At https://phys.org/news/2023-08-huge-events-dominated-evolution-climate.html … how to smooth out huge upheavals in the geological record – by using climate change to explain punctuated equilibrium in evolution. These events were big. Very big. In this new study there is evidence of climate change tipping points, we are advised. Tipping points are an idea in circulation amongst the faithful, and devout. We are supposed to be on the brink of a number of tipping points. Why not project this dubious idea into the past. Sounds a bit like group think.
The big tipping point which they begin with occurred at 66 million years ago – the dinosaur killing event. It was supposed to be very warm at the time. Then we have another tipping point, rather than another catastrophic event, at 34 million years ago. This is when glaciation is thought to have first occurred. The earth must suddenly have got very cold. On the other hand, it might, instread, represent evidence of pole shift. In fact, they seem to be aware of the underlying catastrophism as they say at this period the Antarctic continent first formed. It is supposed this was entirely by Plate Tectonics – that extremely slow process that cannot be detected.
Over at https://phys.org/news/2023-08-massive-north-atlantic-cooling-event.html … we have here another article in similar vein. A new study in the journal Science, finds that at 1.12 million years ago, a massive cooling event occurred in the North Atlantic. It led to a permanent shift in climate, vegetation, and available food resources. This must have affected Homo erectus. Subsequently, they disappeared from the fossil record. More properly, a theory has been proposed to account for their disappearance in western Europe. Homo erectus was living in central Eurasia at 1.8 million years ago – spreading, later, westwards. They were in the extremities of western Europe 1.5 million years ago. These figure are expressed with an air of confident certainty that leaves most people scratching their heads. Especially as they go on to say, its unknown how long early humans lived in western Europe. After all, the evidence they have is basically a few stray finds. So, to go on to say this disappearance, which might not have been a disappearance, was all to do with glaciation, is a leap of faith, one might say. Modeling is their saviour. It seems that plant pollen extracted from ocean sediment cores show temperatures suddenly dropped by 7 degrees celsius. Note the word suddenly. As in, all of a sudden the temperatures became colder. I wonder why that might be? Catastrophism is not an input into the models, and is simply not on their agenda – in any shape or form. Yet, it is the elephant in the room.