History Recap / DinosaursS04E07ChangingNature

* DownerEnding: And how! After the efforts to take care of the excessive growth of cider poppies results in all plant life on the planet being killed, attempts to make plants grow again leads to the Ice Age, ensuring that the dinosaurs including the Sinclairs will die from any mix of starvation, chilling temperatures, and lack of oxygen. It's also implied, though not confirmed onscreen, [[KillThemAll that both the mammals and cavepeople are also going to perish due to the dinosaurs' stupidity.]]

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: The WESAYSO corporation building a wax fruit factory over the Bunch Beetles mating ground and sprays them with insecticide, causing the entire species to become extinct, making Stan the LastOfHisKind. The company also kills the cider poppies with defoliant, but also destroys all plant life, resulting in a famine. Mr. Richfield tries to make it rain by making clouds; setting off a bunch of volcanoes by dropping bombs in them. Soon, the thick clouds cover the entire planet, including the Sun, thus causing temperatures to drop dramatically. On the news, Howard Handupme reports that it would be tens of thousands of years before the Sun shines again, creating the Ice Age.

** Also, if you want to get technical, Howard has the first lines of this episode to announce the Bunch Beetle migration and the last where he says good-bye to his viewers, both in the show and in real life, for the final time.

* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Zigzagged. When Charlene goes on TV to blame WESAYSO for the extinction of the Bunch Beetle and the cider poppy crisis, she succeeds in turning public opinion against the corporation. When Earl undermines her efforts, Mr. Richfield gets the idea of making Earl the face of WESAYSO's attempts to deal with the issue, allowing them to rehabilitate their reputation with the public. By the end of the episodes, dinosaurs are purchasing WESAYSO products in droves to stave off the oncoming cold.

* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: The WESAYSO corporation building a wax fruit factory over the Bunch Beetles mating ground and sprays them with insecticide, causing the entire species to become extinct, making Stan the LastOfHisKind. The company also kills the cider poppies with defoliant, but also destroys all plant life, resulting in a famine. Mr. Richfield tries to make it rain by making clouds; setting off a bunch of volcanoes by dropping bombs in them. Soon, the thick clouds cover the entire planet, including the Sun, thus causing temperatures to drop dramatically.

** The first episode has Howard Handumpe cover a news report about the potential extinction of the dinosaurs thanks to an asteroid. Here, Howard announces that the end of the dinosaurs is near thanks to an Ice Age.

* DownerEnding: And how! After the efforts to take care of the excessive growth of cider poppies results in all plant life on the planet being killed, attempts to make plants grow again leads to the Ice Age, ensuring that the dinosaurs including the Sinclairs will die from any mix of starvation, chilling temperatures, and lack of oxygen. It's also implied, though not confirmed onscreen, that both the mammals and cavepeople are also going to perish due to the dinosaurs' stupidity.

* DownerEnding: And how! After the efforts to take care of the excessive growth of cider poppies results in all plant life on the planet being killed, attempts to make plants grow again leads to the Ice Age, ensuring that the dinosaurs including the Sinclairs will die from any mix of starvation, chilling temperatures, and lack of oxygen.

* GoshDangItToHeck: Played straight and averted within a couple of minutes. When Earl and Roy ask Mr. Richfield about what to do about the now-destroyed plant life, he responds with "How the heck should ''I'' know?". A couple of sentences later, Earl describes Richfield's plan to drop bombs into volcanos as "unleashing the holy fires of Hell".

* DarkestHour: Of the entire series as explained below.

* TooDumbToLive: The dinosaurs themselves brought upon their own extinction (see TheDinosaursHadItComing above) as Earl and Richfield prioritize economic progress over the environment. In the end, the earth is void of plant life and becomes a frozen wasteland where snow is falling, and the sun won't shine for tens of thousands of years to come. Earl does realize he made a fatal mistake that doomed him and his whole family. Richfield, however, overlooks the fact that he'll perish from freezing temperatures and starvation all because he's become exponentially richer from extorting the extinction of dinosaurs by forcing them to pay hard cash for heating supplies. He's last seen swimming in his cash not knowing how to spend it.

In the GrandFinale of ''Series/{{Dinosaurs}}'', the Sinclairs are awaiting the arrival of the Bunch Beetles, who always fly into the area on May 14, bringing color to the sky and also eating cider poppies that would otherwise grow out of control without them. However, the Bunch Beetles don't show up (Ethyl notes that they've never been late before). A few days later, cider poppies have grown out of control, covering most of the Sinclair household. One Bunch Beetle, Stan, actually shows up, informing them that the babies eat the cider poppies and that he's lost on his way to the swamp to find a mate. Charlene takes him to the swamp, only to find that [=WESAYSO=] tore down the swamp to make a wax fruit factory and sprayed all Bunch Beetles to their death, making Stan the final surviving Bunch Beetle.

Charlene and Stan appear on the news to report on what was happening, which gets Mr. Richfield and his boss worried, but when Earl appears on the news to defend [=WESAYSO=] and progress, Richfield gets the idea to start a task force that would take attention away from their troubles, knowing well that he can get Earl to volunteer to run the task force. Poison is sprayed on the cider poppies, but it also manages to kill off all plant life on Earth. Needing plants to grow in order to survive, Mr. Richfield knows that plants will grow when it rains and figures that rain comes whenever volcanoes go off, so he has bombs thrown into volcanoes to get plenty of rain. Earl temporarily suggests they reconsider, since the last plan worked too well, but gives his approval when Richfield tells him it's no time to mess with progress. Instead of rain, however, the volcanoes produce snow, leading to the ice age.

