In a bubble (10/3/2024)

“Bang, bang, bang ...” “What was that, it sounded like machine gun fire.” We were on our regular evening dog walk. The short pee walk before we go to sleep. “Nah, it is a car back firing on the main road” I replied. The next night, around the same time “bang, bang, bang,” etc. “Again, is that the same car? What has the world come to and where is the police?”

If it isn't that, it is a car or motorcycle trying to drag race down the road. They roar on the main highway by our neighborhood. A highway that is mostly empty around 11 at night, the time we typically walk our dogs. We feel sorry for those folks living closer to the highway. It must be really jarring at times; although there is a sound wall between their backyard and the road, it must be pretty loud of we who live a half mile down the road are bothered by it. Drag racing at 11 pm? At least the cops are asleep, so it is a free-for-all.

What is this world coming to? Where is the consideration for our fellow citizens, chivalry, empathy, class, you name it. Everybody is in there for themselves, stroking their narcissistic tendencies, trying to claim the vehicle with the fastest acceleration title, moreover, which vehicle is the loudest, the most souped up? Fuck that gas mileage, I'll just complain that gas prices are too high, and blame some politician, but keep on spewing it out of that enlarged tailpipe that makes a roaring sound of their monster truck. Who is all powerful and more manly. Or are they compensating for something they lack?

The other day I was driving home from having the van worked on and here came a car that was either a Mustang or a Camaro shoot by me with a big roar. I was on a 3-lane road following the sped of traffic. The dude weaves in and out of lanes trying to pass all kinds of seemingly traffic-law obeying citizens. In essence putting all those folks in harm’s way. A few weeks earlier, some lunatic was passing cars on the shoulder of the 4-lane highway I was on. It is not only Yorktown; it is this country. I saw it in Kansas City, Louisville and even in the mountains of Colorado.

I know, here is another old and decrepit guy who should no longer be driving complaining about the youth or fellow pavement users. No that's not it, I am no slough, and this is not only about drivers and their vehicles. As a country we have become a lot less considerate of other people. We grab them by the pussy, we make them look like idiots, and so on. We have become a society of slaves; slaves to society, corporate America, to our politicians and for some this is the only way they can distinguish themselves in this slave society. In their non-slave hours folks are trying to stand out, become individualized, without regards for others. And what is the remedy? I really do not know, maybe a bit more sense of community and responsibility.

Whenever I am outside, walking, working in the front yard, checking the mail or simply sitting on a park bench, I try to be courteous. Oh, I'll give you the middle finger greeting if you, at night, in the dark, come barreling down the road with your bright lights on and don't dim them when I know you can see me, but you insist on blinding me. Remember asshole, I can see you way earlier than you can see me, you don't have to shine those brights right into my face. I broke an ankle in 2001 when I accidentally stepped in a hole on the curb when some lady refused to dim her lights.

So here you see that I can dish it out as well. Use words that may offend some of you folks, and I am sorry, but I just want to make a point. This attitude that I describe in this post is what is hurting this country, our earth and our survival as species. We need to start thinking more collectively, be more aware of our fellow humans and realize what the results of our actions are on other folks and society. We do not live in a vacuum. Speeding up your or this society's demise is not getting you anywhere except that you drag everyone down with you, you damn narcissistic idiot. Everything we do affects others, even if we don't see it.

Yup, me, me, me and fuck the rest of society

Does the earth love us? (11/26/2020)

 Do you think the earth loves you back?

An interesting question indeed.  I am reading Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer and I one of her essays she mentions that she asked her students exactly that question.  Her students were dumbfounded.  But when she made it more hypothetical it became easier for her students to address the question.   "What do you suppose would happen if people believe this crazy notion that the earth loved them back?"  It seemed a discussion broke out, and one student proclaimed that you could never harm something that loved you!

So here we are.  Am I or is Robin anthropomorphising?  I really do not know.  I think there is an important point to be made here. Why would we want to screw up our environment and treat our earth, the only one we have, like crap and expect it to love us and treat us nicely?  But that is what we are doing.  No wonder it is throwing global warming at us and natural disasters like a record hurricane season.  Hopefully, you don't do this at home with your loved ones, or with your friends.  So why gamble and abuse that piece of real estate you, your children, and your grand children depend on?  It will definitely keep returning the favor!  Well, if I was the earth, I am not sure if I could love my human inhabitants, unless I am the benevolent earth.

