Dogs are animals of integrity. We have much to learn from them.
Category: Environment
Five minutes of pure sanity
I can’t recall how I came across this wise Professor but it was in recent times. Not going to say any more at this stage. Just watch the following.
There will be more from David Ehrenfeld over the coming weeks.
Humanity is on the march, earth itself is left behind.
David Ehrenfeld, The Arrogance of Humanism, 1978
Life is without meaning. You bring the meaning to it.
The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be.
Being alive is the meaning.
It would be so easy to stay with this theme for a very long time, perhaps to the end of one’s mortal days.
Anyway, my topic has taken sufficient shape for me to conclude with this article and then leave these ideas with you, or just out there in the universe. The ‘shape’ being that whether the facts about the way we treat Planet Earth depress you, or whether taking a mystic, spiritual view is more your scene, it’s up to you. Let’s recap.
The first article was to show that there are very strong and valid reasons to take an incredibly dim view of where it’s all heading. In fact, those that stay with Learning from Dogs over the weeks, you hardy lot!, will know that the premise that we, as in mankind, are well and truly in the midst of a massive transition, unlike anything ever experienced before, is an idea that crops up here every so often. This piece on the 22nd is just an example, and there are many more articles resonating around this theme on the Blog.
Then the second article was to show that a simple change of perspective can make all the difference to how we see the world. (Oh, and such a big thank-you to Sue Dreamwalker for that beautiful poem from her.)
OK, to the point of this article!
The BBC have been showing the most beautiful episodes in recent weeks from a massive production hosted by Professor Brian Cox- The Wonders of the Universe. Here’s the BBC trailer.
Did you pick up on that key sentence? “Ultimately, we are part of the universe.”
Here’s a recent piece from the British Guardian newspaper, I think written by Brian Cox, the presenter of the series.
The universe is amazing. You are amazing. I am amazing. For we are all one. Everything we are, everything that’s ever been and everything that will ever be was all forged in the same moment of creation 13.7bn years ago from an unimaginably hot and dense volume of matter less than the size of an atom. And that is amazing. [Understatement! Ed.] What happened before then in the Planck epoch is a matter of conjecture; we lack a theory of quantum gravity, though some believe the universe was formed from a collision of two pieces of space and time floating forever in an infinite space, but I feel I’m losing you at this point, which isn’t so amazing.
Read it in full here, but it concludes, almost poetically, as,
Time feels human, but we are only part of Cosmic Time and we can only ever measure its passing. As I stand in front of the great glacier that towers over Lake Argentino, time seems to almost stand still, yet as I explain the effects of entropy in the Namibian desert as sandcastles crumble around me, you can see that the transition from order to chaos can happen almost in the blink of an eye. One day, perhaps in 6bn years, our universe will stop expanding, the sun will cool and die, as all stars must, and everything will collapse in on itself, back into a black hole singularity. I leave you with this last thought: that we, too, will only really die when the universe dies, for everything within it is intrinsically the same.
Brian Cox takes an almost mystical perspective of the size of the universe and the almost unimaginable number of stars and planets it contains.
So, how many stars are out there? From here, I quote,
It’s a great big Universe out there, with a huge numbers of stars. But how many stars are there, exactly? How many stars are there in the Universe? Of course it’s a difficult question to answer, because the Universe is a vast place and our telescopes can’t reach every corner to count the number of stars. But we can make some rough estimates. Almost all the stars in the Universe are collected together into galaxies. They can be small dwarf galaxies, with just 10 million or so stars, or they can be monstrous irregular galaxies with 10 trillion stars or more. Our own Milky Way galaxy seems to contain about 200 billion stars; and we’re actually about average number of stars.
So an average galaxy contains between 1011 and 1012 stars. In other words, galaxies, on average have between 100 billion and 1 trillion numbers of stars.
Now, how many galaxies are there? Astronomers estimate that there are approximately 100 billion to 1 trillion galaxies in the Universe. So if you multiply those two numbers together, you get between 1022 and 1024 stars in the Universe. How many stars? There are between 10 sextillion and 1 septillion stars in the Universe. That’s a large number of stars.
Even if one writes down in longhand the number, 1022 , as in 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 it still has no real meaning whatsover. That, of course, does not even get close to estimating how many planets there are out there.
Let’s say, just as a muse, that each sun only had a single planet. Let us also continue this musing and say that only one in a billion planets had life on it. In other words, if we divide 1022 by a billion, we still get the eye-watering result of there being 1013 or, longhand, 10,000,000,000,000 planets with life forms. That’s 10 trillion, by the way!
OK, cut it down some more, and then some more, and even more.
