Ancient Knowledge

"The Ancients" knew much more than given credit for regarding Life, The Universe, Astronomy, Advanced Mathematics, Magnetism, Healing, Unseen Forces etc.

Encoded knowledge is information that is conveyed in signs and symbols and we can find this knowledge all over the world. All these ancient sightings and geometric patterns (Sacred Geometry) symbolise unseen forces at work. We are being lied to by the media. Modern archaeologists don't know what they're talking about. "The Ancients" were not stupid or primitive. We just failed to de-code this knowledge conveyed in signs, symbols and ancient artwork. This kind of information is kept hidden from the public.

The pyramids are proof, that a more advanced civilization once existed on earth. And i know how crazy it is to claim that our history books are lying and not telling the truth, yet all the evidence points to this conclusion, im just wondering how even Michael Jackson was aware of all that. He tried to warn us, but most of us failed to listen, like always.

Ancient Sightings / Sites, Machu Picchu, Giza, Easter Island, Cuzco, Saqsayhuaman, Ollantaytambo, Peru, Stonehenge, Nasca, Mexico, Mayan, Aztecs, Yonaguni site off the okinawa coast japan, Underwater pyramids.

Coral Castle is a lime stone monument that sits in "Homestead" Florida. The builder of Coral Castle "Edward Leedskalnin" claimed to know the secrets of the ancient builders and he proved it by building coral castle. The secret is magnetism and anti-gravity. He built a magnetic device to nullify or heavily reduce the weight of those enormous stones, so he could easily set them into place, if not levitate them. He left clues for us, and we can also find these same clues / symbology in the Norman Hall (Grand Masonic Lodge) in Philadelphia. The secrets of magnetism are encoded in the artwork designs. The freemasons have kept these secrets forever, but the times of secrecy are now over. The global awakening has begun and we need to rewrite our history books. They're not telling the truth. Wake to this fact.

This Episode deals with topics such as The Number 9 Code Mystery, Vortex Based Math, 360 Degree Circle, Flower of Life, Fibonacci Sequence, Time, Digital Root Method, Coral Castle, Crystals / Crystalline Rock Structures, Sun Analemma, Torah / Bible Number Codes, Sacred Geometry, Cymatics, Pythagoras, 432Hz, Eric Dollard, Astrology, 144, Magnetism, Hexagonal Vortex, Saturn Northpole , Cubes, Energy, Electromagnetic Fields, Geometrical Shapes / Patterns, Sound, Light, Diameter of Planets, Sun, Moon and more.

Scientists dont know what holds the universe together, the answer is sound and unseen forces. Matter is governed by sound frequencies. There is much more to life than we can perceive with our 5 senses. The question then becomes "who or what governs unseen forces?" What is behind the symmetry throughout nature? (Golden Ratio, Phi, Fibonacci Sequence etc.) It simply cant be just coincidence, in my opinion there is an intelligent mind / consciousness behind all this that keeps it all together.

Ancient Knowledge Part 1:
Consciousness, Sacred Geometry, Cymatics, Illusion of Reality 

Ancient Knowledge Part 2:
Fibonacci Sequence, Golden Ratio, Phi in Nature, DNA, Fingerprint of God

Ancient Knowledge Part 3:
Pyramids, Monuments & Megaliths, Ley Lines (Earth's Energy Grid)

Ancient Knowledge Part 4:
The Real Secret Of How The Pyramids Were Built & Coral Castle

Ancient Knowledge Part 5:
Coral Castle, Magnetic Forces, Sacred Sciences, Anti-Gravity

Ancient Knowledge Part 6:
Number 9 Code, Vortex Based Math, Flower of Life, Fibonacci, Time, 432Hz

Ancient Knowledge Part 6/2:
Coral Castle, Saturn, Saturn



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15 Plants That Teach Us Sacred Geometry At Its Finest

JOSH RICHARDSON

Plant growth is governed by the Fibonacci sequence, which can be understood as a law of accumulation. The role of the Fibonacci sequence in the growth of plants is a intriguing example of the unifying order behind all creation. These patterns exist at all levels and permeate the universe, reminding us that the same swirling energy is shaping, sunflowers, whirlpools, spinning galaxies, and our own DNA.

