Human Consumption and our Planet’s Future

Pixabay: Peter H

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Human consumption is not just about food. It’s about clean water, clean air, energy sources, minerals, rock, sand, lithium, rubber, wood, all the ingredients that provide us with our homes, furniture, cars, clothing, tech devices, electricity, heating and cooling our homes, means of running our cars, sports equipment, entertainment, and other creature comforts. The increase in population and need for homes mean more natural land is being paved over for homes and agriculture.

To take one example, we are buying more clothing and discarding it sooner. The clothing industry accounts for 20% of our water pollution and remains only behind the fossil fuel industry in that regard. Every year the world consumes over 80 billion clothing items. In 2013 over 15 million tons of textile waste was produced according to the EPA. When clothing ends up in landfills. chemicals, such as dye, leach into the ground. When unsold clothes are burned, CO2 escapes—as much as 1.2 billion tons per a World Resources Institute report.

Amazon trees are being felled to make way for agriculture, reducing oxygen produced by them, and an environment for wild life. We buy knick-knacks, souvenirs, toys galore, decor for every holiday, political swag, gadgets for special uses or plain silliness—remember that awful fish on a board to hang on your wall that wagged its tail and talked or sang. When the last parent passes on, their belongings don’t. They are hauled to the dump by the truckloads.(Advice to the elderly is to clean out the attic so your loved ones are spared such trips.)

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Plastic has been my bugaboo as it takes eons to degrade and is killing ocean life including the plankton that produce more oxygen than the Amazon forest. Containers for goods are next to unavoidable. We once used glass, but glass requires sand, of which there is not an infinite amount, and too much removal from some sites have had a negative impact. Cardboard originates from trees. Face it, we’re consuming at a faster rate than Mama Nature can provide.

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I’m as guilty as the next person, seeking the perfect lemon squeezer, the foam pillow designed to prop my ipad in bed, plastic storage boxes to park stuff in my attic. Now, I’m determined to turn over a new leaf. I’m saving plastic containers and bags for reuse rather than buying those convenient seal plastic bags. I reuse unsoiled tinfoil. My hubby thinks I’m nuts but gets in trouble when he balls it up, thinking it’s fun. I’m encouraged by efforts to manufacture a biodegradable plastic or plastic-like material to use in containers, millennials who are eschewing abundant wardrobes. Like most of us I’ve spent most of my life accumulating. Now it’s time to stop and begin shedding. Unfortunately, most of the young don’t want our family heirlooms of china, crystal, and silver.

As a footnote, I highly recommend David Attenborough’s A Life on Our Planet on Netflix. In fact, it should be required in our schools and for adlults to be allowed to vote. I plan to devote my next blog to its message. The documentary not only is a stark commentary on human’s impact on the planet, it includes ways we can avoid disaster.

There’s a Way to Stop Flushing Trees Down the Toilet

As an environmental extremist I was delighted to discover from an article in the Washington Post that now there is toilet paper made from  bamboo, recycled paper,  hemp, jute, rice and wheat straw, and other recycled products.   

Forests logged for products including toilet paper can release as much as 26 million metric tons of carbon each year or 1,102,311 tons or 2,204,622,000 pounds, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. More specifically, approximately 27,000 trees are cut down on a daily basis for toilet paper. However, the amount of carbon is difficult to compute because each type of tree releases a different amount of carbon. That number of trees brings home to me the environmental cost of using today’s toilet paper better than the number of pounds of carbon.

The brands are: Reel, (judged strongest). Simple Truth (softest), Whole Foods brand and Evespring tied for Abosorbancy. Overall, the researcher’s fannies judged Reel the best. Trader Joes was said to carry Reel, but ours doesn’t at least not yet.

If you try one of these brands out, I’d love to hear from you in the Comment section below.

I Need Your Help Again

I showed you a handful of pictures to use for my photo for upcoming book Not Alone On Earth. Usually, authors use professional headshots. I decided on something more casual. The mixed results inspired me to combine as much as possible what people liked.My hubby, Kenn, took several snapshots. It was clear, which one I wanted and they weren’t easy to take because of the settings.

