Very often, I hear people complain about the weather where they live – including weather which is normal for the season. This has seemed odd to me for a long time. After all, in today’s modern world (unlike nearly all of our Ancestors), we often have a lot of choices about where we live. If one really has an issue with the climate in one place, then why live there and complain? I personally like a climate that includes winters. Without winters, the years blur together into a constant string of days, and it becomes easy to lose track of the passage of one’s life.
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| Snow Monster from Water Spray at -10 Degrees with help from the Kids |
So it was fun to watch the wind
blow snowy gusts across the frozen fields the other day. With no trees nearby, it was easy to imagine
that I was looking out over the frozen tundra of the Arctic. In fact, the weather was the same as the
temperatures often seen in the Arctic.
It was as if I had been transported there, if only for a little
while! Our Earth gives us a huge variety
of environments, from a lush, hot forest to the barren and cold tundra, each
with its own charm and beauty. Yet,
travel is often not cheap or convenient, especially for those of us with a
family, home and regular job. Wouldn’t
it be a special blessing if the Earth could kindly bring different environments
to us, instead of us traveling to them?
I realized that the Earth does exactly that! For those of us in temperate regions, we see
conditions approaching those of the Arctic during the winter, and conditions
approaching tropical conditions in the summer.
In some ways, this is even better than traveling to different climates –
it’s completely effortless, happening without any work on our part, and we
don’t even have to pack! Our entire
homes are brought along with us, along with all our local family &
friends!
It’s so easy to take this for
granted – we’re used to it as a normal part of life. But consider what it would be like to
describe the “seasons” to an otherwise similar person who lived on an otherwise
similar planet with little or no axial tilt.
It might go something like:
“you’ve got to be kidding me.
You’re saying you sometimes shift Northwards on the planet’s surface?!?”
“Not exactly. I mean, we don’t actually move. But the weather becomes like that of the
North.”
“….and you don’t have to move?
It just happens? Like, without
warning?”
“Oh, we know when it’ll happen – it happens with one cycle about every 365
days.”
“So one day it suddenly gets cold, then warms back up the next day?”
“No, no – it’s gradual. It kinda blends into the next season, so we
get at least weeks of each climate.
That’s on top of the regular variation like you have.”
“So everyone gets to sample the different climates?”
“most people – it doesn’t change
as much near the equator. Each climate
(or “season”) lasts just long enough to fully experience it – much longer and
it might get tiring or boring.”
“that would be amazing! How do
you still do your regular work – isn’t everyone fascinated by it, going outside
everyday to see the change?”
“everyone expects it, as a fact
of life. Sadly, some even take it for
granted! But it is pretty cool. In fact,
it’s become a major part of many of our different cultures, and is often part
our religions, holidays, cooking choices, clothing fashions, and more!”
“But what about the animals? These
‘seasons’ as you call them, would cause massive extinctions! An animal from one climate obviously can’t
live in a different climate.”
“Some animals have evolved to be
able to survive in multiple climates, growing more fur every year just before
winter. Others have evolved to migrate
South to avoid the winter.”
“Wow, I knew evolution often gives rise to amazing adaptations, but
automatic fur growth and mass migrations of entire species on schedule? Can you give me a reliable reference source
for all this, in a peer-reviewed journal?
Forgive me for being skeptical.”
“Ok, I’ll find one – but wait until you learn about hibernation! Some animals, such as turtles and frogs,
hibernate through the winter. Their
bodies nearly shut down, and cool to just above freezing (or lower, for those
with anti-freeze blood), with their heart rate and breathing becoming so slow
that they look dead. Then, they revive
every spring. Oh, and some trees lose
all their leaves, growing them all back a few months later. The leaves change color before falling off –
from green to orange, red, and yellow.”
“Oh, rrrrrriiiight. You almost
had me going for a minute there with the fur, but the zombie frogs and
techni-color leaves were just too silly!
OK, funny guy - no, really, what about the animals? How do they really survive? I mean, evolution is powerful, so what did it
actually come up with?”
“I’m not making this up! Really!
Look, I’ll get you some pictures, and other sources.”
“sssure, you will….”
Looking over that snowy field, I
realized how much our knowledge of our Deep Time history can touch our
lives. Just looking around me at our
world often fills me with amazement and joy at our lives today. Here I am, able to enjoy winter things like
building a snow monster with my kids as if I lived in Alaska – knowing that in
just a few months, the snow will melt away on its own, and I’ll be in a nearly
tropical climate. And I get to
experience this every year!
We are so lucky to live at this
time, the first moments in human history when we can understand our 14 billion
year history. Understanding deep time
and our Great Story allows me to look back at that Hadean time of collisions in
Earth’s history and appreciate how those impacts (including, perhaps, the Theia
impact) gave us the axial tilt, and hence, seasons we enjoy today.
Many cultures have stories of
treasures hidden in a person’s normal day to day world – whether it’s gold
under the floorboards, a priceless painting on the wall thought to be a cheap
knockoff, or similar stories. Like
discovered treasure, I’ve found that Deep Time eyes and knowledge of our Great
Story open a window on many of the incredible things we have to be grateful
for, which surround us every day, available if only looked for.
