GAIA

Gaia 10 – scientists 0


Blowing in the wind

On the 5th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina (2005) and her devastating flooding impact on New Orleans and the adjoining region – and as this year’s hurricane cycle starts again, with hurricane Earl approaching landfall and hurricane Fiona building in the Caribbean and Danielle weakening in the mid-Atlantic, it may be worthwhile to recall that in the wake of Katrina and that year’s increased number of North American hurricanes, scientists and environmentalists predicted that – due to Global warming – we would be seeing an ever growing number of hurricanes and ones of more deadly force that in previous years and decades.

Global Warming said so.


But that has not really been the case. No U.S. super flooding has occurred since 2005, and no category 5 killers anywhere in North America.

Katrina hit New Orleans as a category 3, while far worse category 5 (super deadly) hurricanes were Andrew in 1992, Camille in 1969 and the 1935 Labour Day hurricane (never given a name).

So just look at the numbers, and do the math.

There is a cyclical ebb and flow to Gaia; not the catastrophic escalation Global Warming advocates have propagandized.

Gaia 10 – scientists 0

Something’s fishy

For years the salmon fishery in British Columbia has been declining – which is true -- and fears of the immanent collapse of the wild salmon stock and extinction of the species has been gaining credence in the scientific and environmental/green movement.

But this year’s bumper crop of Pacific sockeye salmon has been so overwhelming, that the fishing regulatory ministries are increasing fisherman quotas by the day – in fear of over-population as the fish swim up river to spawn.

It is the best salmon numbers in 100 years!

For half a decade, and at millions of dollars of taxpayer expense, scientists scowered the causes; from reduced river flow due to urbanization, industrialization and a rise in the beaver population and their dams to a reviving Pacific seal populations. Just last year, the west coast fish farm industry was declared the ‘real problem’, as farm salmon tend to have (controllable) lice and it was speculated these vermin somehow spread to wild salmon --killing them off at sea. Activists and scientists called for an end to man-made fish farming -- as a danger to the survival of natural species and the ecosystem!

Now, with this cornucopia salmon harvest, all the above ‘causes’ have been proven false. Only the theory of a local change in water temperature – a la El Nino and La Nina -- is still viable.

It is, again, Gaia and its natural forces and ebbs and flows that are at work. One can no longer blame the activities or ‘environmental’ damage of the human ant (nor a few beavers and seals).

[See Globe and Mail, “The salmon are back, but the mystery deepens” and “Sockeye surge spawns overcrowding concerns”, August 28, 2010, A1 and A8]



P.S. The East coast northern cod fishery off Newfoundland, which did seem close to extinction and has been under a moratorium for some 20 years (since 1992) will probably be revived by next year. The cod are coming back in such numbers that in some east coast areas – based on anecdotal reports -- residents are finding large numbers of cod tossed onto the shore; a sudden return from the dead not anticipated by ocean scientists and counter to general theory.
Gaia strikes again!

[See archive.greenpeace.org/comms/cbio/cancod.html, “CANADIAN ATLANTIC FISHERIES COLLAPSE”]

Gaia

Oh for Detroit and Hazel

If city governments are serious about reducing car emissions and the spewing of dangerous carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide, and sulphur dioxide into the air, maybe city planners should rethink their street lights and their coordination.

In Toronto, if you get a newly turned green light, you are lucky if you can go 5 blocks before getting stuck with a red – even at the posted speed limit. On parts of Yonge street there are lights every 2 blocks without rational coordination. So you not only waste time and gas while sitting bumper to bumper, but greatly increase the damage to the atmosphere and pedestrian health.

But recently I had to go through Mississauga, a nearby city, on its main thoroughfare, Hurontario. What a joy it was. Once I got off the QEW highway all the way up to the 401 highway at the other end, I only had to stop once through over a dozen lights. I soon realized the lights were so set up that if I got a new or mid-green light, I could drive all the way without stopping in traffic.

Some planner had done the speed and distance math and got it right.

The last time I had a similar experience was as a child. My family was travelling to a town just south of Detroit and we decided to stop in that (once great) auto headquarters and tour the downtown. From the highway junction all the way in, we never had to stop. My father either knew in advance -- or realized from adjoining cars -- the secret of light coordinated, non-stop travel.

