H O M E - C R Y P T - L I N K S - B I O

Barack Obama promised change and a lot of people believed him. So far all we have is a lot of the same old policies and in some cases it is even worse. It is devastating when any vestige of hope is smashed; when hope turns out to be a lie. My very liberal friends tell me it isn't his fault. If he had a more cooperative congress there would be a lot of changes but he just can't get anything passed. My conservative friends tell me Obama is right on track with his plan to make us all socialists. They are both wrong. There is nothing socialist about Obama. If there was, I might like him but he isn't pushing change. He is pushing the same old maintenance of the status quo. His backers are the rich, both Democrats and Republicans. And this isn't socialism. We need some changes in our core values and policies which will insure people don't starve - "from each according to their ability, to each according to their "real" needs."

Lets Start With the Climate

When it comes to climate everyone seems to have an opinion the everyone thinks their opinion is right, but science is not about opinion. There are many climate change myths. One common falacy is vulcanism. What emits more carbon dioxide, volcanoes or human activities? The science establishes human activity unequivocally emits more carbon dioxide than volcanoes.

(Gerlach, 2010 and Plimer, 2009) Most, even some scientists who are not volcanology specialists make the mistake of thinking (having the erroneous opinion which is widespread among sketics) that volcanoes cause more C02 in the atmosphere. It doesn't.

("In the June 14 (2011) issue of EOS (the weekly newspaper of the American Geophysical Union), Terry Gerlach of the USGS disassembles the "volcanic source of increased carbon dioxide" argument in a paper called "Volcanic versus anthropogenic carbon dioxide" (v.92, no. 24, p. 201-203). His answer? "The belief that volcano CO2 exceeds anthropogenic CO2 implies either unbelievable volumes of magma production or unbelievable concentrations of magmatic CO2.")

Gerlach: "The belief that volcano CO2 exceeds anthropogenic CO2 implies either unbelievable volumes of magma production or unbelievable concentrations of magmatic CO2."

"In compiling all the studies that have looked at global annual volcanic CO2 emissions, Gerlach offers a range of 0.13-0.44 billion metric tons (gigatons) per year. To further refine the range, Gerlach chooses an annual average of 0.15-0.26 gigatons. This includes all subaeral and submarine eruptions worldwide. That sounds like a lot, doesn't it? We're talking hundreds of millions of tons of carbon dioxide released each year. Where do humans stand in comparison? Oh, merely 35 gigatons. Yes, 35. That makes volcanoes look like small fry." (EOS)

Gerlach makes the following comparisons:

"One year of volcanic activity releases the same CO2 as the following human source: A state such as Florida, Michigan or Ohio. ~13 times less than land use changes (3.4 gigatons) ~11.5 times less than light-duty vehicles (3.0 gigatons) ~5.3 times less than concrete production (1.4 gigatons) ~2 dozen 1000 MW coal-fired power plants (2% of the world's coal-fired electrical generation) Or, roughly the same CO2 emissions as Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Poland or South Africa."

Gaia

"..Life may be the product of blind chance and opportune circumstance, but once it has established itself on a planet, it takes over. It manages the planet in ways that continue to sustain life in more or less optimum circumstances. That is why it may be a mistake to call Earth the Goldilocks planet: not too hot, not too cold, but just right. In fact, Earth's average temperature may be just right because life, by unconsciously manipulating the planet's oceanic and atmospheric chemistry, sets the thermostat that keeps its Earthly home within a temperature range that is comfortable for life." - Gaia

Gaia is a metaphor for a living earth. It is not a god. Gaia represents the regulating system of earth. And it determines the planet's well-being. It is the earth and its molton core. This regulating system, according to scientist Jim Lovelock, extends into the upper atmosphere surrounding the planet.

Gaia determines the well-being of the living earth and the survivability of all living organisms.

Viruses are technically not living so this doesn't concern their survivability but how we treat our planet does determine whether or not our kids has any kind of chance here.

Maybe you don't care what happens? I am not sure it really matters to me either all that much since I don't see anything so great about humanity. As for humans being unique; they aren't - and human importance is overstated.

But I do care about other sentient creatures. I care about the animals who have feelings and don't understand what is happening to them because of our mismanagement of the planet.

Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake by the Inquisition because he suggested the earth was alive. That was over 400 years ago. I suppose the earth is alive in so far as it hangs in space, held there by magnetism and gravity, which is principally a product of planetary gravitational balance on each other.

The planet is under great stress. It is getting hotter. Lynn Margulis, widow of Carl Sagen and scientist says about the planet, she is a "tough bitch." I'd say life is really tough and it is also a bitch much of the time just surviving in this hostile environment. Even oxygen, which we think we must have, will kill us. And we must have it. It is as important to us as light is to plants for respiration. But increase the levels and we may explode.

James Lovelock said "if we fail to take care of the Earth, it surely will take care of itself by making us no longer welcome."

I distinctly get the feeling the welcome mat has been taken in. The world is in turmoil and the planet is sick. As humans, (other animals too) are genetically programmed to look after their own. We are tribal groups trying to kill or eat each other. Singularity is a libertarian scam. We could only get there if we fixed the present and that isn't going to happen.

Living Earth

And as the planet warms, living things will die. This transformation began in ernest with the agricultural period.

Lovelace sums it up nicely, though it is not comforting to read these words:

"Even if we stopped immediately all further seizing of Gaia's land and water for food and fuel production and stopped poisoning the air, it would take the Earth more than a thousand years to recover from the damage we have already done, and it may be too late even for this drastic step to save us..." (ibid)

The Hot State of Global Warming is Irreversible

The Earth, if self-regulating, is running a fever. In the history of the Earth similar conditions have arisen some 55 million years ago - then due to a geological accident where more than a teraton of carbon was released into the atmosphere causing the temperature to rise about 8 degrees Celsius in the arctic and temperate regions and about 5 degrees Celsius in the tropics. That small rise caused a temperature shift which took a hundred thousand years before the temperature of the Earth returned to what Lovelock considered normalcy.

"We have already put more than half this quantity of carbon gases into the air and now the Earth is weakened by the loss of land we took to feed and house ourselves. In addition, the sun is now warmer, and as a consequence the Earth is now returning to the hot state it was in before, millions of years ago, and as it warms, MOST LIVING THINGS WILL DIE. ONCE started, the move to a hot state is IRREVERSIBLE, and even if all the good intentions expressed at the Kyoto and Montreal meetings were executed immediately, they would not alter the outcome..." (ibid)

"Much of the tropical land mass will become scrub and desert and will no longer serve for regulation, thus adding to the 40 percent of the Earth's surface we have already depleted to feed ourselves..." (ibid)

Even if we did everything to stop climate change it won't reverse the damage we have done. If this hot state is irreversible, civilization may not survive and normalcy is just something we will remember from our history which will also disappear.

We will disappear but our atoms will not. Gaia will live on and microbes will re-inherit the earth. AND in the geological and cosmological time line it may be nothing more than a brief moment in time.

Hank Roth