I passed the desired one to my book cover designer. He decided to enhance it. At first I started laughing. He had put me on a postcard. Then I began to think there was some elements I liked. In particular he tookd the shadow off my face. I began to wonder if there were any other elements I might keep so let me hear from you. Just put your votes into the comment section below.

Here’s what I want verified or suggested.

Yes or No 1. Keep the facelift?

2. Make the sand a more natural color? 3. Keep the bushes? 4. Keep any of the trees? 5. Change the sky a shade of blue? 6. Change the water more blue?

I’d love to hear from you.

1/ Keep the facelift?

2. Make the sand a more natural color?

3. Keep the bushes?

4. Keep any of the trees? If so, which one or ones?

5.\. Change the sky a shade of blue or some other natural color?

6. Change the water more blue or a more natural color?

7. Any other thoughts? I’d love to hear from you.

Comment

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The Plastic Conundrum

Who doesn’t love berries: strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries? We eat them every morning. However, in the US, they come packaged in plastic clam shells, which often end up in the oceans and seep into the food chain and therefore our bodies. Further, they are made from fossil fuels. However, according to the NY Times article they prolong the freshness of the food wrapped in them and therefore stem food waste. This surprised me. Even more surprising is that food waste might be worse for the environment than the plastic in clam shells. Swiss researchers showed one rotting cucumber caused as much environmental damage as  93 plastic wraps. As food rots it creates methane.

Spain taxes plastic use. France has restricted plastic use for packaging produce. Canada is working on a plan to curb such plastic use by 2028. In our country, 11 states restrict plastic packages. The Biden administration is encouraging new ways to package food. Trader Joes provides biodegradable bags for customers to use for unpackaged produce.

I’d happily purchase produced in carboard boxes and make certain I ate them all. Hmm, cardboard comes from trees. I guess I’ll insist the cardboard comes from recycled material and is recycled again.

Based on article in the NYTimes.

What Will Human Curiosity Lead To Next?

Human kind has always looked to the skies. The ancients used the stars as a guide. The sun and moon track passage of time. Today we still wonder what’s out there. We wonder if we are alone in the world. We wonder if the universe is expanding or contracting. We send telescopes into space that can communicate with today’s astronomers.

Now, astronomers from the entire world are building the largest telescope ever on a mountain in the Atacama desert in Chile. Construction won’t be complete until 2028, and it is over half constructed.  Its 128 foot diameter primary mirror will be the largest reflecting surface ever made. It will be able to detect objects millions of times more faint than the human eye is able to see. It is referred to as the ELT for Extremely Large Telescope. The above picture is an ELT in Europe.

Astronomers plan to use Its ability to image galaxies whose light has traveled for 13 billion years via four spectrographs that can disperse light into its principal colors. It is expected  that a better understanding of dark matter and energy will result.

Astronomers are most interested in areas that are in the Goldilocks zone where water on the space rock is neither boiling nor freezing, ie just right for life. Of course, scientists always think about what supports human life giving short shrift to the idea that life could live outside of the conditions that support life as we know it. However, not so long ago tardigrades were discovered that can handle extrem heat. Now, there is a class of living creatures called extremophiles. I guess we are specieists regarding living conditions.

I find the question of why there is anything most profound, but I don’t expect anyone will have an answer. My limited mind can imagine the universe going on forever into the future, but I cannot imagine it going infinitely into the past. Some part of me thinks there must be a starting point, but then I have to ask what happened before that?

Save Our Oceans and Save Our Planet

Climate scientists are and have been working hard to stop climate change. There are many ideas beyond the big one of stopping using fossil fuels. They concede that people will never give up convenience and comfort. We want heated and air conditioned homes, store and cook food, be able to watch movies and TV news, have lights on to function at night and early morning. We want individual means of transportation. While there are many ways to be conservative about energy use, we are addicted to it. That will not change.

Not only is climate change a major issue, access to clean water is also threatened as we are rapidly draining our ground water.