Sacred Geometry is the meeting of science and spirituality, ‘the blueprint, the structure of spacetime that organizes matter.’ It is an ancient science that explores and explains the language or building blocks of all things in our Universe.

When one looks into the absolutely vast amount of information that has been collected on the extensive number of forms in which Nature employs the proportion of Phi, it is obvious that there is no other specific number that recurs throughout life on Earth with such regularity.

In effect, the Fibonacci sequence describes how things grow, building and multiplying according to what's already there. This growth by accumulation is reflected in how trees branch, flowers form, and ferns unfurl.




All phenomena, from the infinitely small to the infinitely big ... the growth of plants, human body proportions, the structure of crystals, the orbit of the planets, light, music and more has a specific geometric structure. Everything in the Universe follows the same geometric pattern that fractals over and over creating endless possibilities of light, color, shape and sound. Every motion, system of growth, cell, plant, animal, planet, star, galaxy and black hole are all ruled by the mathematical laws of sacred geometry. Ancient cultures around the world have used this ‘mystery school’ knowledge to build monuments, churches and sacred sites. We have been studying these places for ages and through modern science perhaps we now beginning to understand the meaning and purpose behind these structures.

In an overwhelming number of plants, a given branch or leaf will grow out of the stem approximately 137.5 degrees around the stem relative to the prior branch. In other words, after a branch grows out of the plant, the plant grows up some amount and then sends out another branch rotated 137.5 degrees relative to the direction that the first branch grew out of.

The Fibonacci sequence governs the placement of leaves along a stem, ensuring that each leaf has maximum access to sunlight and rain. If you look straight down along a stem, the leaves (or branches) emerging from it will spiral such that when you count from one leaf to the one that lines up directly below it, the number of leaves between them and the number of times that group of leaves spirals around the stem will both be Fibonacci numbers.

This same principle is at work in the formation of pine cones, sunflowers, pineapples, and cacti. All have a double spiral structure that allows their smaller elements (seeds, for instance) to pack closely and efficiently. Look at the middle of a sunflower: you will see that the seeds line up in crisscrossing spirals radiating from the center, and if you count the number of spirals turning in each direction (clockwise/counterclockwise), they will always be Fibonacci numbers.

Here are 15 plants that perfectly demonstrate this principle: 

Source: http://preventdisease.com/news/15/042715_15-Plants-Teach-Us-Sacred-Geometry-At-Its-Finest.shtml

How A Leafy Asian Tree Could Help Combat America’s Opiate Addiction Disaster

Photo by Ninoninos.

by Aaron Kase

Sometimes, solutions to even the most entrenched public health crises are right in front of our eyes, growing naturally from Mother Earth.

Richard Smith* struggled with an opiate painkiller addiction for four years before he found a way out through something called kratom.

“It works amazingly well,” Smith said. “I’m surprised it isn’t being prescribed as a treatment by doctors.”

Kratom comes from a tree, Mitragyna speciosa, that grows in Southeast Asia. The leaves have long been taken as medicine by people living in its native jungles, but the remedy is now growing in popularity around the world. Leaves can be chewed fresh, or dried and consumed in powder, tea or bar form. In small doses, it can have stimulative effects, but in larger quantities it acts as a sedative.
Kratom has been used as an aphrodisiac, painkiller, appetite suppressant and for diarrhea relief. Its most promising effect, however, is in weaning people off heroin and morphine addiction using chemicals that stimulate opiate receptors, reducing the brain’s cravings for the genuine article.

Smith got hooked on painkillers after undergoing surgery for an injury he suffered in the military.
“I was prescribed the medication by a doctor for three or four years,” he said. He tried quitting cold turkey, and by replacing the opiates with alcohol, but nothing worked.

That’s when he heard about kratom. The idea appealed to him more than checking into rehab to go onto methadone or suboxone, so he purchased some from a local natural products store and gave it a shot. He took the kratom for two or three months and was able to leave behind his addiction completely, without experiencing the crippling symptoms that usually accompany opiate withdrawal.