In the past I have written a lot about what some of the religious thoughts about men's dominion over the natural world.  How early on many religious folks and philosophers considered that a supreme being created the earth.  They were convinced that everything on the earth was for us humans, who were created in his image, to exploit and use, and that we would be provided for.  I mentioned characters like Malthus who rang the alarm bell and told us that eventually this may come back to bite us in the but because we would exceed the earth's carrying capacity for humans.

I also wrote about my fear over Trump's view and what he would do.  I knew he hated nature and the natural environment.  Golf courses for him baby, highly modified and treated with fertilizers and pesticides; not exactly loving nature.  Moreover, I am sure his hands never touched dirt except to pick up a golf ball.  Well despite his loss in the recent election, he is still at it trying to wreck havoc to the environment and the earth, inflicting damage that will be difficult to undo.

Concluding, I (still) strongly believe that we were put on the earth to take care of nature and of mother earth so it would take care of us, not to exploit and abuse it.  If we do that, I am sure it will return the favor!

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

The woods behind our home.  I am so happy I live here, that they are under conservation easement, and that I can enjoy them every day.  We need more green space in our collective life, to protect our air, our water, our sanity and our soul.

Welcome to my brain, or on mortality (7/1/2019)

I sometimes feel the pressure of having to write and keeping my readers somehow updated with my thinking and my feelings. The problem is that at times, I just sit there and have very little to say. But then I am reminded of that article or blog I read once that said, even if you do not have to say anything keep writing, because practice makes perfect; moreover, who knows, something profound may come pouring out (so there may be hope). I wrote about that or about writing in general before <here>, <here>, <here> and <here>.

I have been in a funk since all the things that happened in May. Yes, I am slowly digging myself out of the hole, but hitting another landmark birthday recently (on that same day, my birthday, my father-in-law had a heart attack, he is OK), and now having a horrible backache with the pain shooting down my legs and actually numbing my toes does not really help either. You heard the saying “two steps forward, one step back,” or is it “one step forward, two steps back?” I just hope it is the former, not the latter. Interesting fact here the “f” in former stands for first (now get your mind out of the gutter) and the “l” in latter stands for last of the two choices. I had to look this up and here I learned something today.

However, the pain in my back was so bad that I actually begged my wife to kill me. Thank goodness, we do not own a weapon that could easily accomplish such a task. Moreover, while I would be out of my misery, her misery would just begin after a mercy killing like that. But all the sudden I realize that here we have hit a number of issues in this short essay including euthanasia, writing, gun control, sickness, depression; I could really be off to the races with any of these subjects. I could even combine them. I guess that is why the advice was to just start writing and see where you end up.

Sitting at the doctor’s office with this wonderful back of mine, I was confronted with my mortality. There were only three other folks in the waiting room. On one side of me was a young woman, who I overheard, thanks to my newly acquired hearing aids (a sign of old age and lots of rock music), was telling the receptionist that she was born in 1997. A quick calculation told me that she must be 22 or 23, a fresh young green leaf (she did not look ill). Across from me was an older couple, much older than I am, the woman of the couple could hardly walk in, complaining that she was burning up and very sick. She looked like a leaf ready to fall off the tree. This past week I am not sure where I was in the season of leaf development.

One wonders so now and then: at what stage of life are you, and from what angle will the wind blow and how hard will it blow and can you hang on?

Also in the waiting room, I was threatened with a 2013 article in BizNews that had the following headline: “Retire at 55 and live to 80; work till you’re 65 and die at 67. Startling new data shows how work pounds older bodies.” I guess, I already (for the first time in all these years) admitted to being old in this post. Actually, I just turned 66 and if you are a regular reader, you know that I am not retired. Does this mean I have less than a year to live? I hope not. However, if these posts stop all the sudden, you know what happened to me: my time was up. 

