Sunday, September 29, 2013

Otter pup in a bucket

Otter in Sea

Otter peek-a-boo

Burrowing Owl

Cool cloud

Sunday, September 8, 2013

The Great Transition: Humanity at the Tipping Point by Gary Stamper

The Great Transition: Humanity at the Tipping Point – Part Two

by Gary Stamper

Evolutionary Responses to Global Challenges or more of the same?

Part one of this series began with a quote from United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as he recently described the unprecedented changes facing the world today:

“Throughout the ages, people have said that the world is in the midst of big change. But the level and degree of global change that we face today is far more profound than at any other period in my adult lifetime. I call this period the Great Transition.”

My sense tells me we’re already in trouble. Here’s why.

First, an observation: The Secretary General makes it sound as if he coined the phrase “The Great Transition,” and while he may not have meant it that way, and it is a small distinction unimportant in the Grand Scheme of Things at this time of Great Transition, it feels typical of previous meetings of world leaders in the Kyoto Protocols and at Copenhagen. In those meetings, world leaders decried the threats of climate change, wrung their hands in agony over recognition of the perils we face, and went home and changed nothing.

The term Great Transition was first introduced by the Global Scenario Group (GSG), a faculty international body of scientists convened in 1995 by the Tellus Institute and Stockholm Environment Institute to examine the requirements for a transition to a sustainable global society. The GSG set out to describe and analyze scenarios for the future of the earth as it entered a Planetary phase of civilization.

Since its introduction, the term “Great Transition” has often been used by organizations or individuals in the environmental/sustainability domain to describe a paradigmatic shift of civilization towards the behaviors and values that would be necessary for a sustainable global civilization to flourish.

It appears that’s the context the UN is using to facilitate this conversation, but is that realistically where we’re headed, or is this just an egalitarian new-age pipe dream driven by wishful thinking that no longer applies because of rapidly shifting life conditions and climate change “positive feedback loops?”

We may be able to answer that question by looking at what exactly is the state of climate change on the planet. What are we looking at? What does the latest science tell us is going on, where are we at, and what needs to be done to mitigate the effects of what we’ve created, the mess we now find ourselves in?

One of the things the UN is doing is bringing evolutionary change agents like Don Beck, Duane Elgin, Mark Gerzon, Jean Houston, Bruce Lipton, Lynnaea Lumbard, Elza Maalouf, Ocean Robbins, Jeff Vander Clute, Katherine Woodward Thomas and Claire Zammit to talk about it to interested UN parties.

As much as I love the wisdom of these remarkable people, I’m somewhat stunned and question what conversations we should be having at this time. More about that later in this essay. First, let’s look at where the science is.

Guy McPherson quotes American actress Lily Tomlin who is credited with the expression, “No matter how cynical you become, it’s never enough to keep up.” If you’re not familiar with Professor McPherson, you should be. He has a website called Nature Bats Last where he regularly posts a Climate Change and Update page. From that pge, here’s the bottom line:

On a planet 4 C hotter than baseline, all we can prepare for is human extinction (from Oliver Tickell’s 2008 synthesis in the Guardian). According to an informed assessment of BP’s Energy Outlook 2030, published in January 2013, global average temperature of Earth will hit the 4 C mark in 2030. These assessments consider neither collapse nor self-reinforcing [positive] feedback loops. In the face of near-term human extinction, Americans view the threat as distant and irrelevant, as illustrated by a 22 April 2013 article in the Washington Post based on poll results that echo the long-held sentiment that elected officials should be focused on the industrial economy, not far-away minor nuisances such as climate change.

In other words, we have a window of approximately 17 years – give or take a decade – until the planet will no longer longer sustain human life due to this minor nuisance. Even the most optimistic of legitimate climate change scientists say at the very least we’re going to have massive depopulation. “Massive Depopulation”…How typical of how we refuse to talk about death and dying. It’s not as if we’re afraid of the words…We are afraid of the words, and so are those in charge as they have absolutely no idea how to respond.

