Ming the Mechanic:
Gaia going down with a fever

The NewsLog of Flemming Funch
 Gaia going down with a fever2006-01-16 22:46
15 comments
by Flemming Funch

In The Independent, an article by James Lovelock, whom you'll know best as the father of the Gaia Theory. A serious wake-up call there. More than that, really. He says essentially it is too late to back out of what we're doing, and that we're going down, and we've better prepare for being partially wiped out, and Mad Max survival scenarios for those who're left.
The climate centres around the world, which are the equivalent of the pathology lab of a hospital, have reported the Earth's physical condition, and the climate specialists see it as seriously ill, and soon to pass into a morbid fever that may last as long as 100,000 years. I have to tell you, as members of the Earth's family and an intimate part of it, that you and especially civilisation are in grave danger.

Our planet has kept itself healthy and fit for life, just like an animal does, for most of the more than three billion years of its existence. It was ill luck that we started polluting at a time when the sun is too hot for comfort. We have given Gaia a fever and soon her condition will worsen to a state like a coma. She has been there before and recovered, but it took more than 100,000 years. We are responsible and will suffer the consequences: as the century progresses, the temperature will rise 8 degrees centigrade in temperate regions and 5 degrees in the tropics.

Much of the tropical land mass will become scrub and desert, and will no longer serve for regulation; this adds to the 40 per cent of the Earth's surface we have depleted to feed ourselves.

Curiously, aerosol pollution of the northern hemisphere reduces global warming by reflecting sunlight back to space. This "global dimming" is transient and could disappear in a few days like the smoke that it is, leaving us fully exposed to the heat of the global greenhouse. We are in a fool's climate, accidentally kept cool by smoke, and before this century is over billions of us will die and the few breeding pairs of people that survive will be in the Arctic where the climate remains tolerable.

By failing to see that the Earth regulates its climate and composition, we have blundered into trying to do it ourselves, acting as if we were in charge. By doing this, we condemn ourselves to the worst form of slavery. If we chose to be the stewards of the Earth, then we are responsible for keeping the atmosphere, the ocean and the land surface right for life. A task we would soon find impossible - and something before we treated Gaia so badly, she had freely done for us.

To understand how impossible it is, think about how you would regulate your own temperature or the composition of your blood. Those with failing kidneys know the never-ending daily difficulty of adjusting water, salt and protein intake. The technological fix of dialysis helps, but is no replacement for living healthy kidneys.
Well, I'm an optimist, and I'm hoping for a miracle. But I can't logically think of which corner it would come from. Humanity hasn't really changed its ways, and we're still using nature as something to steal from, and something to dump the waste back into, with little understanding of how things actually work. What arrogance. Hopefully Gaia is more resilient than we fear, and hopefully he's wrong. But what does it take for us to actually change how we interact with the global eco-system? One really big catastrophe, and then we get it? But then it might already be way too late.


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15 comments

16 Jan 2006 @ 23:51 by Ge Zi @24.126.120.44 : horse manure
At the end of the 19th century there was a dire prediction that if the number of horse carriages in London would increase at the same rate, then within 20 years London would drown in horse manure.

(don't know if this is a true prediction, but it's worth at least an anecdote.)  



17 Jan 2006 @ 04:11 by mypofo @68.105.165.74 : Another freezing night in Florida
This darn warming just isn't happening fast enough.  


17 Jan 2006 @ 11:36 by rayon : Each person
is actually a tree, upside down. The head and mind are the roots, arms and legs branches, etc. The body is actually an invert of the Earth in organic structure. The Chest area is Earth and Water, the Stomach is Fire earth, water, and the Lower torso is Water and air. ((Earth, water, combustion, air, ether, space)) In meditation one has to make the sap flow back to the roots (as with trees in winter) - as human trees we could, can, bring on a winter (rejuvenation) once or twice a day, thro meditation. This happens in Real time or Constant time (of the universe). Whereas daily rat race is linear time. Person has karma, districts have K, towns have K, countries have their K and linear or real times depending on their design - long straight roads for thousands of miles, or donkey tracks weaving up French mountain hillside; think eternity of Eng. hamlet. Must rush.  