Honestly, my mortality does not keep me awake at night. What keeps me up lately are my back and things I am working on at work, like course design. But, death is not one of them. I know it is going to end one of these days, and hopefully I have at least 20 more years. I would like to leave a legacy, with my teaching, my thinking, my writing, and maybe with some of my photographs (sorry, I am not wealthy). I know that I cannot take anything with me; moreover, when I am dead, I am dead. I do not believe in an afterlife, a heaven or a hell. I believe that we better create our heaven here on earth, and leave a livable heavenly earth behind for our children and grandchildren, something a lot of folks seem to forget. One thing is for sure, the earth's environment might be ruined if we don't do anything about it quickly. We cannot just sit, lean back any longer, take a wait and see attitude, wondering what will happen.

Reading the book "Braiding Sweetgrass" by Robin Wall Kimmerer, I came to an interesting passage comparing the Judeo-Christian "Eve" and the Native American "Skywoman." Both are seen as the founding mothers of their respective religions. While Skywoman was sent to plant it and tend to it, creating a wonderful environment for her descendants. Eve, on the other hand, was sent in exile from the Garden of Eden for eating from the forbidden fruit, the fruit of knowledge. I never looked at it that way, I always thought of it more like the attitude of Francis Bacon and man's dominance over the natural world. Instead, according to Kimmerer, for Judeo-Christians it is more like who gives a crap about this world, I want to go back to the Garden of Eden or maybe that's called heaven. Who cares if we fuck up this world, this is exile country, we don’t belong here. An interesting view on religion and environmentalism, isn’t it?

Oh well, here we are back to one of the subjects dear to my heart: protecting the world, the environment, for that 22 or 23 year old "green leaf" in the doctor's office, so she can enjoy it for another 60 years, and for her children after that. But at times it is so hard to see that we are making any headway (two steps back). Having a president who claims we have the best climate and best environment in the world, knowing all too well that the air quality has deteriorated over the past two years thanks to his policies and the EPA turning back environmental regulations.

All I can say my friends is: welcome to my brain (if you ever want to send me a hat to protect it: size extra-large) and my often non-linear way of thinking. This is how I sometimes connect the dots, especially when it is somewhat clouded by muscle relaxants, my mortality and the mortality of others around me.  If you wonder about the time you wasted on reading this blog, don't worry, the next one will be more on subject.

The threat of extinction (5/8/2019)

(if you allergic to the F-word ... you better turn around, I don't usually do not employ it much in my blog post but I could not help myself here in this post) 

So this week the word came out that more than one million species on this earth face imminent extinction. Over a hundred scientists from 132 countries concluded this in a 1,500 page report which will probably not be read by many people, very much like that other report that recently came out (but more about that some other time). The major conclusion of the report is (and I am putting my own spin on it) that in the current times that we are living, or the Anthropocene, we have such a huge impact on the world’s ecosystem that the abundance of native plant and animal life has fallen by 20 percent or more. Moreover, this is just the beginning and lot more of a decline can be expected. The current decline seems to have happened mostly during the time of the massive population explosion of the past century, during which we passed the 7 billion number when it comes to counting us people on this earth. Now combine this with global warming and you get the message. Folks we need to do something about this! It is not appear to be slowing down. 

When I say that we need to do something about this, I am not spouting some leftist socialist propaganda or ideology. Remember, we only have one small blue marble that floats in space where we can live on, if we screw this one up, we have nowhere to go! Even worst, if we fuck this one up, our spawn and their spawn have nowhere to go! It does not matter if you are rich or poor, republican or democrat, liberal or conservative, religious or atheist, Catholic or Baptist, Muslim or Buddhist, black or while, brown or yellow, straight or gay, male or female, tall or short, thick or thin, you get the message, there is no escaping this. We need to take care of the place we live in or on. 

A photo I took early April at Sky Meadow State Park in Northwestern Virginia.  Pictures or sights such as this are under threat of climate change. 

So what is happening? Well I have not yet read the 1,500 page report, neither have I read the 38 page executive summary. Then, who the heck am I daring the write about it? I am a biologist, an ecologist and someone who knows a little bit about the environment. I have written many posts about the issue already in my blog (just scroll through the labels), although of late it seems they have gotten the least attention of the posts that I publish. Oh well, I will not give up. 

