Locos por la Geología

As I have already done many times before, I am sharing a new excerpt from a very recommendable book: Eating dirt, by Charlotte Gill.

You can use it to trigger discussions on ecological subjects while teaching, to quote on a written report, or just to enjoy its beauty and accuracy.

The DNA of trees may be very old, but many of today’s forests are relatively new. During the last ice age, plunging temperatures killed off much of the plant life in the Northern Hemisphere. Ecosystems were buried in snow and then plowed under by great accumulations of ice. Glaciers piled up to thicknesses of a mile or more, a mantle so heavy that land surfaces sank below sea level under the weight. As they flowed over the land, these rivers of ice ground down mountains and filled in valleys with scree and sediments…

 …And so, the largest deforestations the globe has ever experienced were caused not by chain saws but by climate change.

It is very important to notice that humans can never be more powerful than Nature itself. Excellent point very well stated by Charlotte.

See you next Monday. Enjoy the weekend, Graciela