Thalassophobic Dreams Near the middle of my session with Jim, I noticed on my desk monitor the silent image of Lisa entering the front office. As usual, Jim was facing the window with his back to me. A position providing enough psychological comfort to discuss his inability to carry on face-to-face conversations. One of the… Read more: Fear of the Deep
The overturning of Roe vs Wade on June 14, 2022, sent a seismic shock wave across the country, wiping away fifty years of progress for women’s rights. With the stroke of a pen, the Supreme Court threw established freedoms enjoyed by all American women into disarray, declaring that such rights as these Americans enjoyed in the… Read more: Women’s Rights in Oregon Today and Tomorrow
If you believe Orwell’s Thought Police are part of a quaint story, you may want to have another look around. We have multiple legislatures around the country experimenting with ways to legally limit people’s access to knowledge and hence their access to free thought.
The Saudi and other Middle Eastern companies never made a secret about what they were doing. Foreign-owned agricultural land in the midwest has quadrupled over the past decade. Our politicians and state water regulators knew full well what they were doing when they sanctioned these deals.
Researchers are not disputing the theoretical possibility of obtaining the Paris Agreement goals. They only point out that it is not practically plausible.
When I explained to my neighbor that the cone represented a 67 percent probability zone for where the center of the storm might track, I could see his eyes go blank.
The significant volume of methane patiently waiting for release from ocean bottom clathrates should give us pause for thought if global ocean temperatures continue to rise.
Years ago, I had the unique experience of standing with my right foot in Europe and my left foot in North America in one of the few places on Earth where such a feat is possible.
Shifting weather patterns will force changes in how we all live our lives. Life for individuals and society at large will be altered by the Anthropocene world we all helped to create.
The Greenland ice sheet is caught in an Anthropocene heat trap, allowing it to melt from both above and below at unprecedented rates. Some researchers believe we are at the point of no return.
Given that states with strict abortion stances, like Texas, recognize the personhood of a fetus, we seem to have a dilemma of quantum proportions. The situation reeks of Schrödinger’s cat.
The Purcell Lobe was notable because it blocked off the Clark Fork River, creating a massive ice dam over 2000 feet tall. The dam caused water to back up in western Montana, forming Lake Missoula
La Niña conditions, which started two years ago, are set to continue according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). La Niña conditions in the tropical Pacific Ocean are near record intensity for this time of year.
The Permian Period came to a catastrophic end 252 million years ago with the extinction of 95 percent of all marine species and 70 percent of terrestrial species.
The biosphere and our environment are in a constant dance of self-regulation. Carboniferous cooling at the end of the period is a classic example of a self-regulating cycle.
The Carboniferous Period derives its name from our love of fossil fuels. Between 359 and 299 million years ago, life laid the foundations for Anthropocene climate change as massive coal deposits formed.
Causes of the Late Devonian extinction are more speculation than fact. But there are various bits of evidence hinting at possible causes, and a possible answer is all of the above.
Earth’s Devonian trees altered the climate and landscape, creating new dynamics for the world’s food webs and providing vast new ecological niches for evolution to fill.
Life crept out of the oceans and onto dry land about 470 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. These first Ordovician plants had a major impact on the world.
The success of life in the Ordovician was driven by the availability of vast flooded continents, which formed the shallow marine habitats for a dizzying array of new and successful species
An Early Cambrian Success Story Published in The EarthSphere Blog. Feature Image: Jellyfish — 540 Million Years of Success: by WM House (ArcheanArt) Prologue The Forgotten Origins series has taken us into the Cambrian Period, where an explosion of life occurred in a frenzy of hyper evolution during the Early Cambrian. But why then? Why the Early Cambrian? The fossil… Read more: The Ingredients for Life
If we reduce Earth’s history to a single day, then all major branches of life appear during a five-minute interval of hyper evolution at about 9:30 in the evening.
Mass extinctions don’t require catastrophic asteroid strikes or massive outpourings of magma from the mantle; they just need biotic replacement ; by humans in the case of the Anthropocene.
The Ediacaran was a world containing an eclectic group of organisms representing multiple evolutionary pathways, mother nature was rolling the dice to see what might turn up.
The Cryogenian formed a dividing line in the evolution of our biosphere. Before then, single-cell life was the rule, but afterward, complex,multi-celled organisms appeared.
Lake Kivu poses a threat to 2 million people, and the reality of this threat was demonstrated by a 1986 limnic eruption in Cameroon’s Lake Nyos, where 1,800 people died.