When Earl calls Richfield, he finds that Richfield sees it as a good thing, because now [=WESAYSO=] is making a profit in blankets, heaters, hot cocoa, and other things to keep warm, missing the point that the world is coming to an end and only caring about his money. Meanwhile, Earl explains to his family what he's learned, and they explain what's happening to the Baby, stating that no matter what happens, they'll always be a family.

** The first episode has Howard Handumpe cover a news report about the potential extinction of the dinosaurs thanks to an asteroid. Here, Howard announces that the end of the dinosaurs is near thanks to an ice age.
** Also, if you want to get technical, Howard has the first lines of this episode to announce the Bunch Beetle migration and the last where he says goodbye to his viewers, both in the show and in real life, for the final time.

* DownerEnding: And how! After the efforts to take care of the excessive growth of cider poppies results in all plant life on the planet killed, attempts to make plants grow again leads to the ice age, ensuring that the dinosaurs including the Sinclairs will die from any mix of starvation, chilling temperatures and lack of oxygen.

* FromBadToWorse: First, all but one Bunch Beetles are wiped out by the WESAYSO Corporation to built a wax fruit on their breeding ground, causing the cider poppies to grow out of control. Then all the plants are killed by the poison used to kill the cider poppies. And finally, in an attempt to revive the plants, the dinosaurs dropped bombs on volcanoes to create clouds, only to create even denser clouds that block out the sun, provoking the ice age and dooming everyone.

* GoshDangItToHeck: Played straight and averted within a couple of minutes. When Earl and Roy ask Mr. Richfield about what to do about the now-destroyed plant line, he responds with "How the heck should ''I'' know?". A couple of sentences later, Earl describes Richfield's plan to drop bombs into volcanos as "unleashing the holy fires of Hell".

* KarmaHoudini: While Earl gets (and eventually, accepts) the blame for approving of poisoning plant life and causing the ice age, it is really the fault of Mr. Richfield and [=WESAYSO=]. [=WESAYSO=] is responsible for killing off the Bunch Beetles, while Mr. Richfield forms a task force just to keep their troubles away, volunteering Earl to lead so he'll get the blame, and the Ice Age succeeds in bringing profits to the company. Richfield doesn't even care about the world coming to an end, since he only cares about the money he's making. The public doesn't realize that [=WESAYSO=] organized a task force, evident when Earl declines to say what company provided the defoliant. We all know Richfield can only enjoy his earning for so long once the ice age claims his customers and he won't be alive enough to really enjoy his earnings. So yeah, no ''on screen'' karma, but a nice thought to know he'll own up in the end.

* TooDumbToLive: The dinosaurs themselves brought upon their own extinction (see TheDinosaursHadItComing above) as Earl and Richfield prioritize economic progress over the environment. In the end, the earth is void of plant life and becomes a frozen wasteland where snow is falling and the sun won't shine for tens of thousands of years to come. Earl does realize he made a fatal mistake that doomed him and his whole family. Richfield however overlooks the fact that he'll perish from freezing temperatures and starvation all because he's become exponentially richer from extorting the extinction of dinosaurs by forcing them to pay hard cash for heating supplies. He's last seen swimming in his cash not knowing how to spend it.

->''"And taking a look at the long-range forecast, continued snow, darkness, and extreme cold. This is Howard Handupme. Good night... goodbye."''

* TheDinosaursHadItComing: Both Earl and [=WESAYSO=] are ultimately responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs, first by causing the Bunch Beetles' extinction, killing all plant life and then causing an ice age accompanied by smoke clouds.

* GlacialApocalypse: This is the end result of the attempts to fix nature: the clouds from the volcanoes bring about snow, darkness and extreme cold for thousands of years.

* KarmaHoudini: While Earl gets (and eventually, accepts) the blame for approving of poisoning plant life and causing the ice age, it is really the fault of Mr. Richfield and [=WESAYSO=]. [=WESAYSO=] is responsible for killing off the Bunch Beetles, while Mr. Richfield forms a task force just to keep their troubles away, volunteering Earl to lead so he'll get the blame, and the Ice Age succeeds in bringing profits to the company. Richfield doesn't even care about the world coming to an end, since he only cares about the money he's making. The public doesn't realize that [=WESAYSO=] organized a task force, evident when Earl declines to say what company provided the Difoliant (poison). We all know Richfield can only enjoy his earning for so long once the ice age claims his customers and he won't be alive enough to really enjoy his earnings. So yeah, no ''on screen'' karma, but a nice thought to know he'll own up in the end.

* BookEnds: The first episode has Howard Handumpe cover a news report about the potential extinction of the dinosaurs thanks to an asteroid. Here, Howard announces that the end of the dinosaurs is near thanks to an ice age.

** When Charlene is on TV talking about the plight of the Bunch Beetles, Earl interrupts and tries to discredit her, which gives Mr. Richfield the idea of making Earl the head of the task force.

* GlacialApocalypse: The end result of the attempts to fix nature.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: Throughout the series, Richfield has threatened to kill Earl and his entire family. Well, this episode makes that prophecy come true, even if he wasn’t intending to do it.
** The cold open show how misguided Earl's faith in technological progress is when his high-tech new barbecue burns the family's food to a crisp and ruins their cookout.
* FromBadToWorse: First, all but one Bunch Beetles are wiped out by the WESAYSO Corporation to built a wax fruit on their breeding ground, causing the cider poppies to grow out of control. Then all the plants are killed by the poison used to kill the cider poppies. And finally, in an attempt to revive the plants, the dinosaurs dropped bomb on volcanoes to create clouds, only to create even denser clouds that block out the sun, provoking the ice age and dooming everyone.

* BookEnds: The first episode has Howard Handumpe cover a news report about the potential extinction of the dinosaurs. Here, Howard announces that the end of the dinosaurs is near thanks to an ice age.