Below are some of the many ways climate scientists have considered to keep our world cool,  and preserve water. We cannot rely on human behavior to sufficiently stem use of fossil fuels, and in fact it is not possible to not produce some carbon dioxide. However, currently we emit nearly 40 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide every year. It is so much that we not only need to curtail the amount with new energy sources, but we need to get rid of the amount of carbon dioxide somehow. Here’s a partial list or what’s being considered.

• Desalinate ocean water to handle water and irrigation sparsity
• Harness melting ice at our poles
• Create photovoltaic cells that use sunlight, thereby harnessing the sun
• Means of removing carbon dioxide and methane from the air
• Burying carbon dioxide in the ground.
• Lower the acidity level of the oceans

Many  of these means are so costly, they would require sacrifice on the part of the human population. Of course there is efficiency in large projects.

Feldspar Pumice Carbonatite

The one that excites me most involves lowering the acidity in our oceans by adding alkaline rocks. This is known as carbon sequestration. The less acidic the oceans are the more carbon dioxide they absorb, and our oceans are becoming more acidic. Norwegian scientists are experimenting with adding alkaline rocks in a fjord. In fact there are 15 institutions researching this possibility. One means includes grinding the rocks to be granular.

One caveat for all ideas is that often processing requires fossil fuels or produces some carbon dioxide. Many people say they hate politics, but that is at the peril of our children and grandchildren as we need leaders who understand what the human population is up

Many people say that they hate politics, but we must elect leaders who will vote to fund climate change solutions. We used to say for the good of our children and grandchildren, but climate disasters are occuring in the here and now.

https://www.geomar.de/en/news/article/using-rock-minerals-to-combat-climate-change

Intelligence and Thinking

Recently, I’ve been thinking about all of the aspects of INTELLIGENCE. I’m giving my own sense of the following qualities in alpha order.

Astuteness: Someone who is astute is likely to pick up things others don’t notice.

Awareness: Someone who is aware doesn’t miss what others get.

Cleverness: Someone who is clever thinks outside the box.

Creativity : Someone who is creative may find unique solutions to hard problems.

Critical thinking: Someone who objectively  considers all aspects of an issue & how they relate. They question and check unusual claims against reliable sources.

Curiosity: Someone who is curious desires to know more about what they encounter.

Intuition: Someone who is intuitive understand other people’s feelings and situations.

Logic: Someone who is logical uses valid deductive reasoning.

Memory: Someone with a good memory retains information that assists with  making valid conclusions.

Perception: Someone who is perceptive notices details that might escape others.

Reasoning: Someone who reasons well gathers appropriate information and applies logic.

Sensitivity: Someone who is sensitive is aware of her surroundings and other’s feelings

Tolerance: Someone who is tolerant is willing to hear those she disagrees with.

Understanding: An understanding person comprehends what she reads and appreciates other’s views.

Wisdom: A wise person makes good judgments and assessments of situations.  

I’ve had enough life experience that I believe these properties are distinct from each other in that there are people who have some properties but not others. Some commonly overlap, but not all.  

Note: Children learn by inductive reasoning. For example, children learn permanence of objects via induction. However, they often draw incorrect conclusions. I had a nephew whose mother and grandmother didn’t drive cars. He concluded that women didn’t drive cars. As they mature, intelligent children learn induction can lead to false conclusions. (Ironically, likely via induction.)

Examples of people I know of  or knew:

1. Did well at understanding text books, following grammar rules, and is articulate but falls prey to the slipperiest of con artists
2. Struggled for C’s in high school, but had no trouble identifying con artists and blowhards.
3. Can reason well but makes poor decisions
4. Intelligent but so self centered that everything bad that happened to her was due to other people
5. Got good grades but believes in things that appeal to him such as astrology and magic cures
6. Autistic genius, but doesn’t get jokes especially those that involve wordplay
7. Knowledgeable about many subjects, but can’t read the room as my daughter calls it, meaning unaware of when they were offending or boring other people

I’d love to see more examples.

I feel I’ve barely scratched the surface. One can argue some items on the list are personality traits such as curiosity and sensitivity. Our level of intelligence is indeed part of who we are.