But whichever way you cut it, the conclusion is inescapable, the universe must be teeming with life and much of that life intelligent and wise.
So let me leave you with this thought about the meaning of it all. It’s this.
It is said that the world reflects back what we think about most. As I hope to have shown, we can think our way into extinction, or we can think our way to more mystic and spiritual outcomes. The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be.
In the end, if we screw up this planet as place for mankind to prosper and grow, it’s no big deal. There will be many other humankinds out there in the universe who have taken a different route.
Sleep well tonight!
Life is without meaning. You bring the meaning to it.
The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be.
Being alive is the meaning.
Going back to yesterday’s Post, if you either watched in full or dipped into each segment of the film, Prophets of Doom – The American Collapse, it would have been impossible for you not to end up pretty despondent about where civilisation in general, and American civilisation, in particular, has got itself.
The film is probably factually well-based, despite the awful style of the presenter, so it would be a perfectly human response to worry about how close to the precipice we are getting.
Anyway, the following evening we watched a wonderful DVD lent to us by John H, Mythic Journeys. Here’s the official trailer. Watch it, but more importantly listen to the words of the soundtrack, they are inspiring.
If you go to the website, as highlighted, then you will read this about the movie.
Own the award-winning spiritual film that has captivated audiences across the country and has been hailed as a “Masterpiece”, “Profoundly Transformative”, and “Life-Changing”!
Mythic Journeys is not your typical documentary. Like a mythological story it is a multi-layered experience, rich and stimulating interviews with philosophers and spiritual leaders are interwoven with a gorgeous animated tale of a king, a sorcerer, and a mischievous corpse. The film takes the audience on a powerful spiritual journey.
But there’s more to it, as the next video clip underscores. It’s this. As Duncan Campbell explains in the video, change is deeply unsettling for humans.
There is no doubt that millions of people across the world sense that we are in an era of very great change. It deeply undermines our security in the future, whether having any real form of emotional reliance on the future makes any sense anyway. But if we let go of the future, as Terry Hershey so competently voiced when he was here in Payson, then we can pray and love each moment of each day.
Life is without meaning. You bring the meaning to it.
The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be.
Being alive is the meaning.
This is a quote from Joseph Campbell and, as with so much of his writings, these few words have an import way beyond the face reading of the four sentences. Why am I called to this introduction? Let me explain.
The last few days have been unusually hectic, almost as though my senses have been deliberately targeted by a whole variety of messages. Not planned, you have to understand, just the way it’s been. However, when reflecting on the way these messages have moulded my emotions, it has been very clear that conflicting messages have produced conflicting emotions and that getting to the heart, as in the meaning of it all, requires quiet, contemplative time.
So what I am going to do over the next few days, not over the week-end, is to present each of these elements in the order that they were presented and then, at the end, offer what I hope is a more balanced perspective, i.e. the core meaning.
The first ‘message’ came from watching a 90 minute video highlighted on the web site, Top Documentary Films. The film explored the ways that six prominent Americans thought the ‘American Way’ was heading. Deeply gloomy except for the last 10 minutes or so.
Here’s how that website described the film.
Today’s world has troubles unique to its time in history, from the global financial crisis to technological meltdowns to full scale, computerized global war.
Observing the convergence of such events, contemporary prophets have begun to emerge from obscurity to suggest that these conditions might be signs of the demise of the modern world.
These men are historians as well, using all manner of information and patterns from the past to provide context for where we are going.
Their predictions interpret the current state of affairs in our world as evidence that the America we know may come to an end.
The men proposing these ideas are not crackpots living on the streets of New York; they are intelligent, learned men who come armed with the evidence to back up their claims.
I am now going to include the film, in all its parts, as found on YouTube. Don’t suggest you watch it all, unless you feel so inclined, but try and get a feel for the various aspects of American life that are portrayed as unsustainable.
Just as important, make a note of your emotions as you watch these excerpts (and commenting on this Blog even better!)
More reflections tomorrow.
A guest post from John Hurlburt.
When we’re in love with God, the cosmos, our living garden planet and the steadily growing conscious interconnection between those who understand and serve, we live in awe and wonder and realize a peaceful natural serenity in the midst of our daily concerns and responsibilities.
As our world, our environment and our culture appear to be unraveling, it becomes increasingly necessary for human beings to slow down to re-energize. It’s clear that our species has recently lost spectacularly to natural forces in the Gulf of Mexico and Japan. It’s no coincidence that it’s our technology which continues to reveal the fundamental weakness of human ego. It’s more than a metaphor that our individual and species arrogance is our Achilles heel.
