. . . Earth did not spring into being in its present state; instead, it took billions of years to develop into what it is today. Similarly, it will not sustain today’s environment forever; Our planet will break down as the human body does, in a complex series of processes that can be forecast as surely as our own deaths. [We believe habitable ( Read more... )

Certainly we have shown that the conditions for the Earth’s rich diversity did not pop into being, but instead were the result of billions of years of geologic processes, the modification of the atmosphere, and evolution. A complex system has arisen in which plants and animals provide services to one another and in which photosynthesis and animal ( Read more... )