“I was able to go to work, take care of my family,” Smith said.

Awareness of the kratom’s therapeutic properties seems to be growing. “If you want to treat depression, if you want to treat opioid pain, if you want to treat sleepiness, this [compound] really puts it all together,” Edward Boyer, a professor of emergency medicine and director of medical toxicology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, said to Scientific American.

Side effects are minimal, including nausea, itching, sweating, dry mouth and increased urination. Kratom can be addictive, according to reports, but a 2011 study by the International Drug Policy Consortium and Transnational Institute found that withdrawal symptoms were weak and nearly inconsequential compared to the suffering of people trying to quit opiates or amphetamines.

“I’ve heard there are withdrawal symptoms from kratom itself, but I didn’t experience that,” Smith said. “At least in comparison in trying to wean myself off narcotics for pain.”

The public profile of kratom is thriving, at least online. Reddit has over 5,000 members on its kratom forum that discuss its effects and how to acquire it.

Vocativ described it as the “sleeper-hit wonder drug that’s as schizophrenic as the Internet that spawned it” and called for 2015 to be “the year of kratom.” The site surveyed internet reviews and concluded that the substance could cause you to have the best or worst sex of your life, would make you feel amazing or terrible, gain superhuman strength or suffer crippling weakness, and might make you poop weird.

Another kratom enthusiast, Brandon Bird, who buys in bulk from Indonesia and resells it under the name Snake Oil Peddlers, spoke to Reset last year about how kratom helps him manage his PTSD and allowed him to quit taking prescription painkillers.

It hasn’t gotten on the bad side of America’s drug warriors yet, so kratom remains unregulated and unlisted under the Controlled Substances Act, although the Drug Enforcement Agency has ominously and inaccurately claimed that it has “no legitimate medical use.”

However, its active chemicals, mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine, were banned in Indiana in 2012, and Tennessee followed suit in 2013.

Restrictions in other states and localities are under consideration. Lawmakers in Arizona tried to ban kratom last year, but the bill failed to pass. And Palm Beach County in Florida mulled over forcing vendors to post signs warning of its addictive properties, but recently decided against moving forward with the measure.

Internationally, kratom is illegal in Thailand, Australia, Myanmar and Malaysia, although Thailand has reportedly been considering dropping the ban.

When governments think about banning a substance or smearing it as a drug, it’s important to consider the evidence and harm reduction potential. With opiate addiction a growing problem in the United States, kratom is one therapy that can help people get their lives back on track. “Painkillers are an addiction that a lot of people are dealing with,” Smith said. “I think it’s important that people are aware that this is an option. It worked for me.”

Per request, one or more names have been changed for this article to protect the source’s identity. 

The Earth is a Sentient Living Organism

Contrary to the common belief that the Earth is simply a dense planet whose only function is a resource for its inhabitants, our planet is in fact a breathing, living organism. When we think of the Earth holistically, as one living entity of its own, instead of the sum of its parts, it takes on a new meaning. Our planet functions as a single organism that maintains conditions necessary for its survival.

James Lovelock published in a book in 1979 providing many useful lessons about the interaction of physical, chemical, geological, and biological processes on Earth.

Throughout history, the concept of Mother Earth has been a part of human culture in one form or another. Everybody has heard of Mother Earth, but have you ever stopped to think who (or what) Mother Earth is?

What is Gaia?

Lovelock defined Gaia as “…a complex entity involving the Earth’s biosphere, atmosphere, oceans, and soil; the totality constituting a feedback or cybernetic system which seeks an optimal physical and chemical environment for life on this planet.”

Through Gaia, the Earth sustains a kind of homeostasis, the maintenance of relatively constant conditions.

