Short essays on a variety of topics including: health, Earth, healthcare, food, science, public health, education, and travel. Some videos too. Videos include film and movies. and, maybe, an occasional book review. There is an "Affirmations Page" in the left-hand column. This may be a place for some discussion of language,
Monday, June 12, 2023
We Have a Lot to Learn
Friday, May 5, 2023
We Have Much to Learn About the Sun
Wednesday, April 5, 2023
Climate Changes: Impacts and Your Adaptations
Tuesday, February 21, 2023
Earth Changes Contiued
More than virus was the name on a draft of this post begun some time ago.
We see some thought provoking happenigs and dongs these days. For example we find that a few expert observers, a few experience men and women have their eyes on happenings in the artic and sub-artic around what we call the north pole. Other expert experienced obsrvers have doing the same around the south pole. They were saying that happenings they were happening more than twice as other world wide changes. Now most are saying three times as fast.
As we have heard, that includes global warming. That means that the snow and very large quantities of ice and permafrost are melting very fast. Our experts tell that these happenings at the poles have many world wide effects. They are telling us that Earth changes are happening quickly and will continue to do so. A look at the nightly news suggests that they are not the only ones to think so. Those managing the news usually practics keeping us interested while keeping us calm. Now in the news we are hereing more and more about Earth changes that are not strickly calming.
We more of us lived east of our grear Mississippi River and people heard the words "The water is ten feet high and rising" most understood that it was time to consider the nearest high land or a very good boat. Our experts are repeating words of comparable meaning. However, they have so much to say about happenings so large and changing so fast that it is not easy to figure out exactly what they are trying to tells. Also we have so lost contact with those we trust well, that we do not trust. We don't really trust that there has been a dumbing of Americans.
Our well-being is likely to suffer major disturbance if we do not get valuable information correctly soon. Sorry for this little rant, but it may turn out to be very important for us to make vital adaptations mutually soon. We may suffer if we do not begin co-operative adaptations soon.
I the first part of this essay I began to report a bit of what seems important to me. Its not news. Now there are many more reports on TV, online, and elsewhere. We need to judge the import and value to us of what we are. We need to make the best judgement we can. We may or may not be the greatest cause of what is happening, but as usual we are the ones who need to adapt. We do not have to do anything, even so, I believe that we ought to do something. Something bigger seems tobe happening than just flooding our homestead and crops.
We need to become more aware of what is going on so that we can consider what we had best do.
Many thoughtful persons now saying that we have begun to experience bigger and faster changes than we ever have and that we may continue to experience them so long as we live. Bigger changes are happening in shorter periods of time. Types of changes we may never heard of have begun. We still have time to learn more and I believe that it is never to late to do something. Still it is best when we can make choices that are truly useful. To do so it seems necesary to be more aware of what is happening and what are to be likely results.
It is nice to know that climate changes are far from being our fault. Still it is probably true that we have made them worse. It may be time to put thoughts of blame aside. It may be time to find ways to co-operate with others to adapt to changes. Some, of the changes underway may prove more than a little dangerous. So, effective adaptation may be very importatant to the well-bing of you and yours and the rest of us.
There is that which can do andought to do. We have learned to adapt to much of that which we cannot change. We can give the the young a better chance to survive and to thrive.
Let's begin to look at some of the troublesome happenings which have begun to cross our path. To avoid overwhelming myself and perhaps I am restricting my self to the results of the polar melting and thawing which continues to increase.
As we have noted, as ice and permafrost thaws stuff is being released. Some of that stuff seems neithe good nor bad. Some are likely to prove very useful, much will take adapting to, a little will be deadly. I have mentioned what some of that stuff is. You can find out more.
Melting ice has raised the sea level and will raise it more. Some of the rise may come suddenly. Estimates of how much sea level will rise are a vailable. A small percentag of islanders have left their homes. People on low lying islands and othes with sea front are properties are already making adaptations. Some authorities have said that some adaotations may be to little or to late. The rise of the sea is still quite slow.
However, releases from thawing ice and especially thawing permafrost are looking fast to many. Some 75years ago some old anthrax was released from thawing permafrost. Much permafrost is made up mostly of soaking wet plant mater frozen solid, often may yards down. The perma- in permafrost suggests that many did not expect it to thaw. It is. Some is thawing that has been frozen solid for a very, very long time. Some has thawed to revial a boy and about 20 raindeer of times past.
