Can We Make It to Mars?

Home Sweet Home (NASA Photo)

I watched a NOVA show entitled, "Can We Make It to Mars"? hosted by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. I have been watching quite a few of these shows in the past two years. Maybe because there are more of them.

What I carry away from these shows, is just how wonderful and special Planet Earth is. I have said this before but I truly think some people believe we are just a couple of years away from boarding a spaceship or walking thorough a wormhole to some pristine and abundant planet to start over again.

Boy, are they wrong. They seem to have no idea how dangerous and inhospitable space is for us earthlings, including plants and other animals.

Besides not having oxygen to breathe and being freezing cold, space has these dangers.

Danger One: Meteoroids.
A pea-sized meteoroid can travel at 16,000 miles per hour and pierce the hull of a spaceship. The space programs have lost spacecraft because of bombardment by meteoroids. NASA is developing a hulll than can hold-up to meteoroid bombardment.

Danger Two: Zero Gravity
In zero gravity, sure you can fly but you also lose bone mass and muscle strength.

Danger Three: Cosmic Rays
Yeah, this isn't Flash Gordon's cosmic rays. These bright flashes of light pierce spaceships and astronauts brains (yes, brains) to deliver very heavy doses of radiation predisposing the body's cells to develop cancer. And the astronauts know when they go up into space, the are increasing their chances.

After I watch a show, or read a article or book on the topic of deep space travel, I am convinced humanity is quite insane. We have a beautiful home planet that supports us humans and abundant life, yet some of us dream of hurling through space at mind-numbing speed, picking up radiation and eating food that was cooked and stored several years before.

I highly recommend watching, "Can We make It to Mars?'". It makes me appreciate the home we have in new ways.

And since I plan on staying put on my home planet, I fight to save it.

Photo credit: Image created by Reto Stockli with the help of Alan Nelson, under the leadership of Fritz Hasler (NASA)

http://www.birdcount.org

Merchants of Doubt - Understanding the Climate Change Controversy

Video link: Amazon.com : Entertainment : Merchants of Doubt

This is the book I am currently reading. As a librarian I am concerned about the accuracy of information.

Merchants of Doubt chronicles the "campaign of misinformation" created by corporation and political groups about acid rain, secondhand smoke, climate change among other issues.
I have included the Amazon.com video link by one of the authors. If you have doubts about the reality of climate change, this book will shed new light.

It's 100 degrees outside. We need trees.

Morris Park, Fairmount Park

It's 100 degrees fahrenheit here in Philadelphia. And the lack of trees along some city streets is a big minus. I walked down to the mailbox this morning and the lack of shade made the walk unpleasant.

Philadelphia has done a great job replanting trees in the city. But, there are still city residents who refuse to plant a tree in front of their houses because they don't want the leaves. This bothers me to no end.

One way it bothers me as it is just another example of how people don't respect the land. Philadelphia is in a natural forest. The natural habitats of this land include forest, meadows, swamps, wetlands, rivers and streams. Not concrete and asphalt.

I just don't understand it. Leaves? Is that the real reason someone doesn't want a tree? Leaves only fall for a  few weeks in the Fall. Maybe someone has to rake up the leaves three or four times. Is that so bad? And leaves decay by spring anyway.

It is this kind of thinking which makes me despair that we humans can save ourselves. We aren't saving the Earth, we're saving us, humans. Maybe.

Some of us aren't very adaptable. No, changing. Changing is for sissies.

But, Earth bats last. And Earth, she always wins.

So, I guess I am just not very optimistic about humanity today.

Okay, maybe some of humanity. The rest of us will do what we gotta do. Peace.

Shady Morning Walk

Tacony Creek tributary

The weather finally broke yesterday morning. It had been hot and humid for the past several days. The temperature stayed in the 90s. Yesterday, we had a respite. It only reached 83 degrees.

So, I took a walk, along a busy road I usually travel. Cars zoomed by, going 50 on a 40 mile per hour stretch of road. I speed by on this road several times a week. But I miss walking it.

When I walk it, I notice the shade and the gently rolling hills. I stop to peer into the forest that edges the shallow creek that winds over rocks and dives beneath the road to emerge on the other side.

I watch the birds as they stand in the small pools of the creek and dip their heads as they sip.  The squirrels jump from rock to rock as they drink from the winding water. Cool, clear.