The truly startling component of the Gaia hypothesis is the idea that the Earth is a single living entity. This idea is certainly not new. James Hutton (1726-1797), the father of geology, once described the Earth as a kind of superorganism. And right before Lovelock, Lewis Thomas, a medical doctor and skilled writer, penned these words in his famous collection of essays, The Lives of a Cell:

“Viewed from the distance of the moon, the astonishing thing about the earth, catching the breath, is that it is alive. The photographs show the dry, pounded surface of the moon in the foreground, dry as an old bone. Aloft, floating free beneath the moist, gleaming, membrane of bright blue sky, is the rising earth, the only exuberant thing in this part of the cosmos. If you could look long enough, you would see the swirling of the great drifts of white cloud, covering and uncovering the half-hidden masses of land. If you had been looking for a very long, geologic time, you could have seen the continents themselves in motion, drifting apart on their crustal plates, held afloat by the fire beneath. It has the organized, self-contained look of a live creature, full of information, marvelously skilled in handling the sun.”

John Nelson illustrated the “Breathing Earth,” (below) which are two animated GIFs he designed to visualize what a year’s worth of Earth’s seasonal transformations look like from outer space. Nelson–a data visualizer, stitched together from NASA’s website 12 cloud-free satellite photographs taken each month over the course of a year. Once the images were put together in a sequence, the mesmerizing animations showed what Nelson describes as “the annual pulse of vegetation and land ice.”



As the climate changes, the planet comes alive. Earth appears to breathe when ice cover grows and melts–in and out, in and out.

White frost radiates out from the top of the globe and creeps south in all directions. It travels through Siberia, Canada, and northern Europe, heading towards the equator located around the circle’s edge, but ends before the top of Africa. The Mediterranean Sea is the visible body of water on the top left hand side, and the Great Lakes make up a small network of dark blue shapes on the land mass to the right.

The Earth acts as a single system – it is a coherent, self-regulated, assemblage of physical, chemical, geological, and biological forces that interact to maintain a unified whole balanced between the input of energy from the sun and the thermal sink of energy into space.

In its most basic configuration, the Earth acts to regulate flows of energy and recycling of materials. The input of energy from the sun occurs at a constant rate and for all practical purposes is unlimited. This energy is captured by the Earth as heat or photosynthetic processes, and returned to space as long-wave radiation. On the other hand, the mass of the Earth, its material possessions, are limited (except for the occasional input of mass provided as meteors strike the planet). Thus, while energy flows through the Earth (sun to Earth to space), matter cycles within the Earth.

The idea of the Earth acting as a single system as put forth in the Gaia hypothesis has stimulated a new awareness of the connectedness of all things on our planet and the impact that man has on global processes. No longer can we think of separate components or parts of the Earth as distinct. No longer can we think of man’s actions in one part of the planet as independent. Everything that happens on the planet – the deforestation/reforestation of trees, the increase/decrease of emissions of carbon dioxide, the removal or planting of croplands – all have an affect on our planet. The most difficult part of this idea is how to qualify these effects, i.e. to determine whether these effects are positive or negative. If the Earth is indeed self-regulating, then it will adjust to the impacts of man. However, as we will see, these adjustments may act to exclude man, much as the introduction of oxygen into the atmosphere by photosynthetic bacteria acted to exclude anaerobic bacteria. This is the crux of the Gaia hypothesis.

One of the early predictions of this hypothesis was that there should be a sulfur compound made by organisms in the oceans that was stable enough against oxidation in water to allow its transfer to the air. Either the sulfur compound itself, or its atmospheric oxidation product, would have to return sulfur from the sea to the land surfaces. The most likely candidate for this role was deemed to be dimethyl sulfide.

Published work done at the University of Maryland by first author Harry Oduro, together with UMD geochemist James Farquhar and marine biologist Kathryn Van Alstyne of Western Washington University, provides a tool for tracing and measuring the movement of sulfur through ocean organisms, the atmosphere and the land in ways that may help prove or disprove the controversial Gaia theory. Their study appears in this week’s Online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

The Story of Water by Alick Bartholomew, is another unique publication in that it reflects the author’s deep knowledge of the principles of whole geophysical systems, which helps us understand the Earth as an integrated Gaia system that sustains us. The book begins by describing our usual view of water based on Western science and then deftly moves on to the frontier sciences that embrace water as the source of life in terms of biological systems, quantum energy fields, etheric fields, spirals, vortices, and as a medium for communications and memory. An understanding of these principles can lead to strategies for treating our water in ways that guarantee a sustainable future for humankind.

