M
EARTH CORNER
MAY FILES

MELTING GLACIERS

How Much Longer?

QUESTION: How many metric tons of glaciers have melted over the last five years?

ANSWER: Enough to cause alarm. Well, the exact amount is - 1490 Billion Metric Tons (1640 Billion Tons)

ARCHIVES

ARCHIVES

Site Developed By Classic CSS

ARCHIVES

RESOURCES

MELTING GLACIERS

How Much Longer?

QUESTION: How many metric tons of glaciers have melted over the last five years?

ANSWER: Enough to cause alarm. Well, the exact amount is - 1490 Billion Metric Tons (1640 Billion Tons)

MORE NEWS

Lots of breaking news all day. Google "News" or Go to Bing.com and type "News". BTW what is Bing.com saying about fake news?

What has it been saying traditionally?

Life would be so much easier if people would just mark news as news and fake news as fake news and leave writers of fiction trying to make a living alone.

SINK HOLES AND SUCH

I am not an environmentalist, but I always keep an eye. Back in 1998 when I first got my email, a Yahoo account, I was keen to make that clear on my profile. What followed was invitations to various Yahoo Groups on the topic. I signed up for all of them.

Over the years, I lost touch. I never did actually quit those groups, but somehow the very idea of Yahoo groups has been ejected from the Yahoo universe for me. Do they still even have those? I haven’t checked. Last year I found myself on a mailing list that originated in a MeepUp group. I hadn’t signed up, but suddenly I knew all about a bunch of people hot on the trail of a bird. Even after repeated attempts to get my name off that list, it just wasn’t happening. Eventually, I did manage to ‘cancel’ all mails but I am not sure if I’m still a member. [ See my write-up under “AI” about the pathetic management of all things internet related that’s been unaddressed and therefore boiling up for an inevitable showdown.]

Yahoo Groups aside, the environment has a good share of custodians and supporters. As mentioned above, I lost touch and had to be reminded later, and it came from a stranger on the subway in 2009. He got on with this purposeful intent of lecturing commuters about the hazards of fracking. At the time I had no idea what fracking was. I gathered it was going to ‘cause great damage to the American suburbs, especially residential neighborhoods that had no idea no inkling about the great danger about to hit them…’. I could see this man was of meager means given his fading paint stained hoodie with frayed sleeves. Everything sounded serious. But no one was paying attention. He got off at the next station and got into another train. Focused, his motives clearly charted.

I have since done a lot of research on fracking. Around this time sinkholes began appearing all over the world. And yet, none of this was being reported on mainstream media. Now all we talk about is Twitter. (And I will too, soon…).

Meanwhile, here’s an article about Earth being sidelined as the main habitat for humans. We’re likely going to set up house at another location in the solar system soon. And that location could be one of Jupiter’s many moons.

Many moons later….

GO SOLAR

Growing up our parents instilled this habit of turning off the lights when leaving the room and that wasn't about environmentalism. It was about the household budget for us. Oddly, with that inculcated, the idea of turning off lights flew out the window once we accumulated wealth. This isn't just a thing with me. Many people actually boast about that.

"We don't need to turn off the lights obsessively. We are okay." Direct quote from a person in my inner circle.

And the sitcom version. "We're so rich we don't even turn off the lights at bedtime."

This is just a PSI - Turning off the lights when you don't need them is good for the environment.

Also, go solar if you can.

Industry Focus - Leather #EARTH

Back in 2009, on my way to work, I had to drive by this huge dump close to my apartment. Picture this - Animal carcasses, buffalos and cows to be exact. Eagles, flying low, looking for prey, finding a feast laid out. Shallow stagnant water, floating animal gut, no outlet. This was the sight around a single-story factory. It’s where they processed raw animal hide for leather. This is where it begins - the journey of a handbag, of a pair of the pricey designer boots.

This was Banerghatta Rd., Bangalore.

If the convocation of eagles so close to earth isn’t scary enough for you, there’s occasionally a floating head of a cow, just the head, right there by the busy road and the birds of prey fighting each other for a peck.

And of course, the stench.

But the real horror story is still only me.

Fast forward to me walking into a store and purchasing a $300 leather handbag. (All I could afford after years of saving up. Didn't I share where I had to live?) I just had to do it...just absolutely had to. There is no reconciling one with the other, the one that hates, decries, the process and loves, absolutely loves, the end product of that process. This dichotomy is so human; you rationalize. Eventually, you have this need to tell someone, so here it is, this…this little rant, or whatever.

