Wikipedia:Peer review/Future of the Earth/archive1

Future of the Earth

This peer review discussion has been closed.
This article covers the expected future history of the Earth from a purely scientific perspective, while disregarding the potential effects of technological developments or random disasters. I've listed this article for peer review because I'd like to know if there is anything that needs improvement, or if it is missing any topics.

Thank you, RJH (talk) 17:12, 7 October 2009 (UTC)

Finetooth comments : This is fascinating, well-written, stable, and neutral. Very nice job overall. The illustrations are helpful, and the article might benefit from two or three more. (Maybe extroversion vs. introversion? Hydrogen fusion? Or perhaps Image:Venuspioneeruv.jpg to illustrate a supergreenhouse effect?) I have just a few other suggestions. These are the comments of a general reader rather than a scientist.

Article name

• Would it make sense and be slightly more concise to say "History of Earth" and to replace "the Earth" with "Earth" throughout? No one would write "History of the Mars"; should Earth be treated differently?
  • Comment: But this is not an article about the history of the Earth, which would include the last 4.6 billion years. This article is only about the future of Earth. --Leptictidium (mt) 21:00, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Quite right. Every editor needs an editor. I should have said "Future of Earth". Finetooth (talk) 22:32, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Astronomy articles have normally been using "the Earth" rather than "Earth" to avoid the ambiguity. :-) —RJH (talk) 22:02, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

"Earth's future" might be even better. Just a suggestion. Finetooth (talk) 01:06, 21 October 2009 (UTC)

Well, the current name was intended to be in line with History of the Earth. Shrug.—RJH (talk) 23:32, 22 October 2009 (UTC)

Lead image

• I'd suggest adding an image to the upper right-hand corner of the article. Doing this is optional, but I think it looks better and draws the reader in. See Solar System or Earth, for example.
  • Unfortunately I haven't found a striking and suitably licensed image for that purpose.—RJH (talk) 22:02, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

Glaciation

• "glaciation occurs because of astronomical factors in combination with climate feedback mechanisms and plate tectonics" - Wikilink plate tectonics on first use?
• "For example, the eccentricity changes over time cycles of about 100,000 and 400,000 years, with values ranging from less than 0.01 up to 0.05." - Would it be helpful to explain what those values refer to? That is, 0.01 of what? How is eccentricity calculated?
• "However, a global warming period of finite duration will only impact the glaciation cycle for about 5,000 years." - Is that true for all degrees of global warming no matter how large? What is the meaning of "finite duration"? Can you be more specific?

Obliquity

• Would it be helpful to explain obliquity or to link to axial tilt early in this subsection?
• "This stability is achieved because the Moon increased... " - "increases" rather than "increased"?
• "The rotational offset of the tidal bulge exerts a net torque on the Moon... " - Wikilink torque in the caption?

Climate impact

• "As the global temperature of the Earth increases, it will increase the rate of weathering of silicate minerals. This in turn will decrease the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. In another 100 million years, the concentration of CO2 will fall below the critical threshold needed to sustain C3 photosynthesis." - Would it be helpful here to mention a starting point for the timeline? Does "another 100 million years" mean 100 million years from now?
• "the global surface temperature reaches 320 K... " - Wikilink K? Also render in °C and °F for readers who might not be familiar with K?

General

• The images lack alt text, which describes the content of images and charts to readers who can't see them. They are not the same as captions. WP:ALT has details about how to write alt text and where to put it, and you can see current examples of alt text in articles at WP:FAC.

I hope these suggestions prove helpful. If so, please consider reviewing another article, especially one from the PR backlog. That is where I found this one. Finetooth (talk) 02:39, 16 October 2009 (UTC)

Thank you. I've implemented a number of your suggestions and will try to address the remainder.—RJH (talk) 23:29, 22 October 2009 (UTC)