The escaping exhaust fumes from underground fires deliver a constant stream of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, and the fires have proven almost impossible to extinguish.
The first organisms to master photosynthesis were cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae. These lowly bacteria started the blue-green revolution.
Some stories are too quirky to ignore, and we must reap what we sow. The activation of zombie landslides in Alaska is a direct result of global climate change.
Early life wasn’t much to look at — single-cell, chemosynthetic creatures and ancestorial viruses floating in chemical-rich, primordial oceans. It wasn’t pretty, but it was a start.
The cost of flooding in the USA is high. We’ve seen it, and we constantly read about it in the news. A recent survey of flood risk for commercial real estate is not encouraging.
Despite the current political dismissals of threats from climate change, a rapid 2-foot rise in sea level would be bad news for Florida, Ron DeSantis, and the rest of the world. This threat is what the fuss is about.
Life’s first challenge was achieving homeostasis by adapting to conditions in Earth’s oceans. Chemosynthetic bacteria were superbly suited to this task and they were probably the first cellular life forms, kicking off a grand evolutionary party.party.
Yedoma, a highly organic, Pleistocene-age permafrost, contains 50 to 90 percent ice mixed with organic carbon. When Yedoma melts, it delivers a blast of potent greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.
Based on Florida’s recent response to the masking controversy, we can assume the “left-wing stuff” probably includes listening to the advice of scientists and proactively cutting greenhouse emissions.
Life spontaneously developed and given another water-rich solar system with a planet in the optimal temperature range for liquid water, we would expect it to happen again.
Next time you are gazing at Mount Hood, Mount Rainier, or any other monster volcano in the American West, remember the little volcanoes constantly popping their heads up here and there across the region.
Human intervention is the only way to implement the changes needed to decrease the frequent occurrence of ocean dead zones and protect our marine habitats.
Post 8 – “Towards an enantiodromic approach to the universe. Jung, Pauli, and beyond …” Authored by Alain Negre Access the Synopsis: Towards an enantiodromic approach to the universe. Jung, Pauli, and beyond When light and matter are decoupled, the multiple appears. The opacity that encompassed the entire universe allows multiple germs to emerge. These are… Read more: The universe and the soul of the world
Post 7 – “Towards an enantiodromic approach to the universe. Jung, Pauli, and beyond …” Authored by Alain Negre Access the Synopsis: Towards an enantiodromic approach to the universe. Jung, Pauli, and beyond Matter and information supersede each other in a generating loop that continually regenerates the universe within its own organization. Over time, everything that exists… Read more: The universe is self-produced through opposites
Post 6 – “Towards an enantiodromic approach to the universe. Jung, Pauli, and beyond …” Authored by Alain Negre Access the Synopsis: Towards an enantiodromic approach to the universe. Jung, Pauli, and beyond Imperturbable sculptors and gardeners of the universe, the fundamental forces (gravity, electromagnetic, and nuclear) shape a quadruple ternary structure. Representation of forces Left: remote action.… Read more: From the dialectical work of forces to the archetype of Three
Post 5 – “Towards an enantiodromic approach to the universe. Jung, Pauli, and beyond …” Authored by Alain Negre Access the Synopsis: Towards an enantiodromic approach to the universe. Jung, Pauli, and beyond The contemporary cosmological model is based on the idealized space of physics. The concepts of qualitative physics (emergence, attractor …) allow for the… Read more: From cosmological models to the archetype of Four
The fast-moving plasma cloud from a coronal mass ejection creates a solar wind, and if it hits Earth, the resulting geomagnetic storm can kick you off the internet.
Modern farming practices consistently over-fertilize with synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, ensuring healthy high-yield crops, but also ensuring increased nitrous oxide emissions.
A blue carbon revival should be a part of our emerging efforts to mold the planet’s future. Some experts predict that developing and cultivating blue carbon sinks could eventually let them remove up to 15 percent of the world’s carbon emissions.
What does it mean to live in the minuscule space between birth and death, against the backdrop of a 13.8 billion-year-old universe, which spans 96 billion light-years?
The Deccan Traps spewed toxins and greenhouse gases for 700,000 years. The Chicxulub asteroid impact near the Mexican, Yucatán peninsula was the coup de grâce for an already weakened biosphere.
Just days after California received a severe thrashing from the combination of a bomb cyclone and the Pineapple Express, New England was whipped by rain and 90 mph winds from a brutal nor-easter.
This past weekend, Northern California passed from drought to flood as a narrow band of fast-moving air, supercharged with moisture, dumped its wet load. Welcome to the Pineapple Express.