And this is part of what you need to know:

The Obama Administration is well aware of the worst-case scenario of climatic catastrophe, and the Near-Term Extinction – NTE – that comes with it. Regular readers of Nature Bats Last and others who have been paying attention will recall Copenhagen COP15 as the climate-change meetings thrown under the bus by the Obama administration. From Nature Bats Last:

A footnote on that long-forgotten briefing contains this statement: “THE LONG-TERM SEA LEVEL THAT CORRESPONDS TO CURRENT CO2 CONCENTRATION IS ABOUT 23 METERS ABOVE TODAY’S LEVELS, AND THE TEMPERATURES WILL BE 6 DEGREES C OR MORE HIGHER. THESE ESTIMATES ARE BASED ON REAL LONG TERM CLIMATE RECORDS, NOT ON MODELS.”

In other words, President Obama and others in his administration knew near-term extinction of humans was already guaranteed. Even before the dire feedbacks were reported by the scientific community, the Obama administration abandoned climate change as a significant issue because it knew we were done as early as 2009. Rather than shoulder the unenviable task of truth-teller, Obama did as his imperial higher-ups demanded: He lied about collapse, and he lied about climate change. And he still does.

What the Obama adminstration knows, the UN knows. Bottom line here consists of two factors:

The only remotely possible way to change things in time to avoid NTE, is the immediate shut down of the global Industrial model which will also cause massive depopulation;
For whatever reason, and there are many possibilities, the Obama Administration – or any other governmant – will not acknowledge the science and come out of the closet around NTE, and therefore, number one is not going to happen.
So why is the UN bringing in the Evolutionary Change Agents if they already know it’s too late? There are several possibilities.

First is the possibility that the Adminstration and the UN don’t buy the facts and that they are in complete denial or firmly esconced in hopium. As resources go, denial is apparently one of the few we have that is actually not running out. There’s an abundance of it out there and it’s part of the human psyche. Then there’s the possibility that they do know, but believe that the illusion of normalcy – that everything is going to be alright – must be maintained until it can no longer be maintained. Another is that those in power who know are so pathologically addicted – like an alcoholic who drinks himself to death – that they cannot possibly change. Last on this short list is the idea that they have no idea what to do, and are desparately trying anything and everything. Of course, these are just some of the possibilities, but you get the idea.

And this hopefully brings us to a place where we can begin to have a discussion around just what is an appropriate response to NTE? In light of the high probability of mass panic, denial, anger and civil disorder, should people be told? And at the same time, If human extinction is even a remote possibility, don’t people have the right to know? Who are we to withhold this kind of information from others? I don’t have the answers to those questions, but I’ve been thinking about this for a few weeks now and have to come to some answers that I think are appropriate for me, and I’ll write about those in the third installment of this series.

What I will say here is that the approach I’ll advocate includes the concept of triage and Hospice as patient and provider and what I think is a universe-centric big-picture perspective that combines emotional and spiritual wellness and surrender into grace, and the awareness that compassionate resistance is the only ethical response to NTE.

See Part One of this series here

See Part Three of this series here

http://www.collapsingintoconsciousness.com/the-great-transition-humanity-at-the-tipping-point-part-two/

Letter from Congressman Ruiz regarding Bees

Dear Mr. Morgan:

Thank you for contacting my office. The opportunity to discuss critical issues with the people I serve is an essential part of our democratic process and I am grateful for your input.

The Saving America’s Pollinators Act of 2013, H.R. 2692, was introduced on July 16, 2013 by Rep. John Conyers Jr., and has been referred to the House Agriculture Committee. The bill would ban the use of nitrogen-based neonicotinoid insecticides, pending an evaluation by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator on the adverse effects of the insecticide on pollinators including bees, birds, bats, and other species of beneficial insects.