How Does Gaia Work?

The homeostasis regulated by the Earth is much like the internal maintenance of our own bodies; processes within our body insure a constant temperature, blood pH, electrochemical balance, etc. The inner workings of Gaia, therefore, can be viewed as a study of the physiology of the Earth, where the oceans and rivers are the Earth’s blood, the atmosphere is the Earth’s lungs, the land is the Earth’s bones, and the living organisms are the Earth’s senses. Lovelock calls this the science of geophysiology – the physiology of the Earth (or any other planet).

To understand how the Earth is living, let’s take a look at what defines life. Physicists define life as a system of locally reduced entropy (life is the battle against entropy). Molecular biologists view life as replicating strands of DNA that compete for survival and evolve to optimize their survival in changing surroundings. Physiologists might view life as a biochemical system that us able to use energy from external sources to grow and reproduce. According to Lovelock, the geophysiologist sees life as a system open to the flux of matter and energy but that maintains an internal steady-state.
Beyond the scientific importance of what we have discussed here, we might do well to consider some of the more poetical thoughts of the originator of the theory:

“If Gaia exists, the relationship between her and man, a dominant animal species in the complex living system, and the possibly shifting balance of power between them, are questions of obvious importance… The Gaia hypothesis is for those who like to walk or simply stand and stare, to wonder about the Earth and the life it bears, and to speculate about the consequences of our own presence here. It is an alternative to that pessimistic view which sees nature as a primitive force to be subdued and conquered. It is also an alternative to that equally depressing picture of our planet as a demented spaceship, forever traveling, driverless and purposeless, around an inner circle of the sun.”

The strong Gaia hypothesis states that life creates conditions on Earth to suit itself. Life created the planet Earth, not the other way around. As we explore the solar system and galaxies beyond, it may one day be possible to design an experiment to test whether life indeed manipulates planetary processes for its own purposes or whether life is just an evolutionary processes that occurs in response to changes in the non-living world.

About the Author

Liz Bentley is a graduate in geology, professional photographer and freelance journalist with an acute insight into fossil records and climatology.

Sources: 
nationalgeographic.com
bibliotecapleyades.net
phys.org

Credits: PreventDisease, where this was originally featured.

7 things we've learned about Earth since the last Earth Day

A whole lot has changed since the first Earth Day on April 22, 1970.

Back then, the most urgent environmental problems facing the United States were air and water pollution. In the decades since, we've made huge progress mopping that up, only to discover entirely new headaches, like global warming and ocean acidification.

Not only that, but our understanding of the Earth itself — and the ways we're transforming it — keeps evolving. We've uncovered entirely new geological features and ecosystems. We've brought endangered species back from the edge of extinction. We've altered the atmosphere, both for better and worse. Here's a list of some of the most surprising, encouraging, and worrisome things we've learned since last Earth Day:

1) Scientists discovered thousands of new mountains — on the ocean floor

Seamount discovered near the Johnson Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. Three-dimensional view of the southwest side of the seamount with 23-degree slopes. (University of New Hampshire)

Nothing illustrates how much we still have to learn about our home planet like the fact that we're still discovering new mountains. Thousands of them, in fact.

"MOST OF THE PLACES ... HAVE NEVER BEEN MAPPED BEFORE"

In August 2014, scientists were mapping a largely unexplored swath of ocean floor near the Johnson Atoll in the Pacific Ocean when they suddenly stumbled on an entire mountain, some 3,300 feet high, that no one had ever seen before (shown above). "These seamounts are very common, but we don't know about them because most of the places that we go out and map have never been mapped before," explainedJames Gardner, who led the mapping effort.

That was just the beginning. A few months later, a team of researchers announced they'd identified another 15,000 new seamounts — in addition to the 5,000 or so already been discovered. The scientists used satellite measurements and gravity modeling to publish the most detailed maps ever of the ocean floor.

