Say What It Is - Say What You Mean - Don't Be A Clean Turd!

Another in a not-so-regular series of posts highlighting nature's nature & 'ain't that odd'
This year's term was "Political Correctness." The winner wrote: "Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rapidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end. "

Fail - Fail Often, Fail Fast -- Persistence

Another in a not-so-regular series of posts highlighting nature's nature & 'ain't that odd'

Fail - Fail Often, Fail Fast

“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.” — Theodore Roosevelt

Success is going down many paths, backing up, redirecting and finding the right route.

The key is to do it while using the least amount of fuel as you can; and don't run out -- persistence.

Climate and Warming Is Natural

Another in a not-so-regular series of posts highlighting nature's nature & 'ain't that odd'
Global Warming & Global Climate.
Climate and warming is natural. The planet has had many cycles and will continue to have many cycles of cold, hot, dry, wet, earthquakes, volcano eruptions, floods, fires, tsunamis, extinctions, extreme solar flairs, space debris collisions, animal creations and other natural ecological evolution.

Yes. Man has had a profound affect on this and the pace. So have other natural things and animals. But man has not solely caused the warming. Of course, Man should act responsibly and minimize his impact and do everything within his power to change his own behavior. But man should not necessarily interfere with nature by trying to save an endangered species, or tumble the cold ocean bottom water to the surface to increase nutrients at the surface, nor create an artificial atmosphere of CO2 on another planet so Man can easily live there, nor should we sequester carbon deep into the ground, nor should we place space mirrors -- we are not God nor should we be the masters of the environment, all things and nature.

The emotions run high on all of these topics, positions and attitudes. At the core of all of this is THE MAN -- it is all about THE MAN not the planet. If you read the core of sustainability definition from 1976 and since, it remains about THE MAN. It remains about saving us, not nature. We say save nature, stop the warming. But it is really about save nature to save Man. Except if we did not save Man nature would still be "saved".

Remember, the planet will keep on changing -- hotter, colder, wetter, dryer etc. The period it is in today is an extremely small nano-second whose current climate just so happens to be ideally suited to THE MAN's growth and evolution. It is a blip; it has not been this way for very long. Naturally, earth will change into a period of extreme hostility -- to THE MAN. But that is not a bad thing for nature, only us.

So ask yourself why sustainability definitions are human-centric and not necessarily good for animals, earth and nature. We define it in our terms. If we were not on this earth, would sustainability even exist? Sustainability of what -- ourselves of course.

The earth has been sustainably changing for 4.5 billion years.

Do the math. If we have existed say for 100,000 years and the earth is 4,500,000,000 years old, why should we try to "preserve" and freeze the earth and all its animals in the state as we know it today for such an infinitesimal blip? Why would this latter current period be "better" say than 1 billion years ago? It isn't nor should it be. It is not man-vs-nature, bad weather, and natural disasters (which are natural evolving events -- which may be "disasters" to THE MAN! but not nature). It is our planet growing and evolving -- naturally.

Like all creatures, we should evolve and live and die as nature continues. But of course, in "THE MAN-centric" definition and view of things, we won't.

So, please do not spout the polar bear is dying, or this natural thing is disappearing, or the sea level is rising. Come clean and tell it like it is. We use these emotional tags to cloak the true issue -- it is all about "THE MAN keeping things the way he wants them and wants to control them.

Go figure!

Good Night From Maine, USA

The Circle of Life -- The Dollar Tree

Another in a not-so-regular series of posts highlighting nature's nature & 'ain't that odd'

A couple hundred million years ago there was the Pangaea. And a couple billion years before that a hostile, hot, fiery and toxic atmosphere. Few organisms lived on earth.

As the Pangaea spread and split, the earth started to become more environmentally friendly to organisms. These organisms prospered and evolved into new plants, insects, mammals and fish.....and humans. Some of the plants produced tiny seeds.

The seeds were spread by animals, water, glaciers and wind to all parts of the world. Some of these seeds germinated into ..... trees.