17 Jan 2006 @ 15:45 by ming : Responding
We humans might generally not be overly well suited to responding to big things like that. Maybe because of the way we're wired, maybe because of the way our culture has developed. We live in such an abstract way that we can escape the most alarming news, unless it touches us very directly. So, here, I post a blog item about that maybe our civilization will end, and while I'm posting it I will think that, yeah, he might very well be right, this is serious. And then I go on with my day, and move on to the next subject. I don't go out digging a shelter, and I don't change my way of living, or the ways I'm contributing to the problem.

Likewise, one might read it, and respond in an assortment of other ways. One might make a philosophical point about it. A poetic point maybe. One might joke a big about it. One might add some information. One might agree or disagree.

But, for the most part, one goes right back to doing the same things. Which one could regard as rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Or, one could point out that there's lots of reasons for optimism, and we'll probably end up doing the right thing. I don't know. I do know that we typically feel rather powerless in changing the course of our civilization. It is very big and has a lot of momentum. Nobody seems to be in charge. Which I could very well say is a good thing. But it is a cause for great worry if it is headed for disaster.  



17 Jan 2006 @ 21:42 by Rob @84.150.43.13 : Our role
I just don't get what part we play in nature. Nature designed us. Shouldn't "she" have known better?

Destroying nature can't be our purpose. Maybe "she" knew we have potential for "evil", but our actual "raison d'etre" must be something else, or not?  



18 Jan 2006 @ 11:36 by rayon : Surprised
to hear your words Ming: if you do not think about it - although we are of nature - as I see it, we must be simultaneously independent of it (in the being of human), in a natural way, otherwise phoof, gone. Your work is anyway already a huge step on the natural pathway, affording relaxation which then allows you opportunity for valuable Overview. A lovely Mountain top, Mingnon. We are all very different. Certainly if something shows up from this vantage point, you will not turn the other way!

As Master of a Web, you remove the sting from the tail of reality delivery.

Its not that I am not concerned by the urgency of the Guardian article, but feel that I have been lucky enough (in some things) not to have contributed in certain areas to Global warming. Was like that all my life so far. While in a life death crisis in India, with others even worse off, young handsome guys with terrible things, everyone still walking around and appearing on the surface find, fate contrived to exclude extra treatments advised. The doctors sat with you, looking into the eyes, v calmly saying, do not worry about this, do not let yourself be perturbed, just accept it quietly, and do whatever you can do in other ways, to fight for recovery. This must have happened to me at least 3 times, things happened to prevent treatment (I broke a toe, my hand swelled up into a tennis ball, all sorts of things) - and they say, do not worry. To find the control within oneself, at such a crucial time, while striving to cooperate, in languages one does not wholly understand, means going into new areas into oneself. So for me, I guess this is a resource for the uncontrollable events. At the once doing whatever one can, whilst not worrying, and having faith. A tightrope. The letting go of worry in hard times, could even be a Portal in itself, like a silver ladder hanging near by the wooden one, which one gets transferred to in achieving the lack of worry. There is a palpable feeling of relief here, maybe the worry got in the way a bit, and faith did not. Sorry for the ramble.

To Rob - my simplistic reply is, there is too much linear thought (speeding up time, combustion for short term gains) and not enough lingering in Constant time (real time)(all churches exude real time, the fabric becomes imbued with accumulated worshippers thoughts) stillness which gives the body/mind realisation within the context of heart/love/compassion mode to This instead of That - and guess what - "This" takes life and returns double, or treble what was wished (loaves and fishes). Therefore this is the mode to search for, to work in, to turn the destiny around.  