2) Scientists also discovered a few bizarre new species

At this point, scientists have described about 1.5 million different species on the Earth. Thatsounds like a lot, yes, but estimates suggest there are another 4 million species still waiting to be discovered.

Every year churns up more surprises. Sometimes these discoveries are incremental. Last year, for instance, scientists announced that the Araguaian river dolphin in Brazil was actually a distinct species from the well-known Amazon river dolphin.

But other times, researchers come across something truly unexpected. In December 2014, scientists exploring the Mariana Trench found what they believed to be a brand new species of snailfish living 26,715 feet below sea level. That's the deepest fish ever recorded. (See video above.)

We also discovered a new stick insect in Vietnam (the second-longest insect ever seen), aMoroccan flic-flac spider with a bizarre method of leaping about, a new species of wild banana in India, and two new species of venomous jellyfish off western Australia's central coast. See here for a longer list.

3) But we also learned we've wiped out 50% of wildlife since 1970

A mountain gorilla in northwestern Rwanda. There are about 880 left in the wild — but due to conservation, they're the only ape whose numbers are increasing. (Geordie Mott/Flickr)

Of course, at the same we're discovering new species we're also imperiling existing ones. And we got a stark reminder of that in September 2014.

BUT WE'VE ALSO MANAGED TO HELP SOME SPECIES REBOUND

A major study by the World Wildlife Fundestimated that the overall number of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish declined 52 percent between 1970 and 2010 — which was far more than anyone realized. (Note: that doesn't mean we've wiped out half of all species. It means that, on average, the world's vertebrate species populations are about half the size they were in 1970.)

The main culprits? Humans, who have been wiping out other animals through hunting, fishing, deforestation, pollution, and various forms of habitat destruction. Freshwater species were suffering a particularly steep decline.

That said, it wasn't unrelentingly bad news. The report also documented a few conservation success stories. The tiger population in Nepal has been rebounding after the Nepalese government cracked down on poaching. And mountain gorillas are rebounding sharply in Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic of Congo, thanks to a thriving new "gorilla tourism" industry.

4) Every single ocean now has a massive swirling plastic garbage patch

Concentrations of plastic debris in surface waters of the global ocean. Colored circles indicate mass concentrations (legend on top right). (Cozar et al., 2014.)

Plastic has become an unavoidable feature of modern life. But where does it go when we throw it out? Some ends up in landfills. Some gets recycled. But this past year, we learned that a surprising amount ends up in the ocean.

Most people have already heard of the Great Pacific garbage patch — a giant patch of plastic trash that's accumulated in a swirling subtropical gyre in the northern Pacific Ocean. Well, in July 2014, we learned that there are at least five of these floating garbage patches around the world.

These patches aren't visible from space — or even necessarily from a passing boat. Over time, the plastic bits get broken down into ever smaller pieces as they get battered by waves and degraded by the sun, and many of the pieces are bobbing just below the surface. But they're there.

Another recent study in Science calculated that between 5 million and 13 million metric tons of our plastic waste makes it into the ocean each year. Surprisingly, we still don't know where it all goes — only about 1 percent ends up in those patches. One possibility is that marine creatures are eating the rest of the plastic and it's somehow entering the food chain, possibly with adverse effects on marine life. But it's a genuine mystery.

5) Antarctica is now melting faster than expected

Iceberg floating off the western Antarctic peninsula, Antarctica, Southern Ocean. (Steven Kazlowski/
Barcroft Media/Getty Images)

Scientists have known for decades that humans are warming the planet by adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere through the process of burning fossil fuels, cutting down trees, and expanding agriculture. The consequences, however, are still coming as a surprise.

Over the last year, for instance, a number of studies have indicated that the massive ice sheet that sits atop Antarctica is now melting faster than we'd previously realized. In March 2015, a major survey revealed that the ice shelves that keep those massive ice sheets hemmed in are now thinning at an alarming rate, eroded by warm water underneath.