NO CONTENT THIS WEEK

Check June 7th

EARTH

Back in 1999 I had a classmate who’d carry bags made out of fabric to take to Whole Foods, even Staples. Back then such bags weren’t the norm like today. People would stare at her and she wouldn’t care. She’d set her jaw at an angle and make them feel small.

I wanted to follow her lead, especially after she explained how harmful plastic or paper was. I didn’t. Chickened out thanks to the judgmental expressions on store clerks. I think I did my part anyway, reusing all those plastic bags forever and ever.

Trendsetters are all around us. One might be around you somewhere. Who can spot such a treasure AND call it?

This is now mainstream with branded bags becoming a symbol of your concern as much as theirs. But it is still too little too late.

Keep at it though.

Carry on fabric…

CONTENT DELAYED

Meanwhile, in light of LGBT MONTH, here's some related humor.

(Picture me with a microphone doing stand-up)

The dumbest person on earth has to be that Indian woman, the first lesbian that got caught. In India no one is really minding interactions between women. Interactions between men, everyone’s suspecting for some usually valid reason. But women, no. So two women could be bathing naked in the village river and everyone would be like, ah look such good friends, she’s even soaping her in all her parts. They really take care of each other. Bless their souls. And really mean it.

And bring spirituality into it and it actually gets even better for lesbians. This is a ritual. Rolling semi-naked on the sand genuflecting around the shrine. This is how babies are born. Do it a dozen times you get a girl. Six dozen times you get a boy. And soon there’s an orgy. Grandpas and husbands pushing their women into the orgy ripping off their bodices for a piece of god’s blessings. Just piling on the cake of goodness, and the lesbians who started it all long gone. I'm a genius. I have cracked this plot, solved superstition! This is how rubbish like this got floated, superstition is just cunning ploys by lesbians, so that even the heterosexuals forgot how babies are really made. To think that lesbians actually elevated God?! No one even knows!!

This has been going on for centuries right before our eyes. And then one fine day someone yells Lesbians! And he got into a lot of trouble for sure. They probably got that guy checked into an asylum. This is how it went down in history. On second thought, it has to be true that the first Indian lesbians just confessed. Hopefully the revelation didn’t shock anyone to death. That would have been the first Indian lesbian hate crime.

GHG

This election people should focus on the leaders making the right choices for our environment. Budgets will come and go. Healthcare has been tried for the better already and it did not work. Industry on the other hand is here to stay.

According to the EPA the top three contributors to CO2 emissions are transportation, electricity, and industry. So really it's cars, more cars, and the making of cars. If we take all cars (maybe automobiles entirely) out of our lives, we can reset the environmental clock back about a thousand years (debatable) in maybe a few years (give or take). You get the idea.

Obviously, we cannot take cars/vehicles out of our lives. We cannot even dream about rationing automobiles anywhere on earth. The only thing we can do is seek a balance between reducing emissions and maintaining status quo. There's more.

The vicious cycle that builds from more industrial work emitting more pollutants during the process of pouring the first set of pollutants down a trash chute, and working on curbing the emissions during that process, and managing the consequences from all ensuing processes for future generations…phew! It's a big deal! While this was already on, someone tried to pull the USA out of the Paris agreement! The Paris Agreement is commitment from 197 countries/parties to work on “Net-Zero Emissions” or “Carbon Neutrality” (Source: ChatGPT). For harmful effects of GHGs, go here - Global Warming Potentials(EPA)

If we love our cars, and our planet, we need the Paris agreement.

Also This - Why are killer whales going 'Moby-Dick' on yachts lately? Experts doubt it's revenge

Alfred Hitchcock's Birds - Killer Whale edition?

GHG

This post from last week stays. The point needs to be made.

This election people should focus on the leaders making the right choices for our environment. Budgets will come and go. Healthcare has been tried for the better already and it did not work. Industry on the other hand is here to stay.

According to the EPA the top three contributors to CO2 emissions are transportation, electricity, and industry. So really it's cars, more cars, and the making of cars. If we take all cars (maybe automobiles entirely) out of our lives, we can reset the environmental clock back about a thousand years (debatable) in maybe a few years (give or take). You get the idea.

