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A Geochemical History of Life on Earth

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Justin Rowlatt tells the story of how our planet was made

Humanity is conducting a giant chemistry experiment with Earth’s atmosphere and oceans, but is it really unprecedented? Justin Rowlatt tells the story of how our planet was made.

Humanity is conducting a giant chemistry experiment with our planet’s atmosphere and oceans, filling them with unprecedented amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus, and above all carbon dioxide.

But is it really unprecedented? In a series of five programmes, Justin Rowlatt explores the geochemical history of life on Earth, and discovers how humans are just the latest species to suddenly emerge and transform the planet’s chemistry, with devastating consequences.

Image: A banded iron formation (Credit: The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London/BBC)

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A Geochemical History of Life on Earth: 4. The great chemistry experiment

4. The great chemistry experiment

23/10/2021 GMT

BBC World Service - A Geochemical History of Life on Earth, 4. The great chemistry experimentSearch BBC

What can the last 66 million years teach us about the consequences of climate change?

What can the last 66 million years teach us about the likely consequences of climate change? And can our species make the next big evolutionary leap needed to tackle it?

Justin looks at the period since the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs, which had seen a steadily cooling climate - until we humans turned up. What can the last 66 million years teach us about the likely consequences of climate change? And can our species make the next big evolutionary leap needed to tackle it?

Adrian Lister of the Natural History Museum gives Justin a fossilised tour of how the Earth's fauna adapted to this changing climate. Cardiff University's Carrie Lear explains how human carbon emissions have already turned the clock back some three million years to a time when sea levels were 20 metres higher. But that's not the only way our carbon emissions are meddling with the oceans, as Daniela Schmidt of Bristol University warns. Plus evolutionary theorist Eors Szathmary explains how climate change could be the ultimate test of whether humans can complete the next great leap in evolution of life on Earth.

Producer: Laurence Knight

Image: Car exhaust (Credit: Thorsten Nilson / EyeEm via Getty Images)

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A Geochemical History of Life on Earth

4. The great chemistry experiment

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