Fossil forest caused climate change according to articles in ScienceDaily 19 November 2015 and Geology, 2015; 43 (12): 1043 DOI: 10.1130/G37000.1. Chris Berry of the School of Earth and Ocean Science at Cardiff University and John Marshall of National Oceanography Centre, University of Southampton have identified a number of “fossil forests” in Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. The scientists claim the trees originally grew near the equator but the land has ‘drifted’ to its current position in the high Arctic.
The fossils are mainly huge Lycopod trees, which are dated at 380 million years old, and regarded as big movers in the climate issue. (Lycopods exist today but only as tiny tassle ferns). The evolution of such large Lycopods is believed to have caused a very large change in the climate. Chris Berry explained: “During the Devonian Period, it is widely believed that there was a huge drop in the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, from 15 times the present amount to something approaching current levels. The evolution of tree-sized vegetation is the most likely cause of this dramatic drop in carbon dioxide because the plants were absorbing carbon dioxide through photosynthesis to build their tissues, and also through the process of forming soils”.
Editorial Comment: Did you catch that CO2 figure? – 15 times the present level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere? Where do they think it came from before this fossil forest supposedly used it up? If you believe in evolution, it didn’t come from people burning coal or driving trucks.
Let’s look at what we know about carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a naturally occurring gas produced by a number of geological and biological processes, most of which are out of our control. (Try turning off a volcano.) There is good evidence from the study of sediments and ice cores that levels of CO2 have varied a lot in the past, but none of these changes had anything to do with man-made industry.
Very large changes in carbon dioxide levels have undoubtedly influenced the earth’s temperature, but these involved catastrophic events that were also beyond our control. The 40 days of rain at Noah’s Flood would certainly have dissolved much atmospheric CO2 and dumped it in the sea. Such removal of CO2 from the atmosphere would certainly have contributed to climate change in post Flood times, so God’s warning to Noah that winter and summer would become normal (Genesis 8:22) is only to be expected. But it should also remind us about who is ultimately in control of the earth’s climate – the Creator and Judge of the earth, the Lord Jesus Christ and not man. (Ref. climate, weather, atmosphere)
Evidence News vol. 15, No. 22
25 November 2015
Creation Research Australia