One set of phenomena I think needs to be studied has to do with Earth's water inventory. This involves ocean rise and glaciation/deglatiation. for which significant but incomplete data exist. As ice caps retreat, ocean levels should rise, but they have not risen enough to compensate for retreating ice caps and glaciers. By assuming that Earth is billions of years old, it is easy to look at the volume of water on Earth and declare consistency. However, if Earth's outer atmosphere allows some molecules of water vapor (or, more likely, its components and other gases) to migrate to decreasingly dense regions farther and farther from Earth's gravitational pull, the quantity of water on Earth gradually depletes. Nitrogen is the major component of Earth's atmosphere, and may be measurable over time somehow. Hydrogen apparently essentially flows into and out of Earth's upper atmosphere (above the magnetosphere, particularly), so it may be difficult to measure as well. Oxygen may be more easily measurable as an element, though I lack the expertise to explain how to explain changes over thousands of years. However, water can be measured by considering the volume locked in the icecaps at peak glaciation in the (last, if it turns out there were more than one) Ice Age; ocean levels then; and the volume of ice and ocean levels today. (More specifics pertain that would refine the measurements.) My studies on these lines indicate a significant loss of water within the past few thousand years. What I call anecdotal evidence, that includes population movements and ancient accounts in which water and weather are peripheral to the narrative, is consistent with a general desiccation. Similarly, geological evidence from all over the world--lost river/lake systems, desertification, e.g.) indicate wetter environments in the past than exist today. Starting without prejudice as to either the age of Earth, or a change in Earth's water inventory, then examining the multiple lines of evidence, the preponderance of evidence points to a significant, measurable loss of Earth's water over the past 5-10,000 years. Implications and projections further into the past can be proposed, and should be consistent with the observed data. It's what the Scientific Method is about.
One set of phenomena I think needs to be studied has to do with Earth's water inventory. This involves ocean rise and glaciation/deglatiation. for which significant but incomplete data exist. As ice caps retreat, ocean levels should rise, but they have not risen enough to compensate for retreating ice caps and glaciers. By assuming that Earth is billions of years old, it is easy to look at the volume of water on Earth and declare consistency. However, if Earth's outer atmosphere allows some molecules of water vapor (or, more likely, its components and other gases) to migrate to decreasingly dense regions farther and farther from Earth's gravitational pull, the quantity of water on Earth gradually depletes. Nitrogen is the major component of Earth's atmosphere, and may be measurable over time somehow. Hydrogen apparently essentially flows into and out of Earth's upper atmosphere (above the magnetosphere, particularly), so it may be difficult to measure as well. Oxygen may be more easily measurable as an element, though I lack the expertise to explain how to explain changes over thousands of years. However, water can be measured by considering the volume locked in the icecaps at peak glaciation in the (last, if it turns out there were more than one) Ice Age; ocean levels then; and the volume of ice and ocean levels today. (More specifics pertain that would refine the measurements.) My studies on these lines indicate a significant loss of water within the past few thousand years. What I call anecdotal evidence, that includes population movements and ancient accounts in which water and weather are peripheral to the narrative, is consistent with a general desiccation. Similarly, geological evidence from all over the world--lost river/lake systems, desertification, e.g.) indicate wetter environments in the past than exist today. Starting without prejudice as to either the age of Earth, or a change in Earth's water inventory, then examining the multiple lines of evidence, the preponderance of evidence points to a significant, measurable loss of Earth's water over the past 5-10,000 years. Implications and projections further into the past can be proposed, and should be consistent with the observed data. It's what the Scientific Method is about.