My understanding from folks, who have summarized the summary, there are a few things going on: 

1. For one, our little blue marble is rapidly starting to exceed its carrying capacity. This simply means that there are too many people on this earth. We all need to eat, and what do we do? We clear more natural areas, more nature. Eventually we are going to run out of land and we will not be able to feed everyone (Malthus predicted this already in 1798). However, in the meantime all that clearing is causing that crash in abundance and biodiversity that is being reported. Plants and animals need a certain minimum area to survive, and when the area gets to small, it becomes susceptible to invasive species that kill the natives. If you have ever been in the southwest U.S. you should have seen what Kudzu can do. There are many other examples like the brown-headed cowbird that I write about in this bog post. In addition, Driving back and forth to work it seems that I have much less bugs crashing into my windshield than 5 or 10 years ago. Where have they gone? It seems, that they may have been replaced by the ticks and mosquitoes in my back yard.
2. Eating animals in particular cows (beef) is very inefficient. I once learned that approximately only 10 percent of the energy that is stored in the plants is past on in the meat of animals once it reaches us. So when we eat plants we can get a lot more energy out of the same acre of land than when we eat a hamburger (we would need 10 acres for the same energy we get from one acre of plant based nutrition). This is an argument often made by vegetarians, I am no vegetarian, but I do try to eat meatless at least one to three days a week, and eat seafood at least once a week. 
3. Global warming does not help either. First, we thought that the warmer climate might actually increase crop production. However, what we are finding now is that the nutritive value of these vegetables is much less than plants growing under conditions without global warming (or fertilizer for that matter). 
4. Global warming has another effect, some native plants that grown near the southern most limit of their range in the northern hemisphere or at the most northern limit on the southern hemisphere are not be able to survive when it gets much warmer. The question becomes: “what will replace them?” Native plants from warmer regions might not be able to travel fast enough, and the replacements may be invasive species that contribute nothing to the local insects and animal species, which will starve and die off. There are actually experiments underway in Minnesota and Rhode Island where they are planting southern trees in the forests and watching them thrive.
5. Finally, let’s not think about what the warmer climate will do to diseases and pests for all the plants and animals and maybe even our crops and livestock. But then, maybe there is hope and it will kill off some of the population and restore the worlds balance (that makes me a fatalist doesn’t it). 

I know that there will be folks who will tell me that the climate of our blue marble has been changing ever since the earth was formed so many years ago. The issue is that at no time was the change anthropogenic (or human caused, or at least human accelerated or magnified) and in this case the scientists are unanimous. Others tell me that their god (note I am not capitalizing god) has given them dominion of the earth and that they could do with her what they wanted. As I mentioned, I do not think god gave them permission to fuck the earth up the way we are doing it at the moment. I think we were tasked to take care of her.

I promise that I will read the summary and provide you with a more detailed overview of what the report says about the state of our world’s environment. In the meantime folks be aware of what you are doing to the environment, recycle, reduce your footprint, if possible foster diversity of plants in your yard, use natives, and try to use as little pesticides and yard chemicals as possible.

Yorktown (6/29/2015)

So going to work on the boat we got stuck at the railroad overpass by a train with tanker cars.  The railroad is owned by CSX and serves the heavy industry in York County.  With heavy industry I am referring to our power station and what used to be the refinery.  Both are and have been changing a lot lately.

The power station is owned by Dominion, and it is my understanding that it is partially coal and partially natural gas.  From what I understand, it is or used to be one of the most polluting power stations on the east coast, and we know that!  After a few days without rain we have a (not so) nice, thin, black dusty coating on our white boats, and the only thing that could possibly contribute to that would be the power plant.  Hopefully it is not the hexavalent chromium that was found by the EPA in the waste site.  I also hope that they’ll make good on their promise and discontinue using coal.  But then they are complaining that they cannot generate enough electricity for the Peninsula and have to construct a power line over the James River, in view of historic James Town, but more importantly Kings Mill a neighborhood with million dollar homes.  Dominion is threatening rolling blackouts if they don’t get what they want.  It seems somewhat childish, but of course we the common/middle class man will be the victim.

There is one nice thing about the power station: it is a great beacon for us sailors.  If we aim for the smokestacks we know we are on our way home.  That time we sailed across the Bay it was a very clear day and we was able to see the stacks all the way from the eastern shore.

