APRIL 27 2017
Ken Tapping is an astronomer with the National Research Council’s Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory at White Lake.
When the Solar System was formed some 4.5 billion years ago, the Sun was a lot fainter than it is now. At the time life appeared, at least 3.5 billion years ago, the Sun was about 30% fainter than it is now, yet on Earth there were liquid oceans, and there are still liquid oceans today. Over history there has been a complex interaction between the Earth and Sun that has kept conditions stable. Even the ice ages and glaciations were relatively minor perturbations in the Sun/Earth relationship. Now we are in the equation, and our activities are affecting this relationship. In addition, our increasing dependence upon technical infrastructure has introduced a whole new set of vulnerabilities. In this talk we will examine the Sun/Earth/Us relationship, and where it might lead.