Snowball Earth. Credit: NASA Our planet has been driven to environmental extremes at many times in its history, and many plants and animals - including humans - have demonstrated they can survive less than ideal conditions. The last major ice age hit its peak 20 to 26 thousand years ago, and allowed humans to cross icy bridges between continents. That ice age, however, didn’t encompass the entire planet. Our world hasn’t been a complete snowball since before the ages of reptiles and dinosaurs. Infact, the last global ice age took place 635 million to 650 million years ago. And when a planet...

Credit: Berserkur via Wikimedia Commons One of the daily activities that is helping me stay sane is volcano watching. I love volcanoes. I especially enjoy when they erupt in places that have webcams but don’t affect the lives of people. Unfortunately, those are both...