The refinery has been closed for some time, and the current owners have been retooling it as an oil storage and shipment facility.  CSX is the major transporter of heavy crude from the wells in North Dakota to the Yorktown facility.  We have heard of two major accidents in the past year.  Both of them, the one in West Virginia and the one in Lynchburg, involved CSX trains that were on their way to our sleepy county on the York River and Chesapeake Bay.   This was somewhat concerning to some of us because we had discovered some issues with a stream crossing in our county.  Finally after all the accidents, CSX fixed the problem.  The photograph above shows the railroad crossing, one of the big storage tanks, and a train on its way out of the refinery.  I assume it was empty and on its way back to North Dakota to pick up another load.  The tanker cars looked new (no graffiti), so hopefully they are the double walled type, although I am not sure if that would be any help if you roll down a cliff in the mountains. 

No real message here today, but just a record of some of the things that we saw over the weekend.  It illustrates how this little county, that we live in, is connected to the world (remember my post on the Dolly Sods?).  This interconnectedness includes the electricity that is generated in the county and its influence on the construction of power lines elsewhere, or even as far as North Dakota and exploding railroad cars in West Virginia and Lynchburg.  We are amazingly interconnected in this world and it feels like things that affect us in York County may have nationwide or maybe global impacts.  The photo below illustrates that as well.  It was taken a few weeks ago and shows the visit of the Hermione from France.  In front of it is a small cruise ship; I wonder if it’s visit was planned or if the passengers had a treat that they’ll remember for the rest of their lives, and most likely they will remember Yorktown as well.

Photo taken June 7, 2015.

Random ramblings about the Hampton Roads (5/24/2015)

The Australian kayaker Steve Posselt visited the area this past week.  He is trying to convince the world about the gravity of global warming by kayaking in 3 continents.  He eventually plans to end up in Paris for the next climate conference.   There are many ways people try to focus our attention to a (their) cause: be it dead soldiers with Memorial Day, multiple sclerosis with an MS 180 bike ride (I rode one from Houston to Austin 8 years ago), a breast cancer walk for life, circumnavigate the Americas for disabled sailors, or even kayaking the world to focus attention on global warning.

I have been interested in the issue of how to convince people that environmental responsibility is a must.  It seems that there is a group that is concerned about the environment and a whole group of people who do not seem to give a damn.  Crazy enough they seem to fall out along political or ideological lines, or even religious lines.  That's what's fascinating me.  As I mentioned in my bio, it was Stanford University's psychologist Leon Festinger who wrote the following in the 1950s:  "A man with a conviction is a hard man to change. Tell him you disagree and he turns away. Show him facts or figures and he questions your sources. Appeal to logic and he fails to see your point."  Call me crazy, but it still applies 60 years later.   I really wonder how to get that paradigm shift, but I'm afraid that they'll only see the point when it is way too late.

The way I see it, it was Francis Bacon (1561-1626) who reminded us that we humans had dominion over " the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.’ (Gen.1:28).  In the Novum Organon, Bacon writes: "Let the human race recover that right over nature which belongs to it by divine bequest."  It is scary to see that in those days we already felt that we owned the earth and that we could do with it what we wanted, with the excuse that God gave us permission (dominion).  Still now do I see Facebook posts by religious friends that tell me to trust God, and to relax because God is in control.  I find this outright scary, but it illustrates the divide that I was writing about; although as I am often reminded by Donna (my wife), dominion over nature does not mean that you do not need to take care of it.  Dominion means you have a responsibility to take care of the eartg.  I honestly do not think that any God would have a plan to let her/his creation go to hell.

Anyway Steve Posselt called our area "This is a staggering part of the world," or as I may paraphrase one of the crown jewels in God's creation.  Below are a set of pictures that I have taken over the years of this crown jewel.  Hopefully we can preserve this beautiful landscape.

View of the James River from Surry towards Jamestown

York River from York River State Park

Sunset over the York River from the National Colonial Parkway

About the cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel with my sailboat 

Charlottesville (3/30/2015) ... or about man's dominion over nature.