As a knowledge exercise try to match the photos above with: Elon Musk, Albert Einstein, FDR, Jennifer Doudna, Madame Curie, Golda Meir, George Washington Carter, Mary Golda Ross, Katherine Johnson, M.C. Escher, Leaonardo da Vinci, Aristotle, Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de’ Galilei, Isaac Newton, Alexander Graham Bell, Emmy Noether, Ada Lovelace, and Stephen Hawkins. If you’re very knowlegeable you’ll know what these remarkable people are known for. If not and you are curious, you’ll look them up.

The Many Aspects of Intelligence

Recently, I’ve been thinking about all of the aspects of INTELLIGENCE. I’m giving my own sense of the following qualities in alpha order.

Astuteness: Someone who is astute is likely to pick up things others don’t notice.

Awareness: Someone who is aware doesn’t miss what others get.

Cleverness: Someone who is clever thinks outside the box.

Creativity : Someone who is creative may find unique solutions to hard problems.

Critical thinking: Someone who objectively  considers all aspects of an issue & how they relate. They question and check unusual claims against reliable sources.

Curiosity: Someone who is curious desires to know more about what they encounter.

Intuition: Someone who is intuitive understand other people’s feelings and situations.

Logic: Someone who is logical uses valid deductive reasoning.

Memory: Someone with a good memory retains information that assists with  making valid conclusions.

Perception: Someone who is perceptive notices details that might escape others.

Reasoning: Someone who reasons well gathers appropriate information and applies logic.

Sensitivity: Someone who is sensitive is aware of her surroundings and other’s feelings

Tolerance: Someone who is tolerant is willing to hear those she disagrees with.

Understanding: An understanding person comprehends what she reads and appreciates other’s views.

Wisdom: A wise person makes good judgments and assessments of situations.  

I’ve had enough life experience that I believe these properties are distinct from each other in that there are people who have some properties but not others. Some commonly overlap, but not all.  

Note: Children learn by inductive reasoning. For example, children learn permanence of objects via induction. However, they often draw incorrect conclusions. I had a nephew whose mother and grandmother didn’t drive cars. He concluded that women didn’t drive cars. As they mature, intelligent children learn induction can lead to false conclusions. (Ironically, likely via induction.)

Examples of people I know of  or knew:

1. Did well at understanding text books, following grammar rules, and is articulate but falls prey to the slipperiest of con artists
2. Struggled for C’s in high school, but had no trouble identifying con artists and blowhards.
3. Can reason well but makes poor decisions
4. Intelligent but so self centered that everything bad that happened to her was due to other people
5. Got good grades but believes in things that appeal to him such as astrology and magic cures
6. Autistic genius, but doesn’t get jokes especially those that involve wordplay
7. Knowledgeable about many subjects, but can’t read the room as my daughter calls it, meaning unaware of when they were offending or boring other people

I’d love to see more examples.

I feel I’ve barely scratched the surface. One can argue some items on the list are personality traits such as curiosity and sensitivity. Our level of intelligence is indeed part of who we are.

As a knowledge exercise try to match the photos above with: Elon Musk, Albert Einstein, FDR, Jennifer Doudna, Madame Curie, Golda Meir, George Washington Carter, Mary Golda Ross, Katherine Johnson, M.C. Escher, Leaonardo da Vinci, Aristotle, Galileo di Vincenzo Bonaiuti de’ Galilei, Isaac Newton, Alexander Graham Bell, Emmy Noether, Ada Lovelace, and Stephen Hawkins. If you’re very knowlegeable you’ll know what these remarkable people are known for. If not and you are curious, you’ll look them up.

Who Doesn’t Love Penguins?

Here’s good news and bad news regarding penguins:

Let’s see. I usually prefer to get bad news over with first.

      Gentoo Penguins            Trudging in Snow

The Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) has uncovered a deadly type of bird flu found in gentoo penguins—pictured above. This is thought to be the first time bird flu struck these funny little creatures dressed in tuxedos. The fear is that the virus could spread among Antarctica’s huge penguin colonies.

35 penguins were found dead in the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic on Jan. 19. Samples from the dead penguins came back positive for the H5N1 avian influenza virus. The Falkland Islands government reported many more gentoos were dying, and as of Jan. 30 pver 200 chicks were found dead next to a few adults.

