Satellite images reveal the colossal scale of our water planet and its endless oceans.
All the oceans, lakes, rivers, and glacial ice combined occupy 75% of the Earth's surface. It is the brooding inertia of the oceans that forms the ancient engine room of global climate—a massive fluid flywheel that dwarfed human industrial activity long before our first chimneys began to smoke.
The oceans have an average depth of 2.3 miles and weigh 1,000 times more than the atmosphere. Deep ocean currents dictate levels of water vapor and cloud cover across 68% of the skies at any given moment, while the interplay of seas, landforms, and latitude drives the trade winds and storm tracks.
Crucially, the oceans hold 86% of the world's carbon reservoir and 91% of its mobile heat energy, which currents transport toward the frigid poles to temper the planet’s cold extremes. The thin envelope of atmosphere above holds only a fraction of a percent of each.
Because of this tremendous thermal capacity, the oceans don't react on political timelines; they absorb, smooth and delay thermal changes over centuries, acting as a planetary buffer against rapid atmospheric shocks.
We live in an ocean-dominated, ice-age world. Earth is still technically in the Late Cenozoic Ice Age, which began 34 million years ago with the glaciation of Antarctica. Roughly 10% of the world's total land area remains permanently capped by glacial ice—spanning 15 million square kilometres.
Antarctica alone holds roughly 90% of global ice volume and stands as the largest single source of freshwater on Earth. Spanning 14 million square kilometers—8.3% of the world's land surface—its ice sheet extends up to 4.8 kilometers (3 miles) deep.
All human civilisation, agriculture and technological progress—every written word, every skyscraper—unfolded within the past 11,700 years of the warm Holocene interglacial period. This brief warm period is merely one episode among more than 30 glacial and interglacial cycles over the broader Quaternary Glaciation of the last 2.58 million years.
Today's modest warming of 1.1°–1.4°C over 250 years is an incremental drift within a vast geological system. The world is not enduring stifling heat reminiscent of past hothouse peaks; instead, we inhabit a benign global average temperature of 15°C—well below the 18°C to 26°C baselines that characterised most of Earth’s biological history. Deep time puts modern atmospheric alarm out of sync with physical reality.
Yet, ignoring this vast planetary flywheel, global policy over the last four decades shifted from managing tangible conservation to attempting economic micro-management of the atmosphere itself. Led by an alignment of unelected powerbrokers, financial institutions, and corporate leaders, the narrative demanded an immediate, total restructuring of human infrastructure.
Nations were urged to replace energy-dense coal, oil, and gas with intermittent wind turbines and solar collectors. Yet after 40 years of heavy subsidies and mandates, hydrocarbon fuels still supply 81% of all global primary energy, while wind and solar account for just 6.5%.
Attempting to engineer a complete retreat from high-density fuels while ignoring the sheer physical scale of the earth system carries a staggering cost. The predicted price tag to transform the global grid and force this transition stands at $275 trillion (McKinsey, 2022)—roughly 2.5 times total global annual GDP.
It represents an unprecedented financial commitment to re-engineer civilisation, driven by an economic plan that continuously underestimates the vast physical realities of the planet it seeks to control.
@RennickGBR@RestoreAussies You lost me Gerard. Hanson lacks polish that’s for sure but at least she is authentic. This is a gotcha moment by the press. The sentiment has always been the same unlike all the Polly’s on the left who have signed up to the globalist lobby.
@KatyKray73 Attempted murder should be the charge. Solitary until he apologises and begs for forgiveness and then jail for a very long time.
My guess is in reality he will be back in the street within a week.
@SandyHorne61 Only the vaccine brainwashed think this is a good idea.
When they start dying then they will say it was from bird flu and they need to inject more birds.
Even after the Covid con people are still brainwashed regarding crap like this.
@7NewsMelbourne Australia is reaching peak stupidity. What a bunch of brainwashed psychopaths. If Covid wasn’t bad enough our “experts” think injecting it wild animals with poisonous pharmaceutical products is a good idea.
I will laugh my ass off if they kill these poor birds.
@realRick_AUS What a flipping tard. Why does this dim wit think everyone wants to know his story.
For the record there is nothing wrong with being masculine.
No one cares that your gay, your nothing new. Absolute narcissist. Everything wrong with people of today
@DavidPocock Try think for yourself David. How do you know it died of bird flu? How accurate is the test??
Seriously, the level of questioning the bird flu narrative is insane. We just spent two years being BSed to about Covid and dopes like David have forgotten all about it.
@MisinfoFact Oh well, Karl was part of the brigade that yelled at anti vaxers so no sympathy for Karl and he would be the first to say he doesn’t want any.
The mob is falling apart.
@TheWestSport Footballers take drugs and hire strippers. Hardly worthy of kicking a whole club out of the competition.
If they did something wrong the law will deal with it but Sydney who is sponsored by Qatar airways shouldn’t be taking no moral high ground here.