Today, atmospheric CO 2 sits at 410 parts per million, a higher level than at any point in more than 3 million years. And sometimes, when the planet has issued a truly titanic slug of CO 2 into the atmosphere, things have gone horribly wrong. During the entire half-billion-year Phanerozoic eon of animal life, CO 2 has been the primary driver of the Earth’s climate. The sea level, meanwhile, has tried to keep up-rising and falling over the ages, with coastlines racing out across the continental shelf, only to be drawn back in again. At others, lots of CO 2 has been hidden away in the rocks and in the ocean’s depths, and the planet has gotten cold. At some points in the Earth’s history, lots of CO 2 has vented from the crust and leaped from the seas, and the planet has gotten warm. And not just based on mathematical models: The planet has run many experiments with different levels of atmospheric CO 2. Since about the time of the American Civil War, CO 2’s crucial role in warming the planet has been well understood. That negligible wisp of the air is carbon dioxide. Of more immediate interest today, a variation in the composition of the Earth’s atmosphere of as little as 0.1 percent has meant the difference between sweltering Arctic rainforests and a half mile of ice atop Boston. When the unseen tug of celestial bodies points Earth toward a new North Star, for instance, the shift in sunlight can dry up the Sahara, or fill it with hippopotamuses. Big rocks whiz by overhead, and here on the Earth’s surface, whole continents crash together, rip apart, and occasionally turn inside out, killing nearly everything. We live on a wild planet, a wobbly, erupting, ocean-sloshed orb that careens around a giant thermonuclear explosion in the void. This article was published online on February 3, 2021.
In his photo illustrations throughout this article, the colors of the original photos have been adjusted, but the images are otherwise unaltered. Images above: Glaciers from the Vatnajökull ice cap, in Icelandīrendan Pattengale is a photographer who explores how color can convey emotions in an image. Photo Illustrations by Brendan Pattengale | Maps by La Tigre
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