Data on planet all so recent

I recently spent some time looking through a book I got for my kids to go along with the telescope I bought a couple of Christmases ago. We looked at the moon one time and since then the scope is back in the box and it is now part of a fort the kids have constructed in the basement … can't beat those educational presents.

Anyway, while reading this book I came across several references to the age of our planet. This age seemed to fall into the area of 4 billion years, perhaps more. I then recalled seeing recently that we have been keeping records on temperatures for the last 150 years.

Let's say we were to draw a line 4 feet long, each foot would represent 1 billion years. Think of a line roughly the thickness of the piece of newsprint you are currently holding, put that at the very end of the 4 foot line and that represents the last 150 years (this actually would be too thick but I think the point is made: It is a very small portion of the whole).

What I am wondering is how we use the data accumulated over the last 150 years to determine what the temperature of a 4-billion-year-old planet is supposed to be. Our planet has gone through many changes over the millions and millions of years of its existence completely on its own. We have had ice ages that were ended by warming as well as warming periods that were ended by ice ages. No matter what the climate changes are, some things benefit and others don't. That is the way it is; it is how Mother Nature has always handled circumstances to keep things in balance

I recently read "The Da Vinci Code," a very entertaining novel. I can't help but feel this thinking about the planet is about the same as someone saying, "I picked up 'The Da Vinci Code' and read the last eight words; based on this, I have decided that this is not a very good book."

Marc Thomsen

Elk Grove Village