BobRingReflections

On December 26, 2018 I posted a blog article titled “Earth’s Climate:   The First 4.54 Billion years,” my interpretation of the history of the Earth’s climate up to today, as a basis for discussing the current and future climate and Man’s role in it.   For continuity and context, I include my conclusions from the earlier article: The Earth’s climate has changed dramatically and often turbulently over its 4.54-billion year history.   The many influences on environmental change include the planet’s fiery birth, destructive asteroid impacts, violent volcanic action, reversals of Earth’s magnet field polarity, relentless movement of continents, surface and sea-level deforming ice ages, earth-warming greenhouse gases, depletion of the protective ozone layer, and extinction events. Earth has managed to not only survive these climate influences and the resulting climate changes, but has seen the birth and evolution of extensive plant and animal life, including Man.   ...

This blog is planned as the first of a two-part series on Earth’s climate.   This article will cover the history of the Earth’s climate, from the formation of the Earth up to today - using accepted scientific theory and facts as far as possible.   The second article, in a follow-up blog posting, will discuss Earth’s current and future climate and Man’s effect on it, including global warming and climate change - with a heavy dose of my opinions included. My objective with this first article is to “get straight in my head” the historical background and key drivers of Earth’s climate to better understand what is happening today and lay the stage for talking about the future. This is obviously a very complex subject and I have simplified wherever possible.   I discuss my interpretation of the history of the Earth’s climate.   I do not discuss the details of the study of Earth’s rock layers and sediment and glacial cores which support the climate history. ...

When I posted my October 8 th blog article on Pat’s and my recent visit to Yellowstone National Park, my brother Al asked me why I hadn’t mentioned previous Ring family visits to Yellowstone, specifically our grandfather’s trip in 1897. In August 1897 my Great Grandmother (Emma Ring) and her son, my then 14-year old Grandfather (Ambrose Ring) toured Yellowstone National Park.   This is their story, told partially from Emma’s trip diary and photographs. Emma was the second wife of Eugene Ring who is famous in the Ring family for his adventures surviving an unplanned trip to the California Gold Rush in 1848-1850.   (See the Ring brothers’ website at http://www.ringbrothershistory.com )   In 1897 Eugene and his second wife Emma lived in New York City with Ambrose, who graduated from grammar school that spring.   Emma and Ambrose then traveled to Basin, Montana, about 40 miles northeast of Butte, to spend the summer with Ambrose’s half-brother Gene who ...