Life on Our Planet

This course would complement "Life in the Universe", by giving a perspective on the history of the Earth and the evolution of its diverse life. The aim is to explain both the history of our planet, and the fundamental processes that shaped it, providing a context for our current plight. We would emphasise the inter-connections between geology, climate, and biology. The course will be partly taught in the Natürhistorisches Museum (late afternoon) History of Earth formation of solar system deep history of climate (increase in O2, snowball earth etc) evidence on past climate History of life shared biochemistry, tracing back to the last common ancestor RNA world, and what came before: origin of life origin of eukaryotes, Cambrian diversification Processes that shaped Earth’s climate energy budget, atmospheric composition, interaction with oceans… interaction with life: generation of O2, weathering, … Processes that shaped life Evolution by natural selection Ecological interactions between species, and with their environment Speciation and extinction Biodiversity and climate through human history Climate in the recent past (~10kya), and projections for the future Human impacts on biodiversity, including climate change