While pruning our honeysuckle arbor, I received a garden surprise. I did a double-take to my left and found myself staring at Ollie, who watched my progress from about five feet away.
Tree rings tell us stories worth listening to, warning us how the future of 40 million people is affected by the same fate that befell the Anasazi because, without water, there is no life.
Precisely 384 million years after the first trees evolved, Homo sapiens arrived. Trees came and stayed, watching millions of animal species arrive and then disappear into the void of extinction.
Changes in drainage patterns or poor construction techniques can result in the unwelcome surprise of finding your car or home at the bottom of a newly formed sinkhole.
If we time-traveled back 1.8 billion years, the world would certainly not“seem the same”. The apex of life consisted of single-celled slime floating in ancient oceans.
Thalassophobic Dreams Near the middle of my session with Jim, I noticed on my desk monitor the silent image of Lisa entering the front office. As usual, Jim was facing the window with his back to me. A position providing enough psychological comfort to discuss his inability to carry on face-to-face conversations. One of the… Read more: Fear of the Deep
The overturning of Roe vs Wade on June 14, 2022, sent a seismic shock wave across the country, wiping away fifty years of progress for women’s rights. With the stroke of a pen, the Supreme Court threw established freedoms enjoyed by all American women into disarray, declaring that such rights as these Americans enjoyed in the… Read more: Women’s Rights in Oregon Today and Tomorrow
El Niño may be coming, and if it does, there are few places on Earth to run and hide from its effects.
If you believe Orwell’s Thought Police are part of a quaint story, you may want to have another look around. We have multiple legislatures around the country experimenting with ways to legally limit people’s access to knowledge and hence their access to free thought.
The Saudi and other Middle Eastern companies never made a secret about what they were doing. Foreign-owned agricultural land in the midwest has quadrupled over the past decade. Our politicians and state water regulators knew full well what they were doing when they sanctioned these deals.
The boundary between the Eocene and Oligocene periods marks the point where Earth reverted from hot tropical conditions to a cooler glaciated planet.
Geological investigations of an Eocene hothouse world shows turbidites may be linked to extreme weather events from global warming.
Researchers are not disputing the theoretical possibility of obtaining the Paris Agreement goals. They only point out that it is not practically plausible.
We call our home the blue planet. We need water. We covet it, saving the planet’s lifeblood in reservoirs and subterranean aquifers
When I explained to my neighbor that the cone represented a 67 percent probability zone for where the center of the storm might track, I could see his eyes go blank.
The significant volume of methane patiently waiting for release from ocean bottom clathrates should give us pause for thought if global ocean temperatures continue to rise.
Years ago, I had the unique experience of standing with my right foot in Europe and my left foot in North America in one of the few places on Earth where such a feat is possible.
Shifting weather patterns will force changes in how we all live our lives. Life for individuals and society at large will be altered by the Anthropocene world we all helped to create.
The Greenland ice sheet is caught in an Anthropocene heat trap, allowing it to melt from both above and below at unprecedented rates. Some researchers believe we are at the point of no return.
Historically, natural cycles drove the occurrence of megadroughts in the American West. But human influences are also at work.
Given that states with strict abortion stances, like Texas, recognize the personhood of a fetus, we seem to have a dilemma of quantum proportions. The situation reeks of Schrödinger’s cat.
The Purcell Lobe was notable because it blocked off the Clark Fork River, creating a massive ice dam over 2000 feet tall. The dam caused water to back up in western Montana, forming Lake Missoula
The problem of over pumping and land subsidence is global, driven by various combinations of ignorance and greed.
I personally think we will see an increasing frequency of major flooding In Yellowstone Park
La Niña conditions, which started two years ago, are set to continue according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). La Niña conditions in the tropical Pacific Ocean are near record intensity for this time of year.
A warming Barents Sea is everyone’s problem because what happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic.
Like many people on our backwater planet, I have the occasional conversation with God. In my experience, She is always reasonably helpful.
Geological history drew a line in the sand 252 million years ago. The Permian Period ended, and the Triassic began.
The Permian Period came to a catastrophic end 252 million years ago with the extinction of 95 percent of all marine species and 70 percent of terrestrial species.
The Permian water world contained one massive continent, Pangea, and a single vast ocean stretching around the globe from coast to coast.
The biosphere and our environment are in a constant dance of self-regulation. Carboniferous cooling at the end of the period is a classic example of a self-regulating cycle.
The Carboniferous Period derives its name from our love of fossil fuels. Between 359 and 299 million years ago, life laid the foundations for Anthropocene climate change as massive coal deposits formed.
