11.07.08
Posted in Environment at 8:44 am by Anthony
I was having a very busy day in the city, rushing from place to place trying to get all my chores completed before close of business.
Suddenly, I noticed a rather ramshackle entrance to a small park and decided to have a look. The park wasn’t very well kept, lots of graffiti, only one park bench and a small playground for children at the far end.
It was; however, full of trees and it was this that really drew my attention. There was no wind, the air was completely still and yet thousands of leaves were falling like a shower of snow. It was amazing to just stand there and listen to the ‘clicks’ as leaf after leaf released itself and fell gently to the ground.
This set me wondering. It has always amazed me how leaves could hold on no matter how strong the storm and yet when autumn came they just fell gently to the ground. I assumed, as I suspect most people do, that decay was the reason but now I’m not so sure.
Listening to all those ‘clicks’ I now think that there is a locking mechanism built into each leaf that is unbreakable but which, when the time is right, opens to allow the leaf fall away.
Permalink
10.14.08
Posted in Environment, People at 9:52 am by Anthony
Before Eileen bought her first car she was a normal, happy-go-lucky person. She’s still normal and happy-go-lucky except for the very brief but highly intense moments when she is consumed by road rage.
No ranting or raving, no foul language, no obscene hand gestures, just a brief ice-cold silence before the atmosphere in the car returns to its natural warmth.
Her method of dealing with road rage is controlled and reasonable. Unfortunately, there are many motorists who are unable to control their anger and consequently become aggressors or victims of this modern phenomenon.
But why is road rage such a unique form of anger in the modern world? The answer can be found in the nature of the beast and the radically changed environment he has recently been forced to inhabit.
I say recently because cars as a means of mass travel have only been around for about sixty years. Humans, on the other hand, have been around for about three or four million years during which time they have developed a highly complex system of signals based on the five senses of sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing
The crucial condition for human interaction through the senses is a degree of personal contact. Whether looking for a sexual partner or avoiding someone whom you sense is potentially dangerous, it is the conscious and unconscious signals received and processed in the brain that are your guide.
Take a simple example - You’re walking down a crowded street and accidentally bump into a total stranger. On the surface, the following exchange usually occurs. “Oops, sorry!” “That’s ok”, incident over, both move on.
Subconsciously, however, there is much more to this encounter. When you bumped into the person, you immediately knew you were to blame and instantly began to put things right by apologising. The ‘victim’, startled and perhaps, fleetingly angry, instantly assessed the situation and concluded that it was unintentional.
Such instant assessment and understanding is only possible because each individual has the subconscious ability to immediately use some or all of the senses that have evolved over millions of years. This natural ability to interact with our fellow humans is a crucial element in our evolutionary make-up necessary for the interpretation and resolution of potential conflict.
Now take this human animal, who has been evolving and interacting in this way for millions of years and suddenly strap him into a one-ton metal and glass machine capable of travelling at great speed.
In addition, severely restrict his freedom of movement by imposing thousands of strict rules and regulations which, if broken, can have serious consequences for him and other road users. Add to this controlled and stressful environment the usual human life stresses such as money, work and relationship worries and it is easy to see how an innocent mistake or an aggressive action by another motorist can quickly develop into an explosive road rage incident.
Isolated inside this mobile machine, the natural human communications system is dramatically curtailed. Sight, and to a much lesser degree, sound are the only senses utilised and even these are principally employed in the safe manoeuvring of the vehicle rather that any natural interaction with fellow humans.
Neither is this phenomenon unique to any particular section of society such as testosterone-filled young men. All drivers, male and female, young and old, are equally open to getting caught up in a spiral of anger.
Women, for example, who would instinctively react with caution in a one to one confrontation with a man, can, when deprived of the full use of the natural senses, find themselves in a potentially dangerous situation.
Similarly, when two males confront each other face to face, there is a constant and urgent exchange of sense signals utilised to decide on fight or flight. Invariably, this natural assessment system results in a non-violent resolution.
If, however, because of machine isolation these men are unable to assess and resolve their dispute naturally, by the time they come face to face outside their vehicles, it may be too late. It is this situation, where the various stages of anger and frustration are built up without resolution that can sometimes lead to violence and even murder.
Road rage is a global problem that has reached epidemic proportions in many countries and while law enforcement can do a lot to control the phenomenon there is also an urgent need for an educational programme.
