Nature’s Resilience: A Personal View

Why I Study Climate

I’ve spent decades observing nature in the southern Appalachians, and one thing stands out: the climate has always changed, and nature adapts. As a Deist and technologist, I believe science should rely on evidence we can test, like historical records or patterns in the natural world. Claims about climate must be backed by data, not unproven ideas.

In the 1970s, I grew up in Virginia’s coalfields, where summers felt cold and winters were harsh. Today, it’s warmer where I live, but is this caused by humans or part of nature’s cycles? Historical data, from ancient tree rings to old weather logs, shows temperatures have shifted for centuries. This makes it hard to pin down one cause, and it’s why I approach climate debates with caution.

My goal isn’t to dismiss human impacts but to demand clear evidence. Science means testing claims with real-world data, not accepting them on faith. In this series, I’ll share what I’ve learned from nature and history to show why we need reason, not assumptions, to understand climate.

View from Flag Rock Norton, Virginia.

Life in the Appalachians

My wife and I have watched brush and wild plants grow faster than ever over the past decade. It’s a struggle to keep them cut back. Behind my house, a forest logged 30 years ago has regrown into a canopy of trees, alive with deer, bears, and birds. This resilience amazes me and challenges claims that human activity always harms nature.

Human influence is still visible, like invasive plants that don’t seem to bother the forest. Wildlife is thriving—more than 50 years ago, by my count. I carry a handgun for bear encounters, a sign of how abundant they’ve become. Yet some insist nature should never change, treating any human impact as harmful. I see it differently: nature adapts, and we can help it thrive.

One loss haunts me: the chestnut trees. My home, built in the 1880s, is full of chestnut lumber, but a blight from Asia wiped them out by the 1920s. Scientists created a blight-resistant tree by adding a gene from wheat, but activists block its use, demanding a “pure” nature. I say we should plant those trees and let forests grow stronger.

America’s environment has improved in many ways. Forests have regrown, wildlife flourishes, and we grow more food on less land. In my childhood, Virginia’s coalfields had hazy air from coke ovens and coal stoves. Today, the air is cleaner, and new energy sources like nuclear could replace coal entirely. These changes show we can fix past mistakes while nature rebounds, if we use reason and evidence to guide us.

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The Cambrian Period 541 to 485 MYA marked many major animal groups appearing in the fossil record.
See detailed image Cambrian Explosion

The Cambrian Period lasted from approximately 541 to 485 million years ago. It marked the beginning of the Paleozoic Era and is known for the "Cambrian Explosion," a rapid diversification of life forms, with many major animal groups, including hard-shelled organisms like trilobites and brachiopods, appearing in the fossil record. During the Cambrian period, atmospheric CO2 levels were significantly higher than today, likely driven by intense volcanic activity and limited carbon sequestration due to the absence of widespread vegetation. Estimates based on geochemical models and proxy data, such as carbon isotope records, suggest CO2 concentrations ranged from 2,000 to 8,000 ppm (parts per million). This is compared to modern levels of around 420 ppm in 2025. The high CO2 levels contributed to a warm, greenhouse climate, with global temperatures likely 5–10°C higher than today, supporting diverse marine ecosystems that drove the Cambrian Explosion of life. Precise measurements vary due to uncertainties in proxy data and modeling, but levels were consistently elevated compared to the modern era.

Artist's depiction of giant camels that roamed the forests on Canada’s islands such as Ellesmere Island above the Arctic Circle. Then the Pleistocene Ice Age settled in 3.4–3.5 million years ago and the camels and forests were gone.

Artist's depiction of giant camels that roamed the forests on
Canada’s islands such as Ellesmere Island 3.4–3.5 million years ago.

Around 3.4–3.5 million years ago, during the mid-Pliocene warm period, giant camels (Paracamelus) roamed boreal forests on Canada’s Ellesmere Island. Fossil leg bones from the Fyles Leaf Bed site, discovered between 2006 and 2010, reveal a camel 30% larger than modern ones, standing 2.7 meters tall and weighing ~900 kg. Collagen fingerprinting linked it to dromedaries. The Arctic, 14–22°C warmer than today, supported larch forests where these camels browsed, aided by wide feet and fat-storing humps for snowy winters. By ~3 MYA, the Isthmus of Panama closed, blocking Pacific-Atlantic water flow and strengthening the Gulf Stream. This increased moisture transport to the Arctic, promoting precipitation and ice formation, contributing to Northern Hemisphere glaciation by ~2.6 MYA. As cooling reduced forested habitats, giant camels were likely gone from Ellesmere by 2.6 MYA, facing extinction or migration. The isthmus closure was a key driver of this gradual Arctic cooling, alongside declining CO2 and orbital cycles, transforming the region’s ecology. This explains the camels’ disappearance, contrasting with later North American camelids.

DNA reveals life in Greenland 2 million years ago. Average temperatures
were 20 to 34 degrees Fahrenheit (11 to 19 degrees Celsius) higher than today.

Oldest known DNA reveals life in Greenland 2 million years ago. By Maddie Burakoff, Associated Press, Published: December 7, 2022. During the region's warm period, when average temperatures were 20 to 34 degrees Fahrenheit (11 to 19 degrees Celsius) higher than today, the area was filled with an unusual array of plant and animal life, the researchers reported. The DNA fragments suggest a mix of Arctic plants, like birch trees and willow C2 shrubs, with ones that usually prefer warmer climates, like firs and cedars. Ref. www.adn.com.

Why I Study Climate

Life in the Appalachians

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Evidence based Earth Science