Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPter 1
What Is It about Planet Earth?
I'm sitting on the train, as I often do, traveling between Odense and
Copenhagen. We've just pulled from the stop at Ringsted. I look out
the window. The scene is typical Danish countryside of mixed farmland
and forest. I pass cows grazing lazily in the field, and beyond them, a
farmer is cutting hay. High above, a hawk searches for mice in the uncut
grass. I love this landscape. It reminds me of the Ohio countryside
where I grew up. Not spectacular, but somehow comforting and reas-
suring; an honest landscape not prone to bragging or trickery. I squint,
and the landscape merges into a mass of green, the cows become ghosts
in the distance. I open my eyes again, and we pass a small patch of
dense forest (or at least what passes for forest in Denmark). My mind
wanders and I reflect on what I see. Denmark is a small country and the
land, including the forests, is heavily managed, so the diversity of life
isn't terribly high. You could to go the rain forests of Costa Rica or
Brazil and be far more impressed with the tropical birds, frogs, insects,
and the abundant greenery. Still, even in Denmark, the landscape is
brilliant green and teeming with life. Indeed, no matter how you look
at it, Earth is defined by abundant and diverse life. The question that
preoccupies me now is why?
One might suggest that all the life we see is simply a consequence of
a long history of biological evolution on Earth. In his wonderful topic
Life on a Young Planet
, my colleague and good friend Andy Knoll from