The central focus of any such programme would have to be the reconciliation of the primeval instincts of the human animal with 21^st century technology.
Permalink
08.27.08
Posted in Environment at 4:44 pm by Anthony
Consider the following situation. Four months into an eighteen month mission to Mars, NASA begins to receive disturbing reports of disunity among the crew. There is disagreement between the astronauts as to how resources like food, water and fuel should be utilised.
Some crew members are consuming with abandon claiming that there is more than enough to last the trip while others want to follow a careful strategy of conservation in order to ensure survival. Unfortunately, despite receiving several warnings from NASA, the over-consumers gain the upper hand and the squandering continues.
Could humans be so stupid? A recent UN sponsored report concluded that almost two thirds of the natural machinery that supports life on Earth is being degraded by humans. It further warned that the wetlands, forests, savannahs, estuaries, coastal fisheries and other habitats that recycle air, water and nutrients for all living creatures are being irretrievably damaged.
In other words, spaceship Earth is living beyond its means and is heading into serious trouble unless the crew can unite in taking radical action. But, as we know, unity among humans is rare and we have never managed to unite on a global scale.
The first step for the crew of spaceship Earth must be to develop an extraterrestrial mental attitude. That is, we must learn to think like astronauts do when they are isolated in deep space with no second chance if they are stupid enough to waste limited resources or neglect machinery vital to survival. Always uppermost in their minds is the fact that the craft they inhabit is the only protection they have against total extinction.
The difficulty is that most humans are unaware that they actually are crew members of an intergalactic spacecraft. This is principally because our everyday sense is of living on a very large planet that is unconnected with greater space. The reality is very different.
Earth is a spacecraft with a diameter of only 7,926 miles spinning on its axis at about 1,000 miles per hour and speeding around the sun at over 65,000 miles per hour. It is a tiny component of a solar system that is itself moving around the centre of the Milky Way galaxy at about 155 miles per second, taking approximately 250 millions years to complete one rotation.
It can be seen, therefore, that we are living on a very small spacecraft with very limited resources, speeding through a vast and hostile universe.
Given that we are decades if not centuries away from being able to exploit the vast resources of nearby space, it is vital that we conserve and maintain in good working order the ‘machinery of nature’ that is so crucial to our survival.
If we fail, and to date we are failing, there is no possibility of outside help, no hope of rescue or re-supply. We will become a dead planet drifting silently through intergalactic space.
Permalink
08.20.08
Posted in Environment, Philosophy at 8:21 am by Anthony
Six years ago when I was reflecting on the consequences of reaching half a century, I decided that henceforth all work on my house would be done with the aim of reducing maintenance to a minimum.
The first project was to get rid of the likeable but aging and difficult to maintain wooden garden shed. Once the sparkling new, galvanised steel, zero maintenance shed had been installed, I set about demolishing the old but much loved version.
I started by knocking out the back wall and breaking a window but then got tired and went in for a cup of tea. That was about five years ago and the shed is still there.
My first second thoughts about demolishing the shed came when I noticed that my cat Moggy, (Yes, I know, I know, very original) and some of his pals had commandeered it as a ‘summer house’. Situated at the edge of his territory it also made a good frontier post to fend off intruders.
Later, I read an article that described the best conditions for the proliferation of the beautiful and useful Ladybird. The old shed fitted the bill to a T. And I had indeed observed a noticeable increase in the population of this attractive creature.
Then one summer I noticed a group of wasps apparently ‘eating’ the whitened and decaying wood. Straight onto the ‘magic’ Google for enlightenment to learn the following;
“Unlike bees, the wasps have no wax producing glands and therefore cannot construct wax combs. To get around this they use paper which they make from wood pulp, just like we make paper from wood pulp. The wasps use their powerful jaws to scrape wood from trees and fence posts, this is then chewed up and mixed with saliva and then spread out to make combs.”
In addition, I learned that an abandoned shed like mine was an ideal shelter spot for fertilised female wasps to sit out the winter.
Over time, the roof of the shed developed a slump, the door would no longer close and the climber plant (Woodbine, I think) that I planted at the side has made its way through the broken window and is getting a firm grip on the roof.