The trees prospered, grew big, tall and old. They produced millions more seeds for the animals and wind to spread. More trees grew old. All was balanced by nature.

Then, the earth provided the most favorable and friendly atmostphere and weather ever for The Man! The Man used trinkets, gems, gold, furs and stones to barter and trade for other things he needed for survival.

These trinkets and wares were heavy and cumbersome. So The Man cut down trees to make paper and then turn paper into the dollar! The tree gave its life so The Man had a dollar bill to carry around and buy the natural resources like land, trees, food, clothing, shelter and fire. All the things that only nature could provide. Without nature, The Man would have none of these.

Now The Man uses his tree-to-dollar money invention to buy more trees to make more dollars.

The Man is killing a lot of trees and digging up a vast amount of resources and minerals making more dollars to buy land and trees for conservation. He is considered very wealthy and rich when he has large quantities of dollars in his pocket.

Wouldn't The Man be just as wealthy, or even more so if he just sustainably co-existed with nature and what nature has to offer instead of killing many of nature's offerings in an unsustainable manner?

So, in summary, kill a tree, make a dollar so The Man can kill more trees and make more dollars and use them to go "save a tree". The Circle of Life for the Dollar Tree!

Go figure

Good Night From Maine, USA

Cloning -- The God Power of Man

Another in a not-so-regular series of posts highlighting nature's nature & 'ain't that odd'
Wow! Can you image if man had the power to clone animals 100,000 years ago. Many animals may have been saved from extinction. Maybe even man would not have evolved as we have either.

Now a national nature, wildlife and conservation organization is cloning the endangered black-footed cat. They are using domestic cats as surrogate mothers inserted with embryos for the black-footed cat.

How do you feel about the human race doing these types of things? After all, earth is 4.5 billion years old; it has killed and created many forms of life over its course. Life will continue to become extinct, climates will always change and new forms of life will continue. Only if man would stop messing with mother nature.

Man is the only endanged species. If the climate changes earth will continue to live life. We might not make it. Especially if we think we have a "right" to change and "help" mother nature.

Good Night from Maine, USA

Our Plastic Ocean Dump

Another in a not-so-regular series of posts highlighting nature's nature & 'ain't that odd'

Check out the web, search on plastic in our oceans and you will find some frightening stories about how much plastic is in the oceans. You will quickly see how sea birds, animals and mammals are negatively affected. And you see conflicting opinions of how, whether and when it breaks down.

With all our great technology, could we incentivize the manufactures of and users of plastic to clean and sweep our oceans? This would be a good candidate for a high school or college competition to make a workable and scalable contraption that can vacuum our oceans free of plastic.

Plastics -- is the thing to watch!

Good Night From Maine, USA

Emotional Overrides of Science

Another in a not-so-regular series of posts highlighting nature's nature & 'ain't that odd'
For Maine, 2009 was the summer that wasn't. It was also the wettest "summer" on record. And now, it is almost September and the nights and mornings are already cooling - we're beginning the fall Indian summer weather now.

On to nature and the environment. Should people use the emotionally charged mantra of "we are losing 20 species a day" and "the polar bear is dying" and the earth is warming to justify their view, mission and fund raising? Shouldn't they also include the rates of warming, cooling, and animal lost prior to the modern presence of man? Should they also include more facts of extinction and how mankind is now flourishing in the most conducive environment for mankind? And, without the natural process of losing species our human evolution and the evolution of new species would not exist. I would like to see more facts, science and less emotion from people, especially the press who never truly live and experience nature except through adventure tours.

I personally am worn out on how much land a trust must save, has saved for our benefit and how this land is forever protected for the benefit of some species. The goal is admirable in many minds; it is sold as motherhood and apple pie. But is it science and does it reflect the fact the earth, our planet will always survive with or without man? Man is at risk, not the planet. It has lived and will live much longer than a single species such as man.

Now ants and bats, that is another story of how they impact and contribute to the current condition of earth.

Good night from Maine, USA.