There are many people who fail to perceive, understand and appreciate parallel realities from a rational, sensory and unified perspective by learning to see through a mystical third eye. Mysticism may be misunderstood as simply thinking outside of the box. Forget about the box. Let go of self-centered fears. Become aware of being unaware. Nurture capabilities to perceive non-locally and act locally. What’s happening worldwide comes with the territory. We are each responsible for our collective destiny
Meditation reflects that imagination and creativity are necessary to invent and utilize tools. Creativity did not begin with humans and is not exclusive to humans. God’s nature precedes emerging technology. Morality derives from our common need for species unity.
The message is that God doesn’t care about money and the sky is no longer a human limit. The fact remains that except for occasional astronauts we all continue to live on the same planet. Those who understand need no explanation.
There is a need for productive use of intelligence and technology at our natural frontiers. We need to refuel world economies with clean energy visions that provide solutions for our present local planetary emergency.
We may choose to implement the changes necessary to avoid impending local ecosphere, cultural and technological meltdowns while preparing for a migration to the stars.
Unification is a common goal. Leaving the nest of our garden planet is a partial unifying solution for the problems of our exponentially expanding species. An alternative is that our obsession with the symbol of money will have the same dire consequences for those who are obsessed as for those whom are oppressed.
Please love God, maintain an even strain, follow your bliss, continue to learn, share and serve our common purpose under God, proceed as the way opens, cross the next bridge as we come to it, enjoy the journey and stay in touch.
Gratefully,
From an old lamplighter!
The quote that forms the title of this article is from Alice in Wonderland and is spoken by the Rabbit.
At first, that quote seems quite mundane. However, most find ‘Alice’ quotes are rich in truisms and life’s great philosophies. How about this?
Alice: “It would be so nice if something made sense for a change.”
So what drew me to these two illustrations from Lewis Carroll’s magical pen? Just this sample of a few days of stuff coming into my email box!
Ice loss from Antarctica and Greenland has accelerated over the last 20 years, research shows, and will soon become the biggest driver of sea level rise.
From satellite data and climate models, scientists calculate that the two polar ice sheets are losing enough ice to raise sea levels by 1.3mm each year.
Overall, sea levels are rising by about 3mm (0.12 inches) per year.
2. Running on Oil
A recent email in my in-box from John Maudlin was all about Japan and oil. But there were some stark messages about our use of oil across the planet. Try this:
There are multiple sources for many of the metals Japan imports, so that if supplies stop flowing from one place it can get them from other places. The geography of oil is more limited. In order to access the amount of oil Japan needs, the only place to get it is the Persian Gulf. There are other places to get some of what Japan needs, but it cannot do without the Persian Gulf for its oil.
This past week, we saw that this was a potentially vulnerable source. The unrest that swept the western littoral of the Arabian Peninsula and the ongoing tension between the Saudis and Iranians, as well as the tension between Iran and the United States, raised the possibility of disruptions. The geography of the Persian Gulf is extraordinary. It is a narrow body of water opening into a narrow channel through the Strait of Hormuz. Any diminution of the flow from any source in the region, let alone the complete closure of the Strait of Hormuz, would have profound implications for the global economy. [My italics.]
3. Energy rethink
From Rob Dietz of CASSE, Centre for the Advancement of the Steady State Economy.
As if we really required more prompting, the unfolding nuclear accidents in Japan are confirming what we must do. When a disaster strikes, the most urgent response is to help those who are suffering, prevent further calamities, and clean up the messes—it’s a time to get busy. But the next critical step is to figure out what we might do differently—it’s a time to take a step back and contemplate how we got where we are and where we might go from here. With each passing day, it is becoming increasingly clear that we need to rethink where and how we get our energy supplies.
And later in this article:
A New York Times article provides an astonishing description of what happened at the Fukushima nuclear power plant where the backup generators failed to cool the overheating reactor:
The central problem arises from a series of failures that began after the tsunami. It easily overcame the sea walls surrounding the Fukushima plant. It swamped the diesel generators, which were placed in a low-lying area, apparently because of misplaced confidence that the sea walls would protect them.
The key phrase in that description is “misplaced confidence.” Misplaced confidence sums up how we got to this point in history when it comes to selecting sources of energy to power our ever-expanding economy. Regardless of what smooth-talking P.R. professionals say, a nuclear power facility has been the site of a serious accident about every 10 years: witness Three Mile Island in the U.S. in 1979, Chernobyl in Ukraine in 1986, Tokaimura in Japan in 1999, and now Fukushima in 2011. “Safe nuclear power” is an offensive oxymoron.
Misplaced confidence also describes our failure to take big strides on phasing out fossil fuels. We have misplaced confidence that we’ll find a technological solution to climate destabilization, that the market will take care of the problem, and that Mother Nature will continue to warehouse the emissions from our economy with no consequences.
