Conversation on Global Warming

A friend and I were discussing a mutual acquaintance who believes that the Earth is hollow – a radical theory to say the least. My friend writes:

Of course, I’m more than dubious about this hollow Earth stuff, but here’s an interesting conundrum to contemplate. Given Earth’s current gravity, is it really possible that dinosaurs were able to get as large as they did? Why aren’t land creatures today no larger than an elephant, which weighs a fraction of a T-Rex or other gigantic dinosaur? Did Earth have less gravity at one time? If so, how?

To which I reply:

I can’t speak to that one — it really IS interesting. I just think the accepted theory of the formation of the planets is so overwhelmingly compelling that a hollow Earth — or any other phenomenon that would result in a significant change in the force of gravity at the Earth’s surface — would be extremely hard to buy. Remember also that the dinosaurs were here only 65 million years ago, which is fairly recent in geologic time; almost 99% of the four-billion-year life of the Earth was before that time.

Anyway, I hate to sound like I have no intellectual curiosity, but my focus at this point in my life is more on the present. Check out this piece on the politics of global warming.  I’m very worried that power politics is in the process of winning out over science, and that we really are running headlong to the ruination of this planet. I’m afraid this stuff is getting completely out of hand.