I have always remembered that long ago Detroit experience. It has come to mind countless times as I stew in Toronto and vicinity traffic.

Now, all I have to do is think back to last week and Mississauga.

Maybe its geriatric, female mayor, Hazel McCallion, born in 1921, will consider annexing Toronto and spreading her wisdom and good traffic sense to the entire GTA.

If only.

Gaia

The Human Ant – again


Now that the 3 and a half month BP oil rig disaster and spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which began April 20, 2010, has finally been stopped – after spilling 4.9 million barrels of oil – the environmental damage results are – close to NIL.

Yes, the largest oil spill in U.S. history has caused so little damage that scientists are a gasp with surprise, resulting in media coverage in The Globe and Mail, August 5, 2010, B7 and Time magazine, August 9, 2010, p. 35.

All the oil recovery ships and skimming boats – some 4,000 in all -- were able to retrieve was some 2%.

So where did all the rest of the oil go?

Nature, Gaia, did her thing. Evaporation in the hot gulf is credited with up to 40% of the oil’s disappearance, wind and wave dispersion helped and, finally, water bacteria and microbes had a feast breaking down the rest.

According to Time, oil only affected 140 hectares of Louisiana marshland/shoreline, an area that loses 6,000 hectares a year to erosion. Bird loses were only 1% (about 15000)
of the Exxon Valdez totals -- while countless others could be seen safely flying about and perching on booms, etc. without injury or darkened feathers. And just 17 of some 492 dead sea turtles showed signs of dying from the oil spill.

To quote the Globe and Mail, “Despite man’s best efforts, Mother Nature’s ability to clean up the oil in the Gulf of Mexico surpasses our own”.

To quote the Time article, “Mother Nature is resilient.”



Yet another instance of the human ant.

MEDIA

The new face of China – Hollywood style

I just saw the 2010 remake of the Karate Kid. While the film is enjoyable and a soppy mix of bullying, victim turned kung fu wiz, and with a sweet romance, what got my attention were two other things.

The setting is China – with travelogue images of the Forbidden City, a monastery high up on a mountain top and the Great Wall of China. Why China and not California as of old? Because the Chinese government helped pay for the film -- as a vehicle to promote its new, post-Olympic image as a great place to visit and work.

Yes, China is open for tourism and embraces foreigners as employees. And skin colour or race is not an issue.

Everyone, from Jackie Chan as the ‘master’ and all the other people seen on screen are Chinese except for 4 characters: a blonde haired American male classmate, a bearded white American violin teacher and African American, 12 year old Jaden Smith, the ‘student’, and his African American widowed mother.

Jaden and his mom are welcomed with open arms by everyone – no southern U.S. here. And the love interest—between African American Jaden and a young Chinese violin playing beauty is colour and race blind from the start. Even the bullying that is at the film’s kung fu core is not racial but due to a love triangle. And when the girl’s parents learn of her close friendship with Jaden, their criticism is, as she repeats it to him, based on class and social status, not race. In the end, they too come out to cheer Jaden on in the ultimate kung fu tournament.

As for the employment angle, Jaden and his mother move from the U.S. to China because she has been transferred by her employer, an anonymous auto company. As she tells Jaden when he is upset and wants to go back to America, “This is our new home; there’s nothing left for us in Detroit.”

Yes, Detroit, America’s auto headquarters is the past and now Beijing (and China) is the future!


If you think this is a curious message and some wishful thinking on the part of Mao Tse Tung’s heirs, think again. General Motor’s new, prize Buick model, the LaCrosse is regularly promoted in company fed press releases as ‘designed in China’ and ‘with the Chinese middle manager in mind’. So much for “What’s good for General Motors is good for the U.S.A.” (famous 1952 quote by Charles E. Wilson, the former head of General Motors and Secretary of Defense under President Dwight Eisenhower. to a Senate subcommittee).

Maybe that is why I, at 6’3”, can barely squeeze through the driver’s door, and get chopped off at the shoulder if I even try to get through the rear doors. And forget about the trunk!

MEDIA

Read the World – for FREE!!!


If you want to know what is really going on in the world and how others see events, not just what and how your local media ‘feed you’ with their local perspective and biases,
go to http://www.thepaperboy.com/ and scrolled through its numerous countries and over 6350 newspapers – all free on line.

Many are already available in English and if not, Google translator promises to do the hard work for you – but I have not yet got it to work.