Maybe millions of us should be adopting the same query as Alice; “It would be so nice if something made sense for a change.” Because continuing as we are without understanding the urgent need to make ‘sense’, to take heed, of the living, conscious planet that is our only home is utter nonsense!
Back to Mr Rabbit, “Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it’s getting!”
Yes, Mr Rabbit, how late it’s getting!
There’s always much more to people than meets the eye!
I can’t recall at what point in the life of Learning from Dogs that Per Kurowski popped up over the parapet but it was pretty early on. Per has been a great supporter of my varied efforts to promote the way that dogs are a wonderful example of integrity, trust and openness.
Anyway, Per comes from a background that one might not associate with the rest of this article. Per used to be a director at the World Bank. One of his Blogs includes this:
I warned many about the coming crisis, long before it happened, on many occasions and in many places, even at the World Bank. They did not want to listen and that´s ok, it usually happens, but what is not ok, is that they still do not seem to want to hear it. “We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” (Plato: 427 BC – 347 BC)
Just a couple of days ago, I posted about the moon that passed closer to the Earth on the 19th than for the last 20 years. Per added a comment to that Post, “And this is a homemade version of the beautiful Harvest Moon song by Neil Young” With this link. At that link you can watch and listen to Per singing ‘Harvest Moon’ recorded by Neil Young. Enjoy.
Here was that moon, as seen from Payson in Arizona with some cloud in the sky!
Finally, for those interested in the lyrics, here they are.
Come a little bit closer
Hear what I have to say
Just like children sleepin’
We could dream this night away.But there’s a full moon risin’
Let’s go dancin’ in the light
We know where the music’s playin’
Let’s go out and feel the night.Because I’m still in love with you
I want to see you dance again
Because I’m still in love with you
On this harvest moon.When we were strangers
I watched you from afar
When we were lovers
I loved you with all my heart.But now it’s gettin’ late
And the moon is climbin’ high
I want to celebrate
See it shinin’ in your eye.Because I’m still in love with you
I want to see you dance again
Because I’m still in love with you
On this harvest moon.
Come a little bit closer
Hear what I have to say
Just like children sleepin’
We could dream this night awayBut there’s a full moon risin’
Let’s go dancin’ in the light
We know where the music’s playin’
Let’s go out and feel the nightBecause I’m still in love with you
I want to see you dance again
Because I’m still in love with you
On this harvest moonWhen we were strangers
I watched you from afar
When we were lovers
I loved you with all my heartBut now it’s gettin’ late
And the moon is climbin’ high
I want to celebrate
See it shinin’ in your eyeBecause I’m still in love with you
I want to see you dance again
Because I’m still in love with you
On this harvest moon
Yet another reflection of the precious planet upon which all life depends.
Watch this!
It comes towards the end of the fascinating documentary about the life of John Trudell. If you would like to watch the complete documentary, then that is available on-line also. It is described by the site Top Documentary Films thus:
At its most basic level, Trudell is an eye-opening documentary that challenges belief systems. At its loftiest, Trudell will inspire you to reawaken your spirit.
In the telling of Trudell, Rae invested more than 12 years chronicling John Trudell’s travels, spoken word, and politics. (The making of the movie, a journey in itself, is as much a story as the finished product).
The film combines archival, convert, and interview footage in a lyrical and naturally stylized manner, with abstract imagery mirroring the coyote nature of Trudell.
Pockmarked with adversity, counterbalanced by preservance, Trudell begins in the late sixties when John Trudell and a community group, Indians of All Tribes, occupy Alcatraz Island for 21 months. This creates international recognition of the American Indian cause and gives birth to the contemporary Indian people’s movement.
Rae revisits Alcatraz, returning to what John refers to as his birth. From Alcatraz, we follow John’s political journey as the national spokesman of the American Indian Movement (AIM).
During this tumultuous period, his work makes him one of the most highly politicalsubversives of the 1970′s, earning him one of the longest FBI files in history (more than 17,000 pages).
A fascinating, perhaps even non-trivial, insight into that massive earthquake.
(Thanks to the website Mish’s Global Economic Trend Analysis for giving me a heads-up to this aspect of the ‘quake.)
MISH’s website pointed me to the website Space.com where there was this interesting reflection.
The massive earthquake that struck northeast Japan Friday (March 11) has shortened the length Earth’s day by a fraction and shifted how the planet’s mass is distributed.
A new analysis of the 8.9-magnitude earthquake in Japan has found that the intense temblor has accelerated Earth’s spin, shortening the length of the 24-hour day by 1.8 microseconds, according to geophysicist Richard Gross at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.
