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It's a tendency of capitalism to ignore externalities such as highlighted whenever possible. If we're to have a long term future we need the system to include
by anexprogrammer 10y ago
It's a tendency of capitalism to ignore externalities such as highlighted whenever possible. If we're to have a long term future we need the system to include such costs rather better.
> At the time, estimates of the age of the Earth itself ranged from a few tens of thousands of years to perhaps a few tens of millions. So one million years was a substantial fraction of all eternity.
James Hutton had been investigating the geology of Scotland and forming much of the basis for modern geologic timescales in the mid and late 18th C. By the mid 19th, most of the geological periods, we still use today, had been produced. Of course many geologists of the time had a tendency to believe in unlimited age!
Were it not for Lord Kelvin being so famously wrong we may have got decent estimates quicker. Even Kelvin was in the 30-400m years range.
http://www.es.ucsc.edu/~pkoch/EART_206/09-0108/Supplemental/England%20et%2007%20AmSci%2095-342.pdf http://www.es.ucsc.edu/~pkoch/EART_206/09-0108/Supplemental/... (pdf)
So they were mainly arguing about tens and hundreds of millions by mid 19th century I believe.
It took 50 more years until 1913 when Arthur Holmes took estimates from hundred millions to billions.
- dredmorbius 10y agoYes, this is the history of estimates of Earth's age I was referring to. Hutton, Huxley, and Lyell famously argued for longer periods, but didn't have a solid basis for their argument other tthan general geological principles. Holmes applied radiologicaal methds and got to the right ballpark, 1-3 billion years. By the mid-1950s, currently accepted estimates of 4.5 billion years were given, with high accuracy, based on meteoric samples as well as very old Earth rock from Western Australia. Note too that plate tectonics, also crucial for understanding fossil fuel formation, weren't accepted until that time. Age estimates were further validated through Lunar and Martian (meteors found on Earth) rock samples. My point is that early theory, law, and practices of petroleum and other fossil fuel extraction were made with a significantly incorrect understanding of the actual facts of their origin. I'm rather in the middle of trying to figure out how inaccurate those beliefs were, but the time period was distinctly off.
- anexprogrammer 10y agoA fascinating, and my favourite, period of history. At risk of distracting you there was a good documentary series, BBC's Men of Rock a few years ago. It's all on Youtube if you want to watch. It's maybe a bit light on details at times, but the stunning views of the highlands make up for it!