Earth's Climate System: 5 PROPONENTS/PILLARS Flashcards
This is the general branch that deals with Earth’s physical components. It involves several branches such as Geology, Physics, and Atmospheric Science.
Earth Science
He observed that Earth’s land composition changes in a very slow rate and it cannot be observed rapidly.
ARISTOTLE
It is the study of Earth as an integrated system. It seeks to understand the past, current, and future state of our planet.
EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCE
Who are the 5 pillars of ESS?
- Vladimir vernadsky
- Alexander von Humboldt
- James Hutton
- James Lovelock
- Lynn Margulis
What did Vernadsky contribute?
POPULARIZED NOOSPHERE aka the SPHERE OF HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS
What is noosphere?
This is when human reason will provide further sustainable development of both humanity and the global environment.
What did Humboldt contribute?
helped establish ESS by his observations in nature.
What did Humboldt observe in nature?
This distribution of life forms are
affected by atmospheric and geophysical factors.
What did Hutton contribute?
He conceptualized the process of weathering and introduced uniformitarianism.
HUTTON
What is weathering? What is uniformitarianism?
Weathering- the process of soil and rocks transforming through exposure of earth’s atmosphere
Uniformitarianism- the geological forces (such as those that trigger erosion and volcanic activities) in the past are the same as those in the present, making it possible to determine Earth’s history by studying rocks.
He described how Earth was
formed in a repeated cycle of erosion and sedimentation driven by heat from
volcanic activities.
JAMES HUTTON
What did Lovelock contribute?
Proposed the GAIA HYPOTHESIS/PRINCIPLE
What is the gaia principle/hypothesis?
Earth works as a SELF-REGULATING system. It proposes that all organisms and their habitats on Earth are closely integrated to form a single and self-regulating system, where its components co-evolve to maintain and perpetuate life forms.
Lovelock cited that this was evident in photosynthetic
cyanobacteria during the Precambrian period that modified Earth’s atmosphere to
become oxygen-enriched.
TRUE
What did Margulis contribute?
FURTHER DEVELOPED THE GAIA PRINCIPLE through her study (bacteria) that life regulates the temperature and chemical composition of the soil and the atmosphere.
