Earth Changes

Survival Related                     

                   The following are science related notes of mine from two or three years ago that still seem pertinent. They could be called survival related. 
                   

                     We can be alert. Wecan learn. WE can adapt . We can survive and give our selves and others a better chance to thrive. We can act. To our list of appropriate actions we can benefit by adding co-operation collaboration, and love of reality. Yes "love" is active.

                    

                A very few years ago a 30,000 year old, non-dangerous, virus was revived. An 8 million year old virus is said to have been revived too. Recent studies suggest that some very old antibiotic resistant are reviving! Holy Moly! Still we have learned from the covid 19 pandemic and we have begun to realize that we have some more rapid Earth changes to adapt to.

Adaptations: 

                   We are making some adaptations to expected changes in the agricultural situation. Some of those changes may be so big that some of us may find ourselves growing wheat where bananas once grew. Some experts have been collecting and saving seeds and storing them in safe places. They expect that we may need them to replace lost seed and lost harvests. They suspect that some Earth changes now in progress may be so great as to lead crops that were once grown on one continent may no longer grow well there and need to be grown on another continent. Changes may not be that great in our time, but it looks like they will be big enough to call for major adaptations. We may see changes large enough to cause significant movements of crops and of people.

                    We may find it life-saving to have seeds which will produce crops where the people are. A large and famous sites set up to safely store seed for our use was once called the Doomsday Vault. That vault adapted to safely preserve seed in the far north was invaded by destructive melt water. Melting of snow, ice, and permafrost is melting faster than many have expected and has brought on the need for adaptations. We can benefit by more learning an better actions right now.

Useful Action:                 

  You can take useful action now by checking out our situation now and consider possible adaptations. It seems for enough valor to better understand what is happening to our Earth which will effect our social, economic, political and health situation much more and more rapidly than we have learned to expect. Not all is bad different parts of  our Earth are changing indifferent ways, perhaps many for the better. Some say that the expected happenings are mostly neither good nor bad, but just are.

                    Change seems to be a constant, but the changes of today are happening faster than they have in several hundred years. So expect changes to continue to quicken. It may be well to consider how we shall take care of ourselves. Some of us have been learning a lot and developing adaptive practices. But, perhaps most of us are not doing enough. More of us may come to suffer and die in rather short order. We speak of global warming, but parts of the globe may experience freezing which it has not seen in  a thousand years. Flooding and drying are already in the news.

                    A lot is happening which many of us have chosen to ignore. More metals are being released into our air and water. Mercury is among them. Mercury is among them. Mercury is toxic and causes brain damage. It accumulates in fish, fowl, cattle, etc. Once it gets into us it is difficult to get rid of. We have experience with mercury, but seem to be coming to experience much more than usual. We use seaweed for many things including fertilizer. We also use it to make ice-cream. Mercury accumulates in seaweed, I'm told. It is possible to adapt to the situation without taking ice-cream from kids and pregnant mothers. Our we could just have a generation of brain damaged ice-cream eaters. One of us or a few of us cannot do everything, but every one can do something and there are still a lot of us.

Adapt:                   

                 We can do little to effect the massive Earth changes occurring now. But we can consider how we shall adapt to them. We can survive. We may even thrive. We are the people responsible for us. We can help our children to a better chance to learn and thrive.

                    Frozen fungi spore, bacteria, virus, and and more is being released after being  frozen for 75 years, for 500 years, a 1,000 years, 10,000 years. Some life forms are reviving after being froze for 20,000 years, and 30, 40, and 50 thousand years of frozen sleep! Many are reviving! I could be wrong. Check it out for yourself and tell us about it. I believe that most of the reviving life is of no direct danger to us, even when they are very much alive. Some may prove to be of great value to us! A few others can kill us.

                We need to help each other to keep track of what researchers are learning now However, a very few years ago researchers experimenters experienced reviving a virus, in laboratory conditions, which had be frozen for more than 30,000 years. It was one which almost certainly was harmless to humans.

Get clear about that which we can do:                

    We can do much to protect ourselves, our children, and our children's children. We can get clear about that which we can do. We all have some common aims. We all have some useful information. We each have have some skill. Most of us have some knowledge of and experience with co-operation. We can use that knowledge and experience to establish a conversation about how we can collaborate in adapting to these faster than usual Earth changes. We can share information about the nature of those changes and of how we can best adapt to them. An ongoing dialogue makes our sharing and co-operation more effective. With co-operation we can do a lot; with co-operative origination we can do more. Family, friends, and neighbors can share information and even work together. We can connect with students of the problem. We could better understand the nature of the related problems by finding out what sociologist and scientists are are saying about them. We can clarify the questions we have. Questions like: What can we do with large undocumented migrations across national borders by people escaping droughts, floods, hunger? Or, How are such migrations likely to effect us right here? What can we do avoid bad effects from such migration?

                Climate changes and some other Earth changes have become more extreme than we have expected or experienced and are now expected to continue and worsen. Canada may soon have the best far north seaports seen in our history. The are experiencing competition from Russia. The south of Canada and Russia may become excellent places to grow tropical and semi-tropical fruit. should that happen what may happen to their wheat crops?

