A central aspect of being a surfer is getting innundated with weather reports. If ever a group had its eyes on big storms and ’watershed events’ it’s the children of waves. And the buzz now is zonkers over superstorm Nuri in the Northern Pacific. Nuri’s impact as a typhoon is starting to lessen, but nonetheless the Explosive Cyclogenesis (aka weather bomb) is charted as the most powerful event of its kind, ever.
Nuri began as a low pressure incident just off Guam a few days before Halloween, now over Alaska, soon to wreak its wreckage over the lower 48.
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Snowpiercer is recent sci-fi film that depicts a moving train as the last existing survivable habitat on an earth that fails to accomplish its geo engineering goal, putting the surface into a deep freeze. The plot has class struggles and wacked adaptions abounding, but the real heavyweight star of the film is offstage throughout the action.
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Today in the NY Times, an article – “Climate Tools Seek to Bend Nature’s Path” introduces some of the talent and leading acts of this ice capade.
Beyond the practicalities, many people view the idea of geoengineering as abhorrent — a last-gasp, Frankenstein-like approach to climate change that would distract the world from the goal of eliminating the emissions that are causing the problem in the first place. The climate is a vastly complex system, so manipulating temperatures may also have consequences, like changes in rainfall, that could be catastrophic or benefit one region at the expense of another.
Of course, the chemtrail crowd has been claiming for awhile that these efforts are well underway.
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Well fellow terrestrials, fellow passangers, with winter FAST approaching, and our climate sheepish leadership buffing its mufflers on facts, while raring to go carbon prospecting, what do you think? Ready for winter?
The Descent of Climate Change
Climate change might also be seen in the context of a form of evolution. With the immense change in the population growth of this singular overreaching species a significant modification of climate patterns in a relatively short time is a very real possibility. It may be why it really is ‘too late.’
With Nuri ‘Bering’ down on us and who knows what, I bought two new pairs of longjohns and some packets of handwarmers.
The blunder of abundance
If I’m reading you correctly, it seems you’re saying we’re seeing some kind of cultural apoptosis. This phenomena is also known as cell death, and occurs naturally as a way of enhancing the overall viability of an organism. It’s a kill switch on overproduced or vestigial cells.
I’ve been wondering lately about why a species of ‘scientifically literate’ people, who’ve been given ample warning, and evidence, return to destructive practices that undercut our own best interest. The last election practically screams out this fact.
Is it a death wish, or kind of a wildebeest stampede, where the herd gets caught up, not knowing the cliff is ahead?
Any way you slice this..it’s hard to make sense of it.
are we not men, we are devo
Are we deer in the headlights, unable to get out of the way?
Are we lemmings, waiting for everyone else to start to move?
Personally, there isn’t too much more I can do without moving to a new location and building a new, energy-efficient residence. Our landlord controls energy efficiency for this house, and has shown no interest in even re-caulking windows, let alone insulating, tightening up leaky doors, or adding anything like a wood stove or solar panels.
Over 50% in town rent, so over 50% of us depend on the house owner to make these decisions. We can hope and wish all day for ways to make a serious dent in how much energy we consume.
I’ve already sworn off airplane trips – they are a big climate damager. Cut back on meat eating. Ditching the car would be hard but not impossible.
Reduce, re-use, and recycle. Check.
And, while I do this, someone else buys an SUV and flies to Europe for a vacation… which makes me feel a bit silly for doing anything at all.
So, in writing this out, I’d say that perhaps the attitude is: “we’d all do more if everyone else was doing more, but if my neighbor is wasteful, perhaps it can wait.”
We’re lucky, neighbor-wise – we have bike-evangalist Dave Cohen and family gently nagging at everyone who sees them that getting rid of cars more possible than ever. (Though the costs of the nice assisted-bike options are still a bit prohibitive for many people.)
We’re lucky to have friends who ride around on scooters and skateboards, also showing us alternatives.
We have some great people in town devoting their lives to this issue.
We’re all in it together, even the terrorists!
Will we get there with baby steps? Will we have our own tsunami of awakening? Will we end up like Wall-E – with a planet filled with garbage piles from a single megastore?
It is a fun time to be alive, eh?
The Old Godfly Farts in Power
Yes, Spinoza, you are correct – I see humans as a cultural apoptosis….although, humans, in mind and body, are akin to rampant cancer cells on an otherwise seemingly healthy biosphere.
Cancer cells are particularly noted for killing its body-host, and themselves in the process.
Senator Jim Inofe (the old Godfly is 80 years old!!) from Tulsa compared the EPA to the Gestopo, that “climate-change science is a scaremongering scam confected by liberals in Washington and Hollywood, in order to impose crippling regulations on businesses at great cost to the US economy.”
Moreover, this old fart has quoted the Bible (Genesis 8:22) to support his thesis. “My point is, God’s still up there. The arrogance of people to think that we, human beings, would be able to change what He is doing in the climate is to me outrageous,” he said.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/zealot-of-us-climate-change-sceptics-jim-inhofe-to-determine-environmental-policy-9852459.html
mythic teeth
The three headed dog, known as Cerberus, the hound of hell, is an offspring of the biggest baddest beast of them all, Typhon. Etymologists speculate this is the source of the name for the most massive of storms, the Typhoon. Among Typhon’s other children, the Hydra, the Sphinx, the Nemean Lion, and Chimera…Talk about twisted family tradition.
Cerberus was tasked with guarding the gate to the underworld, neither letting people in nor souls out. I can grasp the latter function, but am harder-pressed to find motives for the living to bust into hell, unless it be to visit loved ones, or hang with the legends of rock. But seeing us court our own demise via climate catastrophe, the wisdom of this symbol may come into focus.
As we hasten our own destruction, or try to sway the current with sweeping change, an important question might be, is the guard dog’s bark worse than his bite?
Gated community
Any wall or gate to keep people out is also a wall or gate to keep people in.
Hadn’t thought of it before, but with Cerberus, Hell becomes a gated community. (Heaven, too, with the pearly gates.)
There are a few unsafe ways to test if a dog is serious about biting. Often they skip the barking entirely and just start with the teeth. Why warn your victim?
new heads everywhere you look
In the Cerberus myth, some versions have the dog with many head, innumerable heads by some accounts..This is more apt as it comes to this story. I was a little surprised that a subject like climate change and our adaptions didn’t get more response. I guess it’s too big, too scary.
In the days after the story appeared, US-China signed a major emissions agreement. Some thought it a big deal, others shrugged it off.
Then the vortex descended, again. You’ve felt the nip, and seen the stories. Buffalo buried in snow, already a number of deaths.
I think about this every day, and there are so many facets..Did you see the pictures of the surfers in Buffalo who rode the lakes waves in the midst of the storm? Or the fact that yesterday at Mount Snow, for opening Day, there was great top to bottom coverage, thanks to state of the Art fan guns.
We have the capacity to use our gusto and technological know-how to keep our stoke flowing, will the same intrepid and undaunted spirit prevail when it comes time to dodge the carbon bullet?
Life Itself - wouldn’t know a human from a bag of potatoes
Humans certainly are adaptable, and perhaps indomitable. Yet, nature (life) is relentless in its apathy for individual welfare. Life Itself – wouldn’t know a human from a bag of potatoes.
We’ve been fooled by fooling ourselves into believing that there’s a special place and consideration for each of us. Pshaw! What idiots most people are! They muck it up for the few sensible ones.