All for One and One for All

Here's a nice, little graphic that shows what the Earth looked like 200 million years ago and then morphs into what it might look like 250 million years from now. It was in The New York Times earlier this week, but other events kept pushing their way into these posts before I could talk about it. This Flash animation shows how the continents were joined into Pangea, how they broke apart and then drifted to become the seven continents we know today, and how they are likely to join together once again. They start drifting together again in the next 100 million years, with Africa smashing into Europe and decimating the Mediterranean Sea. In 250 million years, we'll be back to one continent, this time called Pangea Ultima. Of course, the accompanying article puts a damper on all this, pointing out that geologists really don't have any faith in such predictions more than about 50 million years in the future. For all we know, this whole Flash animation might be the figment of some scientist's deranged imagination.

One thing that's not clear is whether this takes global warming into account. I suppose it might help the Mediterranean Sea withstand the onslaught of Africa moving north if it has more water from the Arctic and Antarctic. And sure enough, the very next day, the Times reported that 2006 was the hottest year since records have been kept more than 125 years ago. It beat out 1998, which at least had an El Nino to blame. Last year had no atmospheric oddity to cause the heat, and the Times notes that for the first time, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officially acknowledges that human activity is responsible. They're still not suggesting that we do anything about it, but I guess we've got to be happy with the baby steps that we get.