This small swallow creek, feeds into the Schuylkill River, into the Delaware River and finally into the sea. The water I gaze into will spill out into Delaware Bay and mingle with the salty drops of the Atlantic Ocean. At the same time being and becoming the sea.

I miss all this as I speed by in my car. But by walking, I hear the sounds, smell the smells and feel the breezes as they brush against my face.

Walking, soothes the soul.

Plant a tree, Shape the Future

Where would we be without trees? This news story on Chester High School students who planted 30 mostly native trees on the school campus, is more important then most people know.

For years environmental groups bemoaned the fact that so few "people of color" populated their ranks. But, with truthful insight, the groups realized that it was because the media, including their very own magazines and brochures, rarely featured faces that where shades of the beiges, tans, browns and deep chocolates that people come in.

The use of only Caucasian faces said to "minorities" that "this is not for you, stay away". This is not far-fetched given the exclusionary practices in the country in the past.

To give the environmental groups their credit, they have made big strides in changing this unfortunate situation.

Perhaps it was the appointment of Lisa Jackson as the first African-American to head up the Environmental Protection Agency, to spur on the many environmental stories that include "people of color". Believe me, they weren't there before.

It is good to see this. It is good to young people of color highlighted for good deeds, especially environmental good deeds. Because, so often it is the negative stereotypes that are given air time.

All of us belong to this Earth. And all of us need to be involved in taking care of this precious place we all call home.

Stephen Hawking, Aliens and Gratitude

I have been saying for years, "We don't need to take our show on the road because we can't get our act together down here."

Now Professor Stephen W. Hawking gives us something more to thnk about. Here is a quote from Professor Hawking from the April 26th, Christian Science Monitor Online.

"In a new Discovery Channel documentary to be aired in May, renowned astrophysicist Dr. Hawking suggests that with 100 billion galaxies in the universe it seems “perfectly rational” that aliens exist. While they are most probably microorganisms or basic animals, he suggests the threat posed by intelligent life forms, if they exist, could make reaching out to them “a little too risky.”

“We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet. I imagine they might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet. Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonize whatever planets they can reach,” he said. “If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn’t turn out very well for the native Americans.”

I think he makes a good point. And I think this last phrase struck an uncomfortable nerve with many people.

And I have always thought corporations want the U.S. government to pay for space exploration, so corporations can have access to a fresh supply of resources and make more money.

Many people don't want what continues to happen to indigenious people all over the world to happen to them. A fine example of "dishing it out, but not being able to take it."

Which brings me to my main point - Peace-loving people don't migrate to other areas. They stay home. And enjoy family, friends, celebrations and keeping a pleasant place to live. They have gratitiude for what they have.

When people migrate to other lands, it is because of factors that make life back home unpleasant. For peace-loving people to move, the natural ecosystem of their homeland would have to fail or they were being oppressed.

 If this is so, Why are so many Americans looking to go into space?

Earth Day - #40

Rhododendron, originally uploaded by donnallong.

Earth Day can be a day of gratitude, respect and thanksgiving.

It is a day to ponder how we are nothing without the Earth. How we are bags of water walking around on a blue-green planet covered with water.

What a thing to ponder. Water bags on a water planet.

How long have we been asleep? How long have we avoided the truth of who we are?

I wake up in the morning and I give thanks.

I give thanks for the life that is in all living beings.
I give thanks for the good things we have.
I give thanks that I have a chance to grow a little bit each day.

Wado.

A Rhododendron in my garden.

Hiding behind technology

I have been thinking the last two days about how some humans hide behind technology.

It seems that by surrounding ourselves with machines and gadgets, that we are hiding the fact that we are living beings just like cougars, hummingbirds or monkeys.

Did you feel a tinge of some emotions or feeling when you read the last sentence? I have tinges of that uncomfortableness. And being uncomfortable is uncomfortable.

For some, being human is an embarrassment. Something to run from or deny. It is seen as something base and undesirable.

Perhaps, this is why some people work so hard to distance themselves from the natural world and a natural lifestyle.

If you have seen Avatar, could you live in a beautiful, abundant world, in a manner which contributed to that abundance? How would do you imagine living?

Avatar and the Golden Rule

I saw the film Avatar for the second time. This time in 3-D. It is an excellent, excellent movie.

I don't want to spoil the movie for those who have not seen it, but the environmental message is clear.

Live so your land is abundant and you won't need to go and take someone's stuff. Do unto others what you want done to you. You can go to bed with a clear conscious. And we won't have to pay for mistakes or the sins of our ancestors. Our children can live in abundance, harmony and peace.