Highlighted artwork from ArcheanArt
Causes of the Late Devonian extinction are more speculation than fact. But there are various bits of evidence hinting at possible causes, and a possible answer is all of the above.
Between about 383 and 359 million years ago, 70 to 80 percent of the species on the planet disappeared in a Late Devonian Mass Extinction.
Earth’s Devonian trees altered the climate and landscape, creating new dynamics for the world’s food webs and providing vast new ecological niches for evolution to fill.
The explosion in plant life in the Devonian world may have been more significant for Earth’s history than the changes wrought in the animal kingdom.
During a period of Silurian magic, life benefited from environmental conditions and thrived in the warm shallow seas and on land.
The Ordovician Period was a great time for life on Earth until the Ordovician-Silurian mass extinction catastrophe.
Life crept out of the oceans and onto dry land about 470 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. These first Ordovician plants had a major impact on the world.
The success of life in the Ordovician was driven by the availability of vast flooded continents, which formed the shallow marine habitats for a dizzying array of new and successful species
An Early Cambrian Success Story Published in The EarthSphere Blog. Feature Image: Jellyfish — 540 Million Years of Success: by WM House (ArcheanArt) Prologue The Forgotten Origins series has taken us into the Cambrian Period, where an explosion of life occurred in a frenzy of hyper evolution during the Early Cambrian. But why then? Why the Early Cambrian? The fossil… Read more: The Ingredients for Life
Due to climate change momentum there is a lag between stopping carbon emissions and stopping temperature increases.
If we reduce Earth’s history to a single day, then all major branches of life appear during a five-minute interval of hyper evolution at about 9:30 in the evening.
Mass extinctions don’t require catastrophic asteroid strikes or massive outpourings of magma from the mantle; they just need biotic replacement ; by humans in the case of the Anthropocene.
The Ediacaran was a world containing an eclectic group of organisms representing multiple evolutionary pathways, mother nature was rolling the dice to see what might turn up.
The Cryogenian formed a dividing line in the evolution of our biosphere. Before then, single-cell life was the rule, but afterward, complex,multi-celled organisms appeared.
When Earth thawed, after the Cryogenian big freeze, life had mysteriously taken a leap forward, simple animals appeared in our oceans.
The process of fully oxygenating our atmosphere was slow. But in the long run, eukaryotes and oxygen catapulted evolution forward.
After a slow two billion year start, life began to gain momentum when oxygen appeared and eukaryotes evolved.
Lake Kivu poses a threat to 2 million people, and the reality of this threat was demonstrated by a 1986 limnic eruption in Cameroon’s Lake Nyos, where 1,800 people died.
Jakarta is slipping below sea level and its government announced a long-range plan to address the issue by moving to Nusantara.
Cities should include seawalls in their long-range planning process, but they also need to have a plan B.
Arctic beavers are following their instincts and, in the process, accelerating the rate of Arctic permafrost melt and carbon release.
Unanswered questions about missing oxygen during the 1.4 billion years between the first hints of free oxygen and the Great Oxidation Event.
Banded iron formations are direct indicators of oceanic oxygen levels, and they provide us with a record of Earth’s oxygenation.
The concept of floating homes has been taken to a new level as countries adapt to the reality of rising seas.
The climate is rapidly changing. Climate adaptation recognizes this reality and embraces a sustainable future.
The escaping exhaust fumes from underground fires deliver a constant stream of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, and the fires have proven almost impossible to extinguish.
A billion years passed between the first free oxygen production and Earth’s Great Oxygenation Event. What was going on over this vast stretch of time?
The first organisms to master photosynthesis were cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae. These lowly bacteria started the blue-green revolution.
Some stories are too quirky to ignore, and we must reap what we sow. The activation of zombie landslides in Alaska is a direct result of global climate change.
Early life wasn’t much to look at — single-cell, chemosynthetic creatures and ancestorial viruses floating in chemical-rich, primordial oceans. It wasn’t pretty, but it was a start.
The cost of flooding in the USA is high. We’ve seen it, and we constantly read about it in the news. A recent survey of flood risk for commercial real estate is not encouraging.
Despite the current political dismissals of threats from climate change, a rapid 2-foot rise in sea level would be bad news for Florida, Ron DeSantis, and the rest of the world. This threat is what the fuss is about.
Life’s first challenge was achieving homeostasis by adapting to conditions in Earth’s oceans. Chemosynthetic bacteria were superbly suited to this task and they were probably the first cellular life forms, kicking off a grand evolutionary party.party.