20 Jan 2006 @ 21:23 by vaxen : nature...
did not design us. or rather i should say that that is one very limited 'point of view.' spirits (thetans) create via postulate. start postulating. be the creator that you essentially are and stop weeping (boohoo?). of course that would require that you find out WHO you really are and stop being effect and start becoming 'cause.'

in mahayana buddhism it is stated that the cause and the effect are one. one can approach 'tone 40' realisations and become sovereign over the MEST creation, we created in the 'first place,' or go ahead and let 'others' dictate to you how it's gonna be.

lots of FUD hitting the fan. well, just why is that? implanter orgs implant what? memes! those virae, then, do the work of making slaves out of purportedly free beings. return to native state (sovereignty) and be just who you are. it's a game. be the game master!  



22 Jan 2006 @ 21:55 by jmarc : going down on gaia
The journal Science asked more than 100 of the world's top scientists what they thought were the 25 most important scientific questions likely to be answered in the next 25 years.
One of the questions asked was, Will {LINK:http://cepa.newschool.edu/het/profiles/malthus.htm|Mathus} continue to be proven wrong. I sure hope so, and don't put much stock in these doomsday scientists, but I also don't think that the fact that Malthus IS wrong should absolve us from cleaning up our environment. I also think that such hand wringing and doomsday science while making us aware of potential problems, also creates a blowback of indifference when people realize that the sky hasn't fallen and the world hasn't ended.  



23 Jan 2006 @ 03:48 by koravya : Keep it Simple
Mr. Lovelock in this article says it all.
That is what we are facing,
and anyone who is waiting for any of the planet's
governments or the United Nations or any other
official organization to do anything, any fiddling little thing,
about any of it, shall find themselves waiting in the frying pan.
Even within the remaining years of our lifetimes,
we may be seeing some rather incredible changes.
As if that weren’t enough, don't forget that there are still
a lot of half-baked idiots all over the place who have their
fingers on the triggers of thousands of nuclear weapons.
We are living on a planetary minefield,
and the summers are getting longer.
So for those of us who see this,
let's hold hands and start walking
into the new world that we will have to create
**//**  



24 Jan 2006 @ 07:25 by vaxen : The sky...
hasn't fallen? ask the tsunami 'victims/effects.' Also while you're at it ask the Katrina victims/effects whetehr or not their 'skies' have fallen. Ask United, too...

Not to mention the nice Depleted Uranium effects being 'doomed' into way more than 'scientific' prophecy, either or.

Lovely little scenario but known by many way before all of the hullabaloo. Dumbed down...means dumbed WAY down.

"Bring it on!"--The burning Bush

For in a Republic, who is "the country?" Is it the Government which is for the moment in the saddle? Why, the Government is merely a servant- merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn't. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them.
Mark Twain  



24 Jan 2006 @ 10:03 by rayon : Learning to read
In my readings Cause is the nomena and Effect the Phonemena, thought into material, as Beings we straddle the two.

Up until recently we humans did work with nature. Many cultures had their own way of webbing their lives into that of the conditions around them, built up over time. Jungles are being slashed and burned for the next piece of square heavy different furniture to grace a magazine page.

We do have to do something to Halt the change. Deserts are increasing. Unpredictable weather is bad for farming. People who know how much effort it takes to produce food are alarmed. The Fertilizer giants sell seed which does not seed itself, ensuring a market for their seed the next year. This is not working with bountifulness of nature. How can anyone stand by shrugging the shoulders??? We are not greater than Nature.  



25 Jan 2006 @ 09:53 by rayon : Encumbent on us
To do something because otherwise we glibly put ourselves into the hands of the scientists, governements, politicians, etc and those whom we continually criticise and which appears to be the raison d'etre for this site???  


5 Feb 2006 @ 15:25 by Human @196.206.213.58 : what a shame
tell me...if someone do the same thing for your father,mothers,sisters and brothers...tell me if someone took your wife's or husand's photo and made them that way...tell me, you son of bitch ,would you be happy.....this is a message for all you bastards....  


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29 Apr 2016 @ 04:58 by Teyah @188.143.232.32 : ylmIvSroisHercNDbNb
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