I now look on the slowly decaying structure, not as a shed but almost as a living creature that has become part of nature itself. A creature that has struck a deal with the cats, ladybirds, wasps and all the countless other creatures that live in and off its bounty.
“Convince the human that I’m still useful, that I’ll provide shelter and food for you. That way I can live out my life to its full and natural end.”
By times, as I lounge in my seat looking at this ‘work of art’ created by nature, this inanimate object that has metamorphosed into a ‘living creature’ I think to myself:
“Anthony, the real reason you didn’t finish the job is because you’re a lazy fecker and now you’re trying to bullshit your way out of it.”
Opinion by return post please.
Permalink
08.01.08
Posted in Environment at 9:22 am by Anthony
There was no arguing with my brother when he chided me about the state of my back garden. It had been weeks since I had last cut the grass and the recent unseasonable deluge had resulted in a surge of growth.
But later, as I headed for the shed to get out the necessary implements, I noticed a magnificent bumble bee which, according to the laws of aerodynamics, should not be able to get off the ground, flitting from one dandelion to another with the grace of a ballet dancer. Further on, I observed a beautiful butterfly delicately balanced on the very edge of a buttercup petal, adding immensely to the colour of its surroundings.
Instead of getting out the lawnmower, I sat on a garden seat and reflected on the relationship between the three creatures in the garden - the bumble bee, the butterfly and myself, the human. The three of us had arrived at this moment in time after fifteen billion years of evolution since the creation of the universe by the Big Bang.
The three of us, in different ways, are amazing products of that evolution. There can be no doubt, however, that the human is the dominant creature. Nature has given us, through a combination of brain and mechanical power, an advantage far outweighing any other creature on the planet.
Neither the butterfly nor the bumble bee has the ability to sit down and reflect on my fate. Neither do they have the ability, as I do, to activate a machine that would utterly destroy the particular little piece of nature that they are at present enjoying.
The bumble bee does not have a shed at his home containing machines that have only one purpose - the destruction of selected parts of the natural world that he deems undesirable. The butterfly does not keep at her home a selection of poisons that will bring instant death to certain of her fellow creatures that she considers inconvenient or not fitting in with the latest garden fashion.
And what of the plants that these beautiful and amazing creatures are grazing upon? True, the buttercup contains a poison that can be dangerous to cattle and horses but nature has provided the plant with an acrid taste that prevents these animals from eating it.
It is the dandelion, however, that really impresses as a plant. Ruthlessly attacked as a weed in modern times this miracle plant has been a friend and healer to man for centuries. In addition to serving as a remedy for such ailments as kidney and liver disorders, gall stones and the removal of warts, the dandelion makes a delicious ingredient to salads and can also be used to make dandelion beer, wine and coffee. Dandelion wine, in particular, has a reputation as an extremely good tonic for the blood.
Nature, of course, is the chief beneficiary of the dandelion. It serves as a major supplier of nectar for the bumble bee and it is estimated that over ninety three different kinds of insects benefit from visits to this wonderful plant. Small birds in particular are very fond of its seeds. So why, as I sit here contemplating the scene, do humans go to such lengths to wipe out this bountiful and beautiful plant?
I think there are two reasons. Firstly, we have been conditioned over time to take pleasure only from a neat and perfectly controlled garden. Secondly, and connected to the first reason, humans have a strong tendency to conform to the social norm of the time.
The stark consequence of this conformity is the creation of countless thousands of perfectly controlled but barren ‘green deserts’ which to the human eye are very satisfying but are passed over in horror by birds, bees and butterflies in an increasingly desperate search for the real and vital diversity of nature.
Nature is operating as it always has. The birds, bees and butterflies are responding and spreading that nature by their activities as they always have. In other words, nature is still natural.
It is the human animal, itself a part of nature, that has gone astray. It is the human animal that has decided that a billiard table perfect garden is more pleasing than the kaleidoscope of colour and diversity provided by nature. It is the human animal that must, literally, change its mind.
To that end, I have decided to allow nature have more freedom in my garden. While still continuing to control growth by mowing I now leave large islands containing buttercups, daisies, dandelions and any other natural flowers that nature sees fit to provide for my pleasure and its benefit.
Has it worked? Well, the bumble bees and butterflies are now regular visitors and the other day, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a small bird hovering over a dandelion feeding on its seeds.
I think nature is happy with my change of mind.
Permalink