Yedoma, a highly organic, Pleistocene-age permafrost, contains 50 to 90 percent ice mixed with organic carbon. When Yedoma melts, it delivers a blast of potent greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.
Based on Florida’s recent response to the masking controversy, we can assume the “left-wing stuff” probably includes listening to the advice of scientists and proactively cutting greenhouse emissions.
Climate Change brings new weather patters and more rain to many areas
Realistically, we should be clear about Anthropocene climate change. It doesn’t pose a threat to the biosphere. Life goes on.
Life spontaneously developed and given another water-rich solar system with a planet in the optimal temperature range for liquid water, we would expect it to happen again.
Water arrived on earth from asteroids and the evidence is that oceans have been on Earth almost since the planet’s inception.
It’s not that we don’t have the technology to produce without pollution; we simply won’t or can’t pay the price for it. But there is no free lunch.
We shouldn’t fear climate change. Instead, we should concentrate our energy on devising solutions for our largest ecosystem, Earth.
Changes in local ecosystems always mean adjustments somewhere else. It’s a reality we can’t ignore forever.
Low-tide waters recede from the shoreline and expose the phantom forests of the Oregon Coast. Trees from 4,000 years ago rise out of the ocean.
Next time you are gazing at Mount Hood, Mount Rainier, or any other monster volcano in the American West, remember the little volcanoes constantly popping their heads up here and there across the region.
Shifting weather patterns will force changes in the way we all live our lives. In plain language, “we must reap what we sow.”
There was more than enough time to live and live again on Buddha’s Farm.
Human intervention is the only way to implement the changes needed to decrease the frequent occurrence of ocean dead zones and protect our marine habitats.
As ice sheets melt, continents rise from isostatic rebound. A process that can lead to increasing earthquake frequency.
Those living on the margins of climate change are understandably vocal about their anxiety as their homes sink below the waters of climate change.
The fast-moving plasma cloud from a coronal mass ejection creates a solar wind, and if it hits Earth, the resulting geomagnetic storm can kick you off the internet.
Some scientists now believe the first complex animals on earth may have appeared some 890 million years ago in the form of sponges.
Modern farming practices consistently over-fertilize with synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, ensuring healthy high-yield crops, but also ensuring increased nitrous oxide emissions.
A blue carbon revival should be a part of our emerging efforts to mold the planet’s future. Some experts predict that developing and cultivating blue carbon sinks could eventually let them remove up to 15 percent of the world’s carbon emissions.
What does it mean to live in the minuscule space between birth and death, against the backdrop of a 13.8 billion-year-old universe, which spans 96 billion light-years?
The Deccan Traps spewed toxins and greenhouse gases for 700,000 years. The Chicxulub asteroid impact near the Mexican, Yucatán peninsula was the coup de grâce for an already weakened biosphere.
Just days after California received a severe thrashing from the combination of a bomb cyclone and the Pineapple Express, New England was whipped by rain and 90 mph winds from a brutal nor-easter.
This past weekend, Northern California passed from drought to flood as a narrow band of fast-moving air, supercharged with moisture, dumped its wet load. Welcome to the Pineapple Express.
While pruning our honeysuckle arbor, I received a garden surprise. I did a double-take to my left and found myself staring at Ollie, who watched my progress from about five feet away.
Tree rings tell us stories worth listening to, warning us how the future of 40 million people is affected by the same fate that befell the Anasazi because, without water, there is no life.
Below the ground, climate change take place slowly, gradually corroding our city’s infrastructure and poisoning our coastal ecosystems with saltwater.
Retirement should be a change toward relaxing and enjoying life. Climate change makes picking a good location a critical consideration.
Precisely 384 million years after the first trees evolved, Homo sapiens arrived. Trees came and stayed, watching millions of animal species arrive and then disappear into the void of extinction.
Changes in drainage patterns or poor construction techniques can result in the unwelcome surprise of finding your car or home at the bottom of a newly formed sinkhole.
If we time-traveled back 1.8 billion years, the world would certainly not“seem the same”. The apex of life consisted of single-celled slime floating in ancient oceans.
FEMA has decided that homeowners should pay their way and the agency has incorporated climate change risk into flood insurance premiums next year.
ater on Earth may have originated from early bombardment by water-laden asteroids and cosmic debris soon after the earth formed.
Like the canary in the coal mine, indicator species like frogs, will die off early, leaving the rest of us with a warning.
Greenland rises, and continents move as humankind’s grand experiment continues changing the only planet we have.