Obviously, we cannot take cars/vehicles out of our lives. We cannot even dream about rationing automobiles anywhere on earth. The only thing we can do is seek a balance between reducing emissions and maintaining status quo. There's more.

The vicious cycle that builds from more industrial work emitting more pollutants during the process of pouring the first set of pollutants down a trash chute, and working on curbing the emissions during that process, and managing the consequences from all ensuing processes for future generations…phew! It's a big deal! While this was already on, someone tried to pull the USA out of the Paris agreement! The Paris Agreement is commitment from 197 countries/parties to work on “Net-Zero Emissions” or “Carbon Neutrality” (Source: ChatGPT). For harmful effects of GHGs, go here - Global Warming Potentials(EPA)

If we love our cars, and our planet, we need the Paris agreement.

Also This - Why are killer whales going 'Moby-Dick' on yachts lately? Experts doubt it's revenge

Alfred Hitchcock's Birds - Killer Whale edition?

Hey, That Rhymes!



        Gobbledygook said the rat 
        As he chased after the cat
        The grass is dry the earth is flat
        When you play with water, think about that.


        -By Me.

Are there any nursery rhymes that focus on the earth? There's one about rain. But it is about making it go away so little Tommy can play.

Why?

What do you make of this one which is taught to little children? 

        Row, row, row your boat 
        gently down the stream. 
        Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, 
        Life is but a dream.

That poet was one depressed mofo, I'm guessing from the era of Virginia Woolf?

Life is a dream, dear children. That was the best advice he could give to warn of the bleak future ahead. When I was younger, I read that as - life is as peachy as a dream where you get unlimited candy and ice-cream. Later, I understood, and that's when I realized the truth about perspectives.

This rhyme that teaches us about the food chain, begins, “The Farmer wants a wife…” and ends with, “the mouse ate the cheese…” or something. Also quite depressing. Facts of life often are.

Why aren't the facts about the limited nature of earth's resources in a fun silly rhyme? That needs to be on someone's agenda.

Also, while they're at it, banning books and warning people about the language in Woolf's works, maybe focus on banning this one - 

            Jack and Jill 
            Went up the hill
            To fetch a pail of water
            Jack fell down
            And broke his crown
            And Jill came tumbling after.

This has no point to it and is just silly. Oddly, this makes me angrier.

To conclude, the core message of this rambling Pulitzer entry is - we need new nursery rhymes. And about the earth and its limited resources.

Bird Obstetrician

2020 the world experienced a lockdown.

I ordered everything from Amazon and wondered how the delivery guys were doing. It was cans and bamboo products for the utilities for a while, as the online shortage dictated.

March 2020 to November 2020, we didn't step out of the house at all.

So when we opened our patio doors one day maybe late in June and found this - a nest with three beautiful little eggs, Bird Eggs

it sort of underlined the dire circumstances. This also warmed my soul. The birds had found sanctuary here. I did all I could to aid the delivery. Three little chicks made it out healthy and hungry.

Then they came back again, next year.

I had to revise my earlier self-titled designation of bird obstetrician. These weren't unhappy birds hiding form a germ sized predator. These were just opportunists. That they had no other place to build their nest, no other nook, was the saddest thing. The trees were young in this made-to-order residential development. Where would the birds go?

What could I do? I ordered a whole lot of trees.

I now have several apple trees and pear trees. Would have planted more if I hadn't moved.

I'm thinking of renaming my residence there. I'm going to call it “Fruit Salad”.

GHG Again

A quick note to celebrate the discovery and public acknowledgement of the contributions of Eunice Newton Foote to the scientific community. Google did the deed.

Eunice Newton Foote Check the presentation, if you haven't already. It is good.

It's about GHG and the Focus Shouldn't Shift.

Google goes on to salute other women contributing to the science of preserving life on earth.

Six Women Leading the Fight Against Climate Change

Meanwhile, temperatures continue to soar across America and the U.K. Rinse and Repeat

It's like we forget. This won't just go away. We need to keep the focus on this issue

The Dyno Hunt

Some time back I got curious about what paleontologists were upto. I did some googling and found an alarming bit of info. The hunt for dynosaur fossils had expanded exponentially. People were digging up bones all over the world.

No longer was it a US monopoly (Sidebar: Whatever does that mean?)