                I'll repeat some of that which know about that which is happening. For example, much of our Earth's surface is permafrost. Permafrost is what we call earth which has long been frozen to great depths. It is mixed with water and a lot of vegetable matter and other stuff. Permafrost has now melted more than it ever has in our history and longer

                 A while back we found that in shallow seas and not so shallow seas at their bottom there is soil and plant matter which has frozen deeply like permafrost. We believe that it has been frozen there for long and long. Now we find that it is melting quickly and releasing large amounts of methane gas and much else. The gases are bubbling up and mixing up with our air. Methane burns well. It does not seem likely that our sea or air will catch fire. You may hear of some cases. However co2, virus, bacteria, fungus heavy metals and more are being released. Much of the virus, bacteria, and fungus has revived and so is alive!

                Isn't this fun? It seems time to learn more. The sun shines east and the sun shines west. The sun shines best on that part of Earth tipped or turned most toward that good old sun. All the Earth is effected, each part a bit differently. The Earth tips, turns, spins, and wobbles continually. Over time the orientation of the Earth continues to change. The tip and wobble seem to change more and effect us more notably. The tip we are now experiencing is one of the more extreme for a long time and may continue for, what seems to us, a long time. We might take this as a learning experience. We could learn to better use our ability to adapt.

                We know there are massive emissions of co2 and methane here now and increasing! At this same time ancient and new sources of disease are being released. So, we may expect more health problems. The recent outbreak in covid virus could be called an early practice for what is to come. We have some learning to do. We have preparing to do. We have adapting to. We really have to do much of this together.                                                  

What is going on:                

Each one of us is limited I what we can do, but every one of us can come to understand more about what is going on. Fault finding and name calling does not help. Increased awareness can usually be very helpful, even life saving. No one can do everything. Each person can do something. Each doing is helpful. Even it is mistaken doing, it may inform many.

                There is a lot to learn just about melting and thawing. Northern ice in contact with sea water is melting and releasing ancient matter into the sea. Mercury is being released. Mercury accumulates in plants and animals and often does them harm. Some call us top feeders. We eat plants and animals. We eat fish and fish accumulate mercury from sea life. The process can do us greater greater harm. We can find out, or figure out, what to do bout that. By doing that promptly we prevent pain, sorrow, and death. We ought to share that which find out and figure out.

                There is plenty you and I can do right now.

                I the long run, with luck, we can help our interested youth to learn more about chemistry than we did. We could learn critical bit right now. There is a lot to learn much of it is interesting, useful, and good for us. There is a lot of chemistry going on in our sea and atmosphere right now. Whole lot of shakin' goin' on.

                    Methane and other stuff, being released mostly from melting permafrost, can be made useful. Methane is the main part of natural gas widely used for cooking and heating. Right now most of it is moving into our atmosphere and the air we breathe. It is colorless, odorless, and suffocating. Some say that it has already begun the suffocation of some of us. The fact is that the percentage of our air which is methane is increasing. I am pretty sure that our sky will not burn. However, I do remember it being called swamp gas and causing mysterious fires in swamps.

                Some of us know that things are mostly doings and most of us believe that one thing leads to another. Still we have a lot to learn, much of it pleasantly exciting and wonderous.

                We already know a lot that seems somewhat interesting. We are pretty sure that burning releases stuff. We have seen smoke rise from a fire. Old wives that some woods released a lot of soot which blackened their kettles and more.  the burning of gas, oil and wood sends soot into the atmosphere. Volcanic activity may do the same. What goes up must come down. A significant amount of that black soot comes down on white snow and ice. It may not blacken the ice and snow but it can darken them. The darker they get the more heat from the sun they absorb and then more they melt. The melt runoff mostly goes into the sea. That runoff can do more than raise the level of the sea. There are books about that; Youn Tube videos too. Oh, much of this process, effects permafrost too, and methane that not only traps sunlight to warm our atmosphere and also suffocates us. Ah, the wonders of chemistry!

                Haven't we heard that methane burns releasing co2, our biggest greenhouse gas. Greenhouse gases lead to warming of the earth which leads to more rapid melting of our snow, ice, and permafrost. Which continues a great round of cause and effect. Many of us have heard the saying, "don't" mess with mother nature." The balance of nature is to be protected because it helps us to a safe and comfortable life. But there are other forces beyond humanity which effects that balance too. So humans need to adapt to changes which they cannot control.

                So what can we do to help our youth to a comfortable life or at least to survive? Talk with another or others about our Earth condition and situation. There is a "comments" app available just below this essay. Use it to make suggestions, ask questions, tell us something interesting and useful, say something to help me to correct the errors and mistakes I have made in writing  this essay, or make a comment of some kind. We need all the help we can get.

                I will publish this and will write more soon along similar lines. I am nearly praying for some volunteer proof reading type help. Even my spell check app has disappeared.

                Thank you for reading.

                                                                                             rcs