Gross refined his estimates of the Japan quake’s impact – which previously suggested a 1.6-microsecond shortening of the day – based on new data on how much the fault that triggered the earthquake slipped to redistribute the planet’s mass. A microsecond is a millionth of a second.
“By changing the distribution of the Earth’s mass, the Japanese earthquake should have caused the Earth to rotate a bit faster, shortening the length of the day by about 1.8 microseconds,” Gross told SPACE.com in an e-mail. More refinements are possible as new information on the earthquake comes to light, he added.
The scenario is similar to that of a figure skater drawing her arms inward during a spin to turn faster on the ice. The closer the mass shift during an earthquake is to the equator, the more it will speed up the spinning Earth.
I was also interested to read in that article more confirmation that the earthquake moved Japan! (I had mentioned it in an earlier post on Learning from Dogs.)
The initial data suggests Friday’s earthquake moved Japan’s main island about 8 feet, according to Kenneth Hudnut of the U.S. Geological Survey. The earthquake also shifted Earth’s figure axis by about 6 1/2 inches (17 centimeters), Gross added.
The Earth’s figure axis is not the same as its north-south axis in space, which it spins around once every day at a speed of about 1,000 mph (1,604 kph). The figure axis is the axis around which the Earth’s mass is balanced and the north-south axis by about 33 feet (10 meters).
“This shift in the position of the figure axis will cause the Earth to wobble a bit differently as it rotates, but will not cause a shift of the Earth’s axis in space – only external forces like the gravitational attraction of the sun, moon, and planets can do that,” Gross said.
So if you are the sort of person that likes to be precisely on time ….. take note!
The moon is at her full, and riding high,
Floods the calm fields with light.
The airs that hover in the summer sky
Are all asleep to-night William Bryant
As many of you know, I wrote a piece last Monday about how close the moon will be to the Earth on the 19th, and some ideas about whether there was a correlation between close full moons and natural disasters.
Well tomorrow is the 19th and I wanted to remind everyone to take time off, be outside and just admire this wondrous object in our night sky.
A reader, thanks Suzann, pointed me to the NASA Science website where there is some good factual information about how special this moon is. From that website, I quote:
Mark your calendar. On March 19th, a full Moon of rare size and beauty will rise in the east at sunset. It’s a super “perigee moon”–the biggest in almost 20 years.
“The last full Moon so big and close to Earth occurred in March of 1993,” says Geoff Chester of the US Naval Observatory in Washington DC. “I’d say it’s worth a look.”
Full Moons vary in size because of the oval shape of the Moon’s orbit. It is an ellipse with one side (perigee) about 50,000 km closer to Earth than the other (apogee): diagram. Nearby perigee moons are about 14% bigger and 30% brighter than lesser moons that occur on the apogee side of the Moon’s orbit.
“The full Moon of March 19th occurs less than one hour away from perigee–a near-perfect coincidence1that happens only 18 years or so,” adds Chester.
A perigee full Moon brings with it extra-high “perigean tides,” but this is nothing to worry about, according to NOAA. In most places, lunar gravity at perigee pulls tide waters only a few centimeters (an inch or so) higher than usual. Local geography can amplify the effect to about 15 centimeters (six inches)–not exactly a great flood.
(The Moon looks extra-big when it is beaming through foreground objects–a.k.a. “the Moon illusion.”)Indeed, contrary to some reports circulating the Internet, perigee Moons do not trigger natural disasters. The “super moon” of March 1983, for instance, passed without incident. And an almost-super Moon in Dec. 2008 also proved harmless.
Okay, the Moon is 14% bigger than usual, but can you really tell the difference? It’s tricky. There are no rulers floating in the sky to measure lunar diameters. Hanging high overhead with no reference points to provide a sense of scale, one full Moon can seem much like any other.
The best time to look is when the Moon is near the horizon. That is when illusion mixes with reality to produce a truly stunning view. For reasons not fully understood by astronomers or psychologists, low-hanging Moons look unnaturally large when they beam through trees, buildings and other foreground objects. On March 19th, why not let the “Moon illusion” amplify a full Moon that’s extra-big to begin with? The swollen orb rising in the east at sunset may seem so nearby, you can almost reach out and touch it.
Don’t bother. Even a super perigee Moon is still 356,577 km away. That is, it turns out, a distance of rare beauty.
Author: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASAFootnote: Less-perfect perigee moons occur more often. In 2008, for instance, there was a full Moon four hours from perigee. Many observers thought that one looked great, so the one-hour perigee moon of 2011 should be a real crowd pleaser.
Learning from Dogs 