There was a map. Something like this -

dyno fossils Source:Geoawesomeness

That one was a lot more alarming with dots all over the world, covering every undeveloped stretch of land. If you had to take that map seriously, you'd conclude that earth was at one time solely inhabited by Dynos. Probably right before they went extinct. There was no food left. They'd downed/swallowed/gorged on the last bit of organic matter that wasn't them. Then they went extinct. I lost the link to that map, but found another one.

This incessant digging, what is the toll it is taking on the soil? The earth? Is anyone minding that?

Geological Ripple Effects

People who shun the idea of the earth needing human intervention to be saved, are to me like those who embrace atheism for various reasons. It is fast becoming a kind of religion by itself.

"The earth is not harmed. Stop saying that. Geological changes have happened since time immemorial. Humans weren’t even around doing anything to damage earth." Indeed they are right.

But now we know more. And that is the point. Further, we must make sure not to add to the natural course of things, hastening the process.

Moreover, we must note that a person like Trump say, might be tempted to deny responsibility in this regard mostly as a defense tactic.

After people complained that he had a secret, thanks to how Sandy the nasty hurricane, seemed to have bypassed his kingdom by the Hudson entirely, while the same river responding to the same geological event damaged large parts of ancient structures not far from where he has various RE interests even on that very street, he did go on the defensive. He is perhaps sure that this is just a ploy to destroy his wealth, his solid investments.

How long after cries of, "This person should be ill. She eats too much potato chips/ice-cream/whatever!!", did that person actually begin feeling it? (People do that a lot these days. Watchdogs have called it an attempt to homogenize humans in dangerous ways.)

The above is similar. How long after, "Hey, how did you survive that hurricane? Why did it affect only the middle-class and the poor?", will it actually get Donald Trump?

The above is not even true. It also affected a large part of the Manhattan shoreline that houses various corporations.

But back to the reason why Trump shuns all such ideas, I am not sure it is entirely about saving money for corporations.

Understanding that could go a long way in getting ahead with this cause.

Keep it Beautiful

Speaking about issues plaguing the environment is not directly rewarding. Caring in general does not entitle you to anything at all. Perhaps that is why EPA issues aren't even candidates for thought projects anywhere.

Loosely defined, a thought project in a single instance could be any idea you capture as a possible explanation for a mystery of a strange nature (or not). A good example of this kind of inspiration tapped for writing fiction is the currently airing "Nancy Drew" series.

Here's where the MAGA thing clashes with the idea that caring for the environment is just another bunch of democrats trying to grab money from corporations. To make America great again, you'll have to keep it beautiful. Currently, I see it going to ruins.

Driving up to Maine, the state with all its evergreens etc, this fact kept playing on my mind. The clear blue waters had turned murky and in an area that was at the farthest corner of the Atlantic Ocean. The unnamed "bay", because there's one name on the map and another around local businesses in that area, is collecting debris from development of the architectural kind. [ I will be writing letters about this.]

Painful.

My main point is about MAGA. The environment should be included by default. Flicking off development with a raised middle finger is not going to cut it. When people assinged the responsibility are sidelined, things like this follow.

We have to ignore every single logical fallacy to move ahead.

Praying for Maui

The devastation in Maui is to be seen to be believed.

Fire thanks to a hurricane over the Pacific Ocean? Who had ever heard of such a thing?

Here's more on that from various sources -

"Those fires were stoked on Wednesday by a combination of low humidity and strong mountain winds, brought by Hurricane Dora, a Category 4 storm hundreds of miles to the south in the Pacific Ocean" - The New York Times. ( Read More )

"Echoing wildfire experts, Gov. Green said Friday that he believes a confluence of weather conditions contributed to the ignition and spread of the blazes. "It is a product, in my estimation, of certainly global warming combined with drought, combined with a super storm, where we had a hurricane offshore several hundred miles, still generating large winds," Green told CNN." - CBS News ( Read More)

"The causes of the fires have not yet been determined. The National Weather Service had issued warnings for the Hawaiian Islands for high winds and dry weather - conditions ripe for wildfires." - Reuters ( Read More)

"Dora did not directly hit the islands, but it helped set up conditions ripe for a disaster, the National Weather Service said. A high-pressure system developed north of the islands, resulting in gradient winds between the high pressure and Dora, a low-pressure system. That increased wind gusts across the islands, with a peak gust of up to 67 mph early Wednesday in Maui." - USA Today ( Read More)

"...Maui County authorities got the first reports of the fire by 6:37 a.m., and not long afterward, police were circulating in her neighborhood, calling out on megaphones for people to evacuate. Using a nearby hydrant, firefighters doused the flames.

