Random Musing

About climate change.  Lot of talk about that these days.  Some, including His Trumpness, say it's a hoax.  Science says it's the real deal.  I will always side with science.  If you have any science education at all, you can't deny that this planet has gone through many climate changes.  Change is just the nature of the universe.  We can't stop it, but we can plan for and adapt to it, and we have the means to do that.  That's what climate change advocates are trying to make the world understand.  Coastal populations need to prepare for rising sea levels due to warming and polar ice melt.  It's a sad fact that many species will be lost to a drastic change, but that too has happened many times.  Evolution will fill in the gaps, but there will be further loss as nature adapts to the changes.

By the way, here is my view of the world and all.  Humans may consider themselves the dominant life form on this planet, but we are not the most important.  The loss of just a few key species at the lower end of the food chain will impact us tremendously.  Warming seas will deplete krill and plankton which would affect fish and other oceanic species.  On land, coastal flooding would kill off terrestrial plants and animals.  The warmer and higher sea levels will affect the weather.  All these changes will affect our food supply and lifestyles.  We have to plan for this, and come up with solutions.  We can't just sit here and go oh pooh pooh.  (nerd note: that's a Buffy reference)

About Ancient Aliens.  Yeah, I'm going there again.  Not about aliens, but about ancient civilizations.  I've said before that I'm not necessarily buying the Ancient Alien Theory (AAT), but that something very important was going on in pre-history.  I began to think about what would survive if our current civilizations collapsed.  We're in the digital age now.  Would any of this survive the test of time?  Nope.  Paper certainly wouldn't, unless it could be preserved as some ancient scrolls were in perfectly arid conditions.  Iron and steel?  It would be iffy, I think.  Eventually most metals succumb to corrosion and erosion.  What would stand the test of time?  The same thing that survived ancient times...stone and gold.  What if there were civilizations in our distant past that arose to the technological level we are at now, and then collapsed (oooh, climate change?), and then we had to claw our way back to where we are now.   All our previous knowledge was lost to time, and had to be relearned.  All we had was whatever survived the collapse, and maybe that was whatever had been written in stone.  I think we need to preserve our knowledge in true hard copy....stone and gold.

About funerals.  Hey, I said this was going to be random stuff.  Humans desperate need to enter an imagined afterlife has created the most environmentally irresponsible funeral practices.  We destroy acres of valuable habitat or potential farm land to accommodate non-biodegradable containers to preserve (often chemically) a carcass that should be feeding the earth as nature intended.  Not to the mention the waste of water, oil, and gas that large expanses of cemetery turf grass creates.  Cremation is the best choice, in my opinion, and many ancient civilizations agreed.  I read a story once (Sci-Fi) that had such an elegant and responsible solution.  A body was buried upright in a vertical hole, and a tree was planted over it to honor the dead, and give back to the environment.  How beautiful and reverent of the nature of life and death.  I've read that there are organizations that can make something similar to this happen.  I'd much rather my remains feed a tree than serve no purpose at all.  Even cremation ashes give more back to the earth than a casket burial.  But religion is responsible for this gross irresponsibility and waste, and until we let go of that, we will continue to rape the earth for our superstitious beliefs.

tnt