Over the years we have buried radioactive waste beneath ice and permafrost. Some has been reported as exposed. By now I expect there has been more. Perhaps you know someone who can check this out.
Some ancient antibiotic resistant bacteria is reviviving as it is being released from melting ice and permfrost. No one is stopping that release, and other bacteria are being revived. It is up to us to adapt. I am not providing the proof of my assertions here and not even much evidence; I leave that up to you. I hope that you will find a way to share your findings with us. We have been losing our comments apps on associated blogs. I hope that you will find the comments app here workble.
Happenings keep happening. Climate changes which are bigger than we are used to and coming much faster than usual. There is also evidence of other Earth changes beging to ocurr which are doing so more quickly than usual. We have much to deal with and much adapting to do. I hope that we are beginning to practice are abilities for colaboration and cooperation a bit more effectively.
We have made changes to our environment without much forethought. We have even used drugs and medicens without much consideration of their effcts. We call those effects side-effects of little importants. The doings of mankind have important effects. However, there are other hapenings that are large and important and have little to do with humanity. Some of those happenings were ocurring from deep within the Earth before the was a human to set foot on Earth. Other happenings effecting us and our Earth come from the Sun and the solar system others for the Milky Way the galecie i which our solar systen revolves, others come for God knows where. It is our part to adapt. We have the mirical of self awareness to aid us. We can be conscious of that which is occurring around us.
Monday, February 13, 2023
Earth Changes
Survival Related
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
Saturday, January 7, 2023
Astronomy 0.001
Science is among our subjects here and astronomy is certainly a science even if it is often up in the stars. This is just a little piece to warn you that I expect to try to write a bit more about it at a later date.
I am new to the subject so we will be learning together and you may teach me more than I teach you. I am finding out that can be much about cycles. Cycles are predictive. Prediction is a part of science. We have a way to tell the future! But then, doesn't a calendar tell the future, sort of?
Our Earth moves through a 26,000 year and is half of 52,000 cycle approximately. The 52,000 year seems to be called the Great Year. Maybe we can find out what the cycle predicts and may help to predict. If you know something about please tell us as much as you can. You can use the "comments" section below.
This cycle is marked by the precession of the equinoxes. In this cycle the wobble of our Earth's axis draws a counter-clockwise circle in the heavens (so to speak) and points to different north stars in the process. If there were a pole at, say, the north pole and if you were watching it for decades it may seem to wobble. This wobble makes seasonal contrast more extreme in one hemisphere and lessin the other.
This precession deal is not easy. It seems we could lean a bit from movements of a spinning top. Let me just say for now that precession is a change in the orientation of the rotation axis of a rotating body.
The story of equinox may help our understanding of precession of the of the equinoxes. Humans observed the sunrise discovered that it occurs between two extreme locations at the horizon and eventually noted the midpoint between the two.(what a nice story). Later some realized that this happened on a day when the duration of night and day are practically equal.
The Earth's axis seems to be mostly an imaginary line running through the center of the Earth from one pole to the other. It does not just sit there, it moves around in the form of circles. It is tilted about 24 degrees as it swings around in circles, which include on at each pole. The resulting wobble or tilt causes the seasons. Those changes become greater as one moves from the equator toward the poles.
I would like to know the causes of the changes and happenings noted above. I would like to more of the implications of those changes. I would like to how they can effect the Earth, our world, and me.
rcs
Wednesday, April 20, 2022
One Move Toward a Better World and a Better Earth
RCS Posts. Ecological Science: Running out of Time Documentary on Holistic Management
Become a cowboy and save the Earth and save our world. Become a goat girl and do the same. A shepherd can do it too. Not really a joke.
Learn this man's name. Listen to that which he has to say. Read his books. If you won't do that much, you could learn to stop the bigger asteroids and comets knocking our Earth out of orbit.
Wednesday, July 7, 2021
Plow: There is more to say about plowing
RCS Posts agriculture: Its about the plow. Give it up? Just what is plowing? Its done wonders for millennia.