"SNOWBALL EARTH"

[noemata at kunst.no]

ARTISTS: apparently we aren't the first to change the planet.
BACTERIA: living 2.3 billion years ago I could have plunged the planet into deep freeze.
CHOIR OF RESEARCHERS AT THE CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY: in a new report.
SEVERAL GRADUATE STUDENTS (loudly): along with supervising professor we
have released a paper presenting our explanation of what caused "Snowball Earth".
[enter "Snowball Earth"]
"SNOWBALL EARTH": I'm a periodic deep freeze of Earth's atmosphere that has
been theorized for years.
THE CALTECH TEAM: I argue that 2.3 billion years ago, cyanobacteria, or
blue-green algae, gained the ability to break down water, which in turn
released a flood of oxygen into the atmosphere.
"SNOWBALL EARTH": You're dead wrong, caltech team!
THAT OXYGEN: I reacted with the atmospheric methane, which insulated the
Earth at the time, and broke it down.
"SNOWBALL EARTH": What do you know, that oxygen!?
TEMPERATURES: we plunged to minus 50 degrees Celsius, and ice at the
equator grew to 1 mile thick.
"SNOWBALL EARTH": Yes yes, and my father lives in glorious heaven.
LIFE-FORMS: We only recovered after microorganisms, clinging then to
thermal vents or living underground, evolved the ability to consume oxygen
and turn it into carbon dioxide.
"SNOWBALL EARTH": Life-forms, you don't even know where you lived, and now
this thing about "oxygen" - that's poison and will be your doom!
IT: I was a close call to a planetary destruction
"SNOWBALL EARTH": Don't flatter yourself.
IF: Earth had been a bit further from the sun, the temperature at the poles
could have dropped enough to freeze the carbon dioxide into dry ice,
robbing us of this greenhouse escape from Snowball Earth.
"SNOWBALL EARTH": You're sick, If, get a life-form, maybe even OXYGEN, you
fool!



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isbn 82-92428-08-9