So relax with the latest sports updates from Tonga, or cross-check your local media coverage of some key event.

For example, during the recent and controversial Israeli capture of the flotilla to Gaza, the Times of London had far more detailed information than Toronto newspapers and local TV the same day (including the fact that individuals on the boat that resisted had $1,000,000.00 in cash aboard as well as some small weapons, and The Guardian newspaper had live footage links – so you could see the military action from both sides: from one of the flotilla boats and Israeli camera footage from the helicopters overhead.

Your Health

Delaying New MS treatment is insane!

An alternate explanation -- and the first cure -- for MS, Multiple Sclerosis, discovered by Italian Dr. Paolo Zamboni, is awaiting more ‘clinical trials’ in Canada and the U.S. before being accepted by our medical establishment. (See Globe and Mail, July 29, 2010, front page.)

In a nutshell, the new theory believes MS is not an autoimmune system gone crazy condition, but the result of poor blood circulation due to deformed veins that restrict proper blood flow out of the brain. The blockage, he believes, causes iron to back up and stay in the brain, resulting in MS symptoms. The deformed veins can be ‘seen’ with standard testing and can be treated readily with stent insertions – as done routinely to open blocked arteries.

The procedure is called Liberation therapy and is currently available in Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Italy and even the USA (if presented as a blood pressure problem).


(Good summaries are at http://www.gizmag.com/ccsvi-multiple-sclerosis-ms-cure-zamboni/13447/; Globe and Mail, July 28, 2010, A1 and A7, )


My problem with the delay and ‘need for clinical testing’ is simple.

Whether Dr. Paolo Zamboni is right about the MS link or not, having veins that are blocked or restricted is dangerous and a time bomb waiting to happen.

Treating such a blocked vein condition should be accepted medical practice now that the existence of these particular vein blockages has been uncovered.

If MS sufferers benefit more than others from having such blood flow problems resolved, all the better.


But to ignore this newly identified condition and not treat it on its own merits -- and waiting for MS trials -- is dumb.

TECHNOLOGY

‘clean’ Electricity – the false messiah PART 1


Today’s environmental movement is all hyped on the magic bullet of ‘clean’ electricity – the cure all to end pollution, smog, greenhouse gas and carbon emissions. We will all breath better – both literally and figuratively – once electricity rules.

‘clean’ electricity means wind or solar generation and hydro power where easily feasible (mostly from fast flowing rivers with large drops – think Niagara Falls – and modest dams – no flooding huge valleys and diverting rivers). And, of course, that ultimate devil, the automobile, must be reinvented in electric form.


‘clean’ power

Wind turbines and solar power, unfortunately, are not as great as some first thought. As the creator of the Gaia theory, green pioneer James Lovelock acknowledged in various writings and speeches as far back as 2005 wind and solar power are not viable or unrealistic options.

Both are weather dependent and never 24 hours a day – no wind, no sunlight, no electricity. And as Lovelock stresses, they are both too expensive to build and operate en masse without huge government subsidies and will never create enough electricity to pay their way.

(See Globe and Mail, March 10, 2005, A23 for excerpts from a videotaped speech, and June 25, 2005, F2 article)

Moreover, recent events add to the problem list. Wind farms disrupt normal wind circulation patterns down wind altering rain cycles and air temperatures. They create so much noise that governments are banning their installation near densely inhabited areas and they have been found to upset and disrupt animal life on nearby farms. Think living by a train track.

Water based wind farms are also under attack as locals hate the lost scenic view. Bird lovers are coming around to hate these spinning blades as the number of chopped to death birds begins to be taken into account; the numbers already rising into the thousands.

As for solar power and the photoelectric cell, a technology going back to the mid-19th century and explained by Albert Einstein in 1905, time and weather are even more problematic. No nights, please, no cloudy days, no rain storms, no snow on top. In Canada and most of the United States, item 2, 3 and 4 make solar power of very limited use. For example, surprise, Hawaii is cloudy 2 of every 3 days and the same for Alaska. Only desert areas such as New Mexico and Arizona are sunny most days, at 75% or so of the time. (See http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/htmlfiles/westcomp.ovc.html for cloudy figures for western US states.)