It is time for some folks to simply grow up. We have to change the way we live. And I don't mean all this "green shopping" nonsense either. Pleasure shopping and over consuming is just plain greed. How much stuff do we really need?

Some of my favorite quotes from Avatar:

"You will live with us and learn our ways. We will see if your insanity can be cured." - The clan leader Mo'at to Jake Sully

"Go back to your dying world." - Jake Sully to the Sky People in his rally of the Navi

If we meet people like the Navi, Earth's corporations and money-chasers would be plotting and scheming to take over their world, just as they plotted and schemed here on Earth.

Let's take away their power and diminish their influence and size. Practice frugality.

A new year, a new decade

This past decade went by so fast.

I wonder what the new decade will bring?

Will climate change be even more prevalent? Will our way of life change from the overindulgent, ridiculousness we have been living for many years now?

I have resigned myself to the fact that we missed the window of opportunity to stop climate change.  I am in adaptation mode now.

How do I help my family to adapt to the changes that are here and are coming?

I suspect that many of us are beginning to ask ourselves just that question.


Happy New Year and Peace to All on Earth.

They need us. Tree huggers save the world.

It seems to me that the planet destroyers, need us, the environmental realists, to save them from themselves.

If it wasn't for us tree huggers, the air would be too foul to breathe, the water too polluted to drink, and the soil too depleted to grow food.

These planet destroyers folks seem to be incapable of understanding and accepting their total dependence on the Earth. That kind of thinking will get them wiped out.

Is their inability to think in realistic terms, cognitive? Are their brains unable to process the concept of needing the Earth for their very survival?

Or is it learned. Is it cultural, philosophical, religious beliefs or political ideology?

Their thinking has created these beliefs. And in turn they have been shaped by the beliefs.

So, in thinking about their inabilitities in evolutionary terms, they would die out because they would be unable to adapt to environmental circumstances.

Will they be able to adapt to the environmental and climate changes that are coming?

They haven't so far. The changes they have had to make so far have been mandatory.

Who are the planet destoryers to criticize and ridule us, when they can't get a firm grasp on reality?

A sight so awe inspiring I had to stop and take a photo

I was driving and this sight just stopped me. I wasn't sure anyone else even noticed this massive cloud bank as it moved across the sky. It was only 5pm, but the darkness of the clouds made it seem like 8 pm or later.

As I sat and watched this cloud move by, I felt I was watching the once massive herds of buffalo that lived here in North America before the 19th century.

I felt small and insignificant as I should.

There are many who want to know the answer to an eternal question. What is a human being's purpose? I think because many people shie away from the answer.

To understand our purpose is to look to the other beings that share the land with us. The river flows and sustains life. It is a home to fish and crustaeans. Ducks float on top of the water. The river sustains life.

A bird mates and brings forth young. To feed the young, the parent bird catches insects and feeds the young and herself. By living, the bird is doing its "job" and helps to sustain the cycle of life.

Do we human beings sustain life? Some humans think our purpose is to develop the land and therefore destroy life. Development is essentially destroying the land, destroying life.

Building a dam cuts off the flow of a river. The cycle of life of the river is changed. And not for the better.

What is our job as human beings?

A few years ago I read of an indigenous people who lived in a forest in Africa. Scientists and environmentalists charged without preserving the forest removed the indigenous people because they could only see humans as detrimental. Well, after several years the forest was not healthy.  The people were so integrated with the land, that they had a place like the ants, the birds and the trees. How miraculous was that?

How we get back to that? How do we become one with the land and the birds?
http://www.survivalinternational.org/

Thanksgiving Day

I give thanks for the life that flows through all beings. I give thanks for all the good things we have. I give thanks for the chance to grow each day.

I like Thanksgiving. Beyond the pilgrims and first thanksgiving mythology, I think it is a good day.

Thanksgiving is the closest celebration we have to the harvest holidays, we humans celebrated before the interruptions by others.

Human beings naturally give thanks to the beings that feed and sustain our lives.

Nature holidays have not gone away. We humans still celebrate them in any form we can. Perhaps, it is innate in us. The flow of life flows thorough us and the trees, flowers, squirrels and all living beings.

Perhaps, more people will give thanks to the plants and animals that feed them. To complete the circle. And add fullness to our prayers.

Wado (thank you).