It's a terrible title and a terrible article altogether.
> Biology, geology, and chemistry all worked together to make the present atmosphere.
No, no one "worked together".
And Earth never was an "Alien planet".
Life evolved alongside any challenges that a changing planet posed to it. Including changes induced by organisms.
Life still is evolving today and hopefully will continue to do so.
Also titles like this imply that the evolution of our planet and life is somehow guided or is directed to support humans. Or that humans are the crown jewel of evolution.
Au contraire. We are a pretty shitty product of evolution and are a danger to evolution itself since we acquired the intelligence and technology to change DNA of creatures based on our whims.
(We did this for centuries through artificial selection. Now we can do it more directly)
That's not the implication I got at all. Coupled with the photo, it really did seem like it would be an "Alien Plant" had I been able to be there. As far as "working together" - wow, you really look that literally. I don't think he meant they were conspiring by text on whatsapp.
Precisely — whatever ‘us’ is inferred to be, we’d have to be able to breathe whatever atmosphere we are immersed in. There’s selection bias at work here.
> Biology, geology, and chemistry all worked together to make the present atmosphere.
No, no one "worked together". And Earth never was an "Alien planet".
Life evolved alongside any challenges that a changing planet posed to it. Including changes induced by organisms. Life still is evolving today and hopefully will continue to do so.
Also titles like this imply that the evolution of our planet and life is somehow guided or is directed to support humans. Or that humans are the crown jewel of evolution.
Au contraire. We are a pretty shitty product of evolution and are a danger to evolution itself since we acquired the intelligence and technology to change DNA of creatures based on our whims. (We did this for centuries through artificial selection. Now we can do it more directly)