For reasons such as the above, Lovelock began in 2005 to advocate the most hated and radical solution from a ‘green’ perspective– nuclear power. He argued nuclear was far more cost effective at generating electricity without the limitations noted above.

And, if you didn’t already know it, nuclear power has been the fastest growing ‘solution’ across Europe for decades, in spite of the fact Europe is the epicenter of the ‘green’ movement, a movement that long fought against repeating the Chernobyl and 3 Mile Island experiences.

According to the European Nuclear Society, as of June 30, 2010 there are already 195 – yes – 195 nuclear plants operating in Europe, with an additional 19 being built as I write. France is the leader with 58, Russia has 32, Britain 19 and Germany 17. See the chart breakdown for yourself at www.euronuclear.org/info/encyclopedia/n/nuclear-power-plant-europe.htm.

Personally, I don’t trust nuclear power because when it goes wrong – due to human error – the outcome could be catastrophic. Where I live in Ontario, our 2 nuclear stations regularly have ‘contaminated water leaks into their surroundings. And reactor cores and rods that should last 20 years break down regularly after 10 years – so with the ‘refurbishing’, they never, ever meet their always exaggerated ‘cost effectiveness’ calculations. (New plants always take up to an extra decade to build around here, at cost overruns in the BILLIONS OF DOLLARS!

As for the electric car

Electric cars are not a new idea.

In fact they go back to the 19th century as a technology using battery power. Did you know electric cars outsold all others in the USA in 1899 and 1900? Did you know that in 1897, a fleet of taxis built by the Electric Carriage and Wagon Company of Philadelphia. serviced New York City? (See inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aacarselectrica.htm.)

So electric vehicles are nothing new under the sun, as Ecclesiastes would say.

Q: Why did they fall to the wayside, like steam engined vehicles?

A: Highways and long distance travel, and speed were the killers
then – and now.

All the purely electric cars coming soon, such as the Nissan Leaf, are not only small, compact units, but have a maximum range of 100 miles under ideal circumstances -- no running air conditioning or the heater, no heavy snow to tire through. Then, they must be plugged in for 8 hours to recharge.

For people not living in cities, that limited range (let alone recharge time) is a major problem. For city dwellers who want to visit relatives in nearby towns and cities, a maximum 100 mile round trip range is a killer.

So, as a technology, electric cars are of limited utility and driving flexibility. Maybe a good choice as a 2nd car in town, but not as the only car.

At least not for those geographic monsters called Canada and the United States.



PS – Electric cars have 2 other weaknesses. The batteries have a 4 year life expectancy and cost thousands of dollars to replace. As well, so far, the batteries cannot be recycled.

And, finally, that electricity you plug in comes from some power plant that either uses coal, oil, natural gas or nuclear power to make your nice electric car run ‘emissions free’. So you really have only shifted the problem.

That’s NIMBY thinking.

Your Health

WHAT YOU SHOULD EAT – Nature’s answer


I am not a dietician but follow the simple rule:

**** Let nature and human history be your guide. ***

In this case, our teeth are the key.

Whether you are a Darwinian, Bible follower or have another religious tradition, there
is no denying that the different kinds of teeth we have in our mouths are nature’s way
of telling us what foods we should eat.

a) We have 4 different kinds of teeth; flat surfaced, wide molars at the back for squishing, chewing and breaking down food fibers, we have up front incisors like axe blades to cut and chop up food, we have 4 canines designed to pierce and hold flesh as we try to tear it apart – just like dogs, tigers and bears, and 8 bicuspids which are half canine and half molars.

Consequently, of the 32 teeth an adult human has, 12 – or just over 1/3 -- are full or half
canines – designed to tear meat!

b) The foods that grow naturally on this planet fit into 5 categories: fruits and berries
from trees and shrubs; roots and vegetables; plants such as rice, corn and grains;
and animals – be they from the sea, land or air.

Our teeth – the same teeth as our great, great, great ancestors had thousands of years ago -- are designed to eat all 5 food sources. We are, to use the scientific label, omnivores.


In brief, then, in spite of the contemporary anti- meat/pro-vegetarian movement and its efforts to have us all abandon eating animal flesh, our biology -- our teeth -- say that is
not nature’s plan.

Otherwise we would not be given canines; we would be given teeth like cows, sheep and goats: all incisors and molars -- but no canines.


Eating flesh is part of who we were and who we are meant to be: now and in the future.