She didn't feel panicked. Fires were a regular occurrence. The blaze was small and didn't appear threatening as she and her husband, Eddy, drove past. "It's Hawaii,"she said. "Nobody thought anything of it."- Washington Post (Read More)

"Officials say they don't know how the wildfires started yet, but dry weather and high winds from Hurricane Dora have helped fuel the flames." - BBC ( Read More)

 

To Summarize:

    • 1. Bush fires are normal for Hawaii
      2. Warnings for the disaster in question were already in place.
      3. Somehow, few anticipated the full nature of what ensued.
      4. Experts are still judging the cause.
      5. Wild rumors are spreading faster than that fire. Beware of trolls and fake news.

    • Praying for the victims dealing with moody mother nature.

    Donate here: Red Cross

    Dora spares Dora

    I found this online, and I am not sure really if this is fake news or an actual miracle. The entire island is ruined, yet this one house remains, standing intact in all its original glory.

    Hawaii wildfires: The red Lahaina house that survived Maui fires (Source: BBC)

    Read more and discovered that this is a recently renovated hundred-year-old property.

    But the funniest thing, if I may be allowed to laugh at this tidbit, is this - One of the owners is herself a "Dora".

    From the article, "It's a 100% wood house, so it's not like we fireproofed it or anything," Dora Atwater Millikin told the Los Angeles Times.

    I have no idea why the dailies passed on this obvious headline - "Dora spares Dora".

    Some Personal Climate Woes

    Not many are aware that the tsunami of 2004 affected me personally.

    I had just moved into my first bank owned apartment. Five months later, the ground shook underneath in the heart of this coastal city in India. Thankfully we weren't on the coast. I have friends and neighbors from the coastline, still missing; I know how this feels.

    One event like this, and your perspective changes forever.

    Never again did I take the weather for granted. Until then, I mostly never cared beyond carrying an umbrella now and then. Even the rain in India was fine. I remember one time a more cautious relative looking at the five of us in my own family just strolling on in a sudden thunderstorm like it wasn't our reality at all. While he ran for cover, we judged him.

    “Come on,” we urged, “Nothing is going to happen. It is just water. In fact, the tree could be dangerous.”

    My dad raised us siblings this way.

    “I need an umbrella.”

    “Why? What happened to the other one? Or the raincoat for that matter?”

    “Tore. Lost. Broken.” So many excuses.

    “Well, it is just summer. Get wet if you must. The umbrella is in next month's budget.”

    And so we did. Soon, it was fun. There were children getting punished for this very activity around us, but we enjoyed our time in the summer rain. Soon, it was a ritual.

    I recall gratefully an old caring aunt rushing to warn me not to “Try that business in Bangalore”, the second she heard I had moved there after an employment offer. “Don't even bathe in cold water, summer or winter. This city is different from that industrial town in Bihar.”

    Of course, I ignored her. I was sick for three days and attributed it to bad food. This was simply not me. I had immunity! A rain pass!!

    There is no such thing.

    DINO SCIENCE AGAIN

    If I begin reflecting on evolution, I feel like I might end up in a heated discussion with evolutionary experts. There are so many holes in so many of those theories.

    For example, dinosaurs. Again from a recent article in a magazine, dinosaurs supposedly evolved from normal sized to the larger sizes, as we view displayed in museums, over the course of hundreds of years. Various explanations for why and how they evolved that way make total sense.

    And yet, there's this question - the eggs. The forensics of the eggs.

    The eggs discovered so far are roughly the same sizes over the same period. And this information too is obtained from same sources.

    That adds up to what in a human evolution theory parallel?

    Humans have been having human babies ever since they evolved.

    I mean, do I have to finish this thought?

    Aw okay I will. I love being a smart ass. So I am just picturing a human with a chimp baby that evolves to human (it's a moving picture) over the course of its lifetime. And that is one pretty picture. Chimps are so adorable. But this isn't a fact is it?

    Is it?

    No Conent

    OCT & LATER: JUST SAYING - ARCHIVES

    Site Developed By Classic CSS