Questioning the Geologic Column. Mind over Matter

I think it's important to add this essay to December's collection.  I like how it reads.  Nothing fancy, all based on a century and more of scientists and other experts accumulating evidence, then engaging in careful study and learned debate - that evