The very naughty Charles LYELL ....

Michael Marshall

Modernist Man still views life on earth through the prism of geology, the legacy of that very wicked barrister Sir Charles Lyell.

Man's continued existence on Planet Earth, in this schema, is practically guaranteed by the fact that the geological processes of the earth are supposedly uniform in character , uniform all over the world and uniform in nature back to the beginnings of time.

Supposedly these geological forces are what created and sustain the great natural cycles - the circulation streams of  rain, water and air and of oxygen,nitrogen, carbon, sulfur et al.

But while it is true that because our planet was stony with a fluid metallic core, this allowed life the ability to begin here, most of those vast natural circulations wouldn't exist if life, Microbe Life mostly, didn't sustain them.

In fact most of the minerals and ore bodies that we take for granted as being of geological origin, actually were created and assembled by biological forces.

True, Geology gave us all the elements that make up the Earth - but most of our minerals and compounds owe some or all of their creation to Life forces.

Man, pace Robert Solow, could not live on rocks alone - we need Life to live ; all Life....