The Effects of switching Land and Ocean on Earth
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| Earth's Land and Oceans Switched Places |
The Planet Blue
We call Earth the blue planet for a highly technical reason. It's blue. Since we're stating the obvious, I might as well add that all the blue comes from water. More than 70% of the Earth is covered with water, and that massive amount of H20 is one of the main reasons life exists on this planet.
A Speculative Situation
What if that wasn't the case? Imagine if those ratios were flipped and land made up 71% of our planet's surface. How would it affect the climate? Would humans as a species even exist in a world so radically different from our own?
For the sake of easy map drawing, let's say it was a direct one-to-one flip. Everywhere there's land, there's water, and vice versa. The Atlantic Ocean, the continent of Atlantica, the Great Lakes, the great islands. Also, I'd suppose we'd have to change the name of this planet to Aqua or something. Now that that's out of the way, let's talk about what the ocean can do for you.
Water's Role in the Climate
Planet Earth owes its relatively temperate climate to several factors, and its abundance of water is one of them. Every year, more than 15 and a half billion gallons of water evaporate from the world's oceans, taking a lot of heat with it. Think of oceanic evaporation as the planet sweating and you get the basic idea.
Water is also much better at absorbing heat than land is, which is why coastal regions tend to have a more moderate climate than inland areas at the same latitude. Both of these statements would be true on planet Aqua, but the reduction in water drastically limits their effectiveness. Solid ground prefers to reflect heat instead of absorbing it, turning the land above into a veritable oven.
While evaporation would still occur in the lakes and oceans, less surface water naturally means less heat is lost through that method. While higher temperatures would translate to more substantial rainfall in coastal regions, water would be scarce across most of the vast continents. If regular rainfall has trouble getting to parts of Texas now, how much would be able to reach the middle of the Pacific desert?
Most of Aqua's surface would have more in common with the Sahara than any place you might want to visit. The majority of terrestrial plant life would find itself restricted to narrow strips of rainforest hugging the shoreline.
The Effect on the Climate
We all remember learning about photosynthesis in school. Plants absorb water and carbon dioxide and process it into oxygen and glucose. Without photosynthesis, animals like cows, birds, and, well, us couldn't exist. Somewhere between 50 and 70% of Earth's oxygen comes from aquatic plants, algae, and kelp may seem slimy and gross, but are an essential part of our planet's ecosystem.
Take away most of the water, and those plants go with it. Since those vast deserts aren't exactly going to make up the difference. The result is a planet with much less oxygen and much more carbon dioxide. This would have two main effects. One is that it would be much harder to breathe on the planet's surface. It would be like the entire world existed above 12,000ft. The higher levels of CO2, meanwhile, would only serve to further increase Aqua's high temperature.
The time between ice ages and the length of interglacial periods would be much greater. Additionally, the effects of air pollution on Aqua's climate would be felt much sooner than on Earth. The increased temperatures and reduced oxygen would naturally have a profound effect on whatever life develops on the planet.
The Effect on Wildlife
While fish might be still recognizable as fish, you aren't going to see very many elephants stomping around Aqua's surface. In fact, there'd be very few large animals at all. Thanks to the reduced oxygen, as they did on Earth. Cold blooded reptiles would likely adapt well to desert conditions. Amphibians would exist in the coastal regions and as small burrowing creatures in the desert plains. Temperatures in these regions would vary widely between night and day, as they would in any desert on Earth.
While reptiles, insects, and arachnids can make do, more complex creatures would be in trouble. Mammals, if they exist, would find themselves in a similar situation to Aqua's reptiles. Birds as we know them might not exist at all, potentially losing their place to flying reptiles.
Larger animals would need to evolve methods for conserving the water they drink, such as the fatty hump on a camel's back. The reduced plant life would result in a higher percentage of predators. This, in turn, means that the comparatively few herbivores would need to develop natural defenses to keep themselves from being hunted to extinction. Horns, spines, camouflage, and armored plating would become the rule on Aqua's hostile surface. Don't expect to find anything resembling a gazelle on this barren world. But animals resembling armadillos or small rhinos wouldn't be out of the question.
Geological Effects
So far, I've been focusing on how losing the ocean would alter the planet's ecosystem. What about how it would change the planet itself? For starters, the days would be a little longer due to the mass of all that additional land we suddenly have to deal with.
Now, that isn't the good part. I was getting to just a fun fact that throws another variable into Aqua's evolutionary tree. The fun part is all the earthquakes and volcanoes you see, the oceans help to keep the Earth's tectonic plates at least somewhat steady. With that water almost gone, the plates are free to scrape together to their heart's content. As a result, Aqua can expect much more frequent and more extreme earthquakes and volcanoes than her cousin Earth.
Possible Aquatic Life
So I've covered the climate, the animals, and even how ditching the ocean would affect the planet itself. But what about the people? Assuming humans or something similar to us could survive on Aqua at all, what would they be like? Where would they live?
Well, they probably wouldn't look very much like humans. Remember, life on Aqua has evolved to survive its harsh environment. If any species is going to survive long enough to develop a civilization, it'll most likely need at least some of the traits I mentioned above.
Given their dominance on Aqua's surface, reptiles are the best bet for developing intelligence. While these lizard men, let's call them Lizardos, would evolve to survive in the desert, that doesn't automatically mean they would want to remain there forever. It's reasonably safe to assume the inhabitants of Aqua would build their homes in many of the same places humans would find desirable.
Most Lizardo civilization would be focused around the few rivers and oceans dotting Aqua's surface. Rivers would be a crucial tool in both agriculture and transportation. And the regular rainfall experienced by the coastal areas makes them ideal for growing crops and supporting large cities.
Historically, humans have competed fiercely over the control of valuable rivers, ports, and farmland. It's only natural to assume that the same would be true in a world where all of those things are few and far between. The lack of natural boundaries would make it easier for Lizardos to spread across the planet. Holding on to any colonized land, however, would be easier said than done.
From the Stone Age to the invention of the railroad, the fastest way to get anywhere was by boat. Aqua's vast expanses of desert would prove to be a much more significant barrier than Earth's oceans ever were. Ships cross the sea all the time, but how many of you are interested in crossing the Sahara desert? It can be done, but it isn't fun, easy, or practical.
On our version of Earth, that boundary effectively split Africa into two separate continents. On Aqua, the vast deserts would play the same role. Societies might spring up on the shores of the Eurasian Ocean, and they might even be interconnected. But contact with civilizations along the North American Sea would always be rare and difficult. The other seas would remain a mysterious and distant land, well into the Lizardo equivalent of the 20th century. Only with the advent of modern aircraft would intersea travel become practical, and societies that had evolved separately for thousands of years could finally interact.
What Would Have Occurred...
But at the end of the day, these are all just guesses. What do you think the world would be like if it were only 20% ocean? Let me know down in the comments.
THANKS FOR READING !
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