What's more, a set of studies last year indicated that at least six of West Antarctica's glaciers appear to be melting irreversibly. That is, even if we stopped emitting carbon-dioxide tomorrow, some of that ice appears destined to slide into the sea over the coming centuries. That will push up global ocean levels, possibly by several feet or more. But exactly how much sea levels rise, and how quickly, largely depends on whether we continue to speed up global warming — or stop it.

6) Good news: The ozone layer is finally starting to heal

(NASA Earth Observatory)

Not everything we learned last year was dire. We also got encouraging news about the ozone layer, a reminder that it's possible to stop environmental catastrophes before it's too late.

Back in the 1970s, scientists first realized we were rapidly depleting Earth's stratospheric ozone layer, which protects us from the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays. The culprit? Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) — chemicals that were widely used in refrigerators and air conditioners.

Between 1979 and 2013 these chemicals had chewed a massive "hole" in the ozone layer above Antarctica, and the damage was poised to spread further north. Without the ozone layer's protection, more and more people would be exposed to UV rays, and skin cancer rates in many places might have soared.

Happily, this apocalyptic scenario never came to pass. Scientists uncovered the problem in time. Under the 1987 Montreal Protocol, world leaders agreed to phase out CFCs, and eventually the hole in the ozone layer stopped expanding. Last year, a UN assessment found that the ozone layer was finally starting to heal — and should be back to its 1980 levels by 2050 or so.

7) We learned humans have been radically altering the Earth for longer than we thought

File photo dated 1971 of a nuclear explosion at Mururoa atoll. (AFP/Getty Images)

There's little question that humans are now the dominant force shaping Earth. But in recent years, scientists have been wondering when we became so dominant. Was it when we began exploding nuclear bombs? Was it the Industrial Revolution? Or was it earlier?

Increasingly, many researchers are pushing for an earlier date to mark the start of the "Anthropocene," the proposed term for the epoch when humans became the dominant force of change to the planet. Back in March 2015, in a paper for Nature, two scientist argued that the year 1610 was a good place to mark the start of when human influence was first felt globally.

Why 1610? That year, greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere dipped drastically, by 7 to 10 parts per million. This was driven by sweeping changes that followed Columbus's landing in North America. New species were being introduced irreversibly into both continents.European diseases like smallpox killed tens of millions of people in North America. Agriculture collapsed, and forests were making a comeback, absorbing more carbon dioxide. Humans were having a truly global impact.

Not everyone agrees with that start date for the Anthropocene, however. In a commentary inScience in April 2015, a team of four researchers countered that we were radically altering the planet long before that. Humans were clearing forests for agriculture 7,000 years ago, leading to meaningful rises in carbon dioxide emissions. Likewise, the spread of rice farming 5,000 years ago appears to have led to significant rises in methane emissions.

There continues to be a lot of debate about when, exactly, we should mark the start of the Anthropocene. But it's a good reminder that while Earth Day — and environmentalism — are modern phenomena, the issues they describe go back many centuries, if not longer.

CARD 10 OF 24LAUNCH CARDS

What is ocean acidification?

When humans burn fossil fuels, the oceans absorb roughly one-third of that additional carbon dioxide. This process staves off (some) global warming, but it also makes the seas more acidic, as the carbon dissolves in water to form carbonic acid. That's ocean acidification.

Since the Industrial Revolution, the oceans have become 30 percent more acidic (that is, the pH of ocean surface water has dropped from roughly 8.18 to 8.07). And that process is expected to continue if humans continue emitting greenhouse gases, with the rate of change expected to be the fastest in 300 million years.

IPCC

More acidic seawater can chew away at coral reefs and kill oysters by making it harder for them to form protective shells. Acidification can also interfere with the food supply for key species like Alaska's salmon. One study in the journal Climatic Change estimated that the loss of mollusks alone could cost the world as much as $100 billion per year by the end of the century.

Scientists are still trying to understand exactly how acidification will affect different species and the marine food chain, through both lab experiments and by looking at past acidification events. About 55 million years ago, during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, the oceans became warmer and more acidic. As a result, coral reefs became scarcer and the food chain had difficulty supporting larger predators.

Source: http://www.vox.com/2015/4/22/8467111/earth-day