Monday included another afternoon road trip, this time to Charlottesville for a class I'll be teaching tomorrow.   It was a strange day that started out with a migraine and I was dragging.   Waiting for ever thing to settle down and the pain killer to work, I picked up a book that I've been working through on environmental justice (see the tab on my blog about books I've been reading for the title).  I am reading this book because of an interest I have in how to sell conservation in particular to people who are more cavalier about environmental protection.   I am very passionate when I teach and hopefully I can convert one or two persons and make them respect and protect the natural environment, but I am still frustrated that some people still don't get it.

Reading the book I hit the point on the so called idea that man has been given dominance over the natural environment by our Christian god (Genesis 1:26).  Being a Pantheist, I believe in the Devine in everything and in humans being part of it and not in charge of it.  But, I have often wondered how this thing about human dominion all got started, in particular since that attitude could be so destructive to the environment.  The authors of the chapter I was reading credits John Locke (1623-1704) for this notion, but reading a biography of Locke, it seems that he built on the philosophy of Francis Bacon, who interpreted the bible in such a way.  Granted this was all thought up in the 17th century and we did not know about photosynthesis,  evolution and other great scientific discoveries.

Locke had some other  interesting ideas.  He believed that "Land that is left wholly to Nature, that hath no improvement of Pasturage, Tillage, or Planting is called, as indeed it is, waste, and we shall find the benefit of it amount to little more than nothing"  (Locke 1694, Second Treatise, Sec. 42-43).  In other words, nature itself was worthless and had no function.  Not the brightest idea, but on the other hand, Locke did have some great ideas on religion (tolerance) and private property, and some of his ideas were championed in the Americas.   It seems that Thomas Jefferson was a reader of Locke; and wow, here I find myself in Charlottesville the home of Jefferson.

Locke calculated that improved land derives 99 to 99.9 percent of its value from cultivation rather than from the land itself.  This philosophy still permeates part of our economic system and explains our relationship with nature and public land.

With this notion we are ignoring that:

1. Nature's inherent value apart from human utility,
2. Nature has a psycho-spiritual value,
3. Nature's ability to create (wildlife, natural resources but also oxygen, clean water),  
4. Humans are part of nature.

One of Locke's ideas was about waste.  He be lived that no one should enmass more property than he needed.  Man should not waste land and what he grows from the land; otherwise he had to share is excesses.  So Locke was a property guy who had somewhat socialistic tendencies before socialism was invented.  The biographer tells us that this notion was easily abandoned by Locke's followers with the invention of money.  Now the excess crops, milk or meat could be sold and would not go to waste (the birth of capitalism).

The photo below was taken at Monticello.   I got there 45 minutes before closing and the ticket police would not allow me to go for a short walk in the woods without paying.   Like I would be able to make it all the way up to the mansion in that time and take the free tour.  Oh well.  At least I got to look at the green roof above the gift store.  It is amazing how at least part of our society is finally understanding that Locke was just a reflection of the level of science at time he lived, and that nature has a function and value.  I think it would have been something Thomas Jefferson would have embraced; however, he would probably have grown crops on the roof.

Good Morning Yorktown (1/9/2014)

“Red in the morning, sailor’s warning.” This is an interesting saying and from what I can find on-line there may be some truth to it (http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/weather-sailor.html).  It seems that dust from an approaching storm is kicked up and that the sun light is refracted in it, with the red rays hitting our eyes.    

It was glorious this morning, and the sun came up right behind the Dominion Power Plant in York County.  Not sure if it is a good omen or not.  When we moved to the county in 2000 we read reports that this is the most polluting power plant on the east coast (http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Yorktown_Power_Station).  I’m still not sure if that is correct, but there were reports last year that it is not very good (http://wydaily.com/2013/07/26/report-yorktown-power-station-as-operating-near-impaired-waterway/).  All I know is that when the wind is bad (maybe a few times in the year) you can smell the coal that is being burned at the power station.  Moreover, my sailboat is usually covered with ash from the power station.  Thanks goodness two of the three generating units at the plant will be shut down next year (maybe the rumors were not far off).  These are coal burning; the third is an oil burning unit which will remain operational.  Maybe it is a new day for pollution in the area.  Regardless it was a gorgeous sunrise.  I should really carry my good camera with me instead of just my phone.