I voted in support of an amendment similar to this legislation during the recent Farm Bill reauthorization, which directed the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture to carry out activities to protect the long-term viability of bees and other pollinators. While I am not on the Agriculture Committee, I will keep your thoughts and opinions in mind if this legislation comes to the House floor for a vote. Growing up in the Coachella Valley as the son of farmworker parents, I appreciate the important role agriculture plays in our district. From our famous dates to our traditional Native American tribal farming, protecting these assets is vitally important.

Once again, thank you for sharing your thoughts and opinions with me. As the Representative of California’s 36th District, serving my constituents is my top priority. To find more information regarding current legislation, constituent services, or to sign up for my e-newsletter, please visit my website at: www.ruiz.house.gov.

Sincerely,

Raul Ruiz, M.D.
Member of Congress

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Family History - Morgan/Bales my father's lineage

My father could only trace his history back to his grandfather before he passed on in 2003. Combining research from his brother, my uncle Don and his wife Ramona, along with the Internet I have come across some fascinating history. Here is part of it.

One of my great,great,great,great,great grandfathers was Daniel Davidson,(b: 1752, Big Moccasin Creek, Augusta County, Virginia; d: abt 1832, Clay County, Kentucky) served in several Virginia militia units during the American Revolutionary War with the ranks of Private and later Ensign.

On January 1777, Daniel Davidson enlisted as a private in the Revolutionary War. He served in the Charles Porterfield Co., 11th VA Regiment, commanded by Col. Daniel Morgan, from 21 January to 1 May 1777. He re-enlisted in the rifle detachment June through December 1777 and re-enlisted again in the same detachment January 1778 through July 1779. He also served as an Ensign in the Continental Army at Kings Mountain.

This means I could join the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution if I wanted to. Big surprise!

My father's last name of Morgan only become that in the mid 1800's. My great, great grandfather was born James M Bales in 1831 to a Quaker family that first came to America in or around 1675. One researcher states that John Beals, yeoman, arrived aboard the ship Griffin in 1675 and settled first in Fenwick's Colony, New Jersey. James M. Bales came from 7 generations of Quakers and seems to have left the faith to join the Army serving in the Mexican War in California.


He may have changed his name to Morgan due to an outstanding warrant in Indiana but we don't know for certain. One of his niece's sons was Max Baer, heavyweight champion of the world, film actor and father of Max Baer, Jr who played Jethro on the Beverly Hillbillies television show.

• John H. Beals (III) 1717-1796 , PA. TO NORTH CAROLINA
John was born in Chester County on February 17, 1717. He married Margaret Esther Hunt in Chester County, Pennsylvania. The marriage is record in the minutes of the Nottingham Meeting as having taken place on November 13, 1738.
Margaret Hunt was the daughter of William Hunt and Mary Woolman Hunt. She was born in 1719 in Chester County, Pennsylvania.
They moved to northern Virginia and were members of the Hopewell meeting until April 14, 1758 when they were granted certificates to move to Rowan County, North Carolina and join the New Garden Monthly Meeting that had been established there. They were received there on May 27, 1758. They settled on a 300 acre farm near Pole Cat Creek in what was then Rowan County. They lived on that farm all their lives. The land originally was in Rowan, then as new counties were formed, it was part of Guilford County when it was formed in 1770.
Margaret Beals died on the farm on April 11, 1796 and John died there the following week on April 17, 1796 at age eighty.
• John was born in Chester Co.,Pa. and married Mararet Esther Hunt at the Nottingham Meeting in Chester Co.,Pa. They moved to nothern Virginia and were members of the Hopewell meeting. John purchased 165 acres for six pounds from his brother-in-law,John Mills. He remained at least eleven years before he sold the same tract on Nov. 5,1754 for five shillings to a fellow friend,Benjamin Thornburg. John sold at a considerble loss,but it might have been because of rumors of the Indian War that did begin in 1755,impelled him to wish to move his family farther south and join his brothers and sisters in North Carolina. They were granted certicates to move to Rowen County,North Carolina and join the New Garden Monthly Meeting that had been established there. They were received there on 5th mo. 27,1758. They settled on a 300 acre farm near Pole Cat Creek in what was then Rowen County. They lived on that farm all their lives. The land originally was in Rowen,then as new counties were formed,it was part of Guilford County when it was formed in 1770. Once at New Garden,John like the rest of the Hunts and Beals and their kin,became active in Quakers affairs,serving on committies and attending quarterly and yearly meetings. The log cabin that John built late in 1750's was still standing and being used as a shed as late as the 1940's. A photograph of it is in the Friends Historical College in Greensboro,N.C. John and Margaret spent their last years in the home of their daughter,Hannah Beals Hockett. John had apparently distributed his property among his children before his death,since he left no will or settlement. John Beals gave this remarkable account to a friend shortly before his death in 1796:

Recovering from a fit of sickness, a weak John Beals desired that his family retire for the evening sooner than was usual. The door to his room suddenly opened and a person, clothed in white raiment, drew to his bedside and bade him to arise and follow him. They went out of the room together and ascended up through the air. John was brought to heaven by his guide and was placed before the great being who was seated on a bright throne of glory. The divine being looked upon him and asked how he came to be there. He replied that a person in white raiment had come to him and brought him to this glorious place. The divine being told the guide to take John and show him the glory of the saints. What John saw caused his heart to be overcome with joy and he desired to remain there forever. He was informed that he must go back again to the world and remain for two and a half days. If he spent his time in faithfulness, he should return and have his inheritance among the saints forever. John then asked the guide to take him where he might have a fragrant smell. He was taken to a place where a door opened and released the most delightful odor he had ever experienced. He was soon filled with the odor and then was brought back by his guide to his chamber and the bed where he lay. The fragrant smell remained in his nostrils for many days. He recovered very quickly from his sickness and believed that what he had seen would soon be fulfilled. Margaret Beals, his wife, died on the farm on April 11,1796. John died there the following week on April 17,1796, at age eighty. What a great story!




Friday, March 1, 2013

Evidence of Pre DNA Found in Interstellar Space

March 1, 2013 - 8:47am by Julie Kent Cleveland Leader According to astronomers who've been using the National Science Foundation's Green Bank Telescope, they've discovered evidence of prebiotic molecules in interstellar space, the first time this kind of evidence has ever been uncovered. This finding could increase the odds of discovering life outside of our own solar system, say experts. One of the prebiotic molecules that was discovered by a team of Virginia astronomy students includes one called ethanamine, which is believed to produce adenine, one of the four nucleobases that form the rungs of DNA. Another more newly discovered molecule, cyanmethanimine, is believed to have a role in the formation of the amino acid alanine, which is a key process in biology. Researchers at laboratories at the University of Virginia and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics measured radio emissions from cyanomethanimine and ethanamine. The frequency patterns from those molecules were then matched to publicly-available data produced by a survey conducted with the Green Bank Telescope from 2008 to 2011. The astronomers from the University of Virginia studied a giant gas cloud about 25,000 light-years from Earth located near the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. They say that the newly discovered interstellar molecules likely represent the intermediate stages in a multi-step chemical process that leads to the final biological molecule. The details of the actual chemical processes aren't yet clear, however the discovery gives astronomers new insight into how and where these processes occur. The researchers say that their discovery was made possible due to new technology that hastens the process of identifying the so-called "fingerprints" of cosmic chemicals. Until now, it has largely been impossible to identify the changing sequence, which is related to the ability to identify specific amounts of energy emitted or absorbed. New lab techniques have given astrochemists the ability to measure characteristic patterns of radio frequencies for specific molecules. Since they are now able to collect that information, astronomers now are able to match patterns that reveal evidence of certain molecules. The discovery is considered to be groundbreaking, however the researchers are cautioning not to read too much into it, saying that much more research is still needed. Nevertheless, the findings could increase the odds of finding life outside of our own solar system. If the building blocks of DNA are floating around out there in space, anything is possible. The study was a work in collaboration with University of Virginia professors Brooks Pate and Ed Murphy, and Remijan, and the program was funded by the National Science Foundation.