      Emperor Penguins            Brunt Ice Shelf

Now for the good news or perhaps, merely interesting. Via satellite, scientists saw  “skid marks” on snow. Suspecting they came from emperor penguins they searched for their breeding grounds, assuming they did their business away from where they slept, I imagine. They found four undiscovered colonies and one ground they thought had been abandoned. It turned out that the presumed abandoned one had merely been moved 18 miles away likely due to calving of an ice shelf —pictured above— near the former site. Evidently it caused the emperor penguins—pictured above to pack up and move away. As more and more sea  ice disappears, penguins will continue to be on the run.

Now, there are 66 known colonies. Colonies are hard to find on Earth because we humans weigh more than penguins and are less adept on ice than one of our favorite creatures. Yet, we laugh at the way they walk.

  Penguins in Africa      King Penguins        Ice Floes

 Eighteen species of penguins distributed among six genera have been identified by scientists, but it is conceivable there as many as 22 species. Further,  different penguin species are known to interbreed with one another, theoretically creating new species. When they thrive in such harsh environments that humans can barely tolerate, it is not surprising we aren’t certain about how many species there are. I find it surprising scientists have uncovered as much as they have including movie star penguins featured in Penguins of Madagascar pictured below.

            Penguins of Madagascar stars

OK Folks, I Need Help With My Last Book

Usually, there’s a picture of the author on the last page. Typically, it’s a head shot, but my last one is too old but I do look younger. It was professionally done. This time I’m considering something more casual. I think I know which one I want, but I thought I’d test it out. All would need some editing. There’s software to erase unwanted. So please use reply for which you like best and any editing you might recommend.

Number 1-6 by rows. Keep in mind it will appear in black and white in the book. Below are the rejects for your amusement. Vote for one if you like. There’s at least one reject in Row 2, but I wanted rows of 3.

Use reply below and indicate your favorite by # and what background shoule be eliminnated if any.

THANKS!

Name Your Poison

Name your Poison has long been an expression used by  hosts at a party where alcohol is served. I’m reading a book titled Most Delicious Poisons that suggests how apt that saying is.

Both plants and animals have predators, and survival today means they’ve evolved to have scents or a particular substance in their petals, pistols, or skin that repels their enemies. To wit, the substance makes the predators ill and even die. The skin of a newt is highly poisonous. The book describes a case where a teenager ate one on a dare, and died within hours.

 Plants that need pollination to reproduce do the opposite, they have adapted to attract bees and other pollinators to themselves. In the process, their pollen sticks to the legs and the visitors spread the pollen.

In the case of humans, different people are enticed and repulsed by different things. I love beets and hate lima beans, and my husband’s taste is the opposite.

What is surprising is that the same substance can be both good and bad for you, depending on the amount ingested both for animals and humans. In particular, many spices and caffeine, have this property. From another source, I discovered that coffee should be filtered through a paper product to protect cardiovascular health, but its value is that it increases our alertness and provides antioxidants. It is a substance that one adopts a taste for due to its positive consequences.

Tolerance for alcohol also varies widely for human beings both genetically, and from our eating history. Most people find beer and wine relaxing in moderate amounts, but alcoholics lives are shortened and negatively affects relationships. Tea also has caffeine in smaller amounts. Nicotine may be safe at a rate of one cigarettte a day. It releases adrenalin. However, the pack a day folks are subject to respiratory diseases , cancer, and cardiovascular diseases. Further, nicotine is addictve since it requires greater amounts to achieve the same level satisfaction. Vaping e-cigarettes increase the risk of asthma, bronchitis, emphysema, and COPD (Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.)

It is interesting that some bitter things like coffee is an acquired taste, but the author, Noah Whiteman of Most Delicious Poisons, believes it is the kick from caffeine and nicotine that makes it taste better with consumption as if it’s mind over matter.

Many toxic chemicals in plants provide medicines and anesthetics. You are awake for cataract surgery, which would be unbearably painful withought dulling the eyes. In particular, thank poppies for penicillin, and the list goes on. What might kill you in high doses from plant derived medicines  can cure you in proper doses.

Happy Healthy New Year!