What stuck out to me is how fragile Earth's long-term stability actually is. We've gotten insanely lucky with things like plate tectonics, subduction, and just the right volcanic activity to keep CO2 cycling.
What stuck out to me is how fragile Earth's long-term stability actually is. We've gotten insanely lucky with things like plate tectonics, subduction, and just the right volcanic activity to keep CO2 cycling.
And over sufficiently long terms, the Earth's not been all that stable.
There've been multiple Snowball Earths (based on geological evidence), and a few episodes in which (even had land-based life existed) the continents were barely habitable.
Even today large expanses (Antarctica, the Sahara and other deserts) are only barely habitable. Still Edens compared with the rest of the Solar System.