became extinct.
Cenozoic
life was affected significantly by a major extinction event that occurred between 10,000 and
8,000 years ago. This event, which involved the sudden disappearance of many mammals after
the most recent Ice Age, has been attributed to either of two factors: climatic change following
the melting of the most recent Pleistocene glaciers or overkill by Paleolithic hunters
(Cenozoic
Era - Cenozoic Life, 1999).
Each era had a different effect and while it might seem the things that happened during
the era were negative, it could have been positive as well. The era of the slush ball killed a lot of
the marine life, era of the humans caused dinosaurs to go extinct. Lastly the era of the era of the
dinosaurs dealt with a lot of volcano eruptions. Even though all these events occurred, and we
can find negative reasons behind all of them, the positive portion is that had they never occurred
the human era might not exist today.
Climates in the future will just repeat themselves. We have been shown that all the things
that are occurring on earth now and within the atmosphere have happened previously. The
realization is that global warming and climate change has been going on and it’s repeating itself.
It talks about the Cenozoic Era and during that time the climate was a lot warmer due to
volcanism. It goes on to talk about how the temperatures cooled off from a Mesozoic hothouse to
Cenozoic Icehouse. As I continued to read the text started talking about the Paleocene Epoch and
how greenhouse gases were naturally released and how this triggered rapid global climate
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change. As we fast forward to one of the major issues with global climate change refers to CO2
(our greenhouse gases) that are being released. We’ve dealt with warmer temperatures due to the
forest fires recently as well. I believe as history repeats itself that we will go through all the same
phases again. With warmer weather fish will begin to go deep for cooler water and move towards
colder areas, this means that instead of them freezing off they will move away.
Citations
(2022). Study.com.
https://study.com/academy/lesson/proterozoic-era-timeline-facts-
quiz.html#:~:text=Significant%20events%20from%20the%20Proterozo
Proterozoic Eon: Eukaryotes to Multicellular Life (2500 to 541 million years ago). (2018,
February 7). Earth How.
https://earthhow.com/proterozoic-eon/#:~:text=In%20the
%20Proterozoic%20Eon%2C%20Earth
Cenozoic Era - Cenozoic life. (1999). Encyclopedia Britannica.
https://www.britannica.com/science/Cenozoic-Era/Cenozoic-life
Kitchen, D. (2023).
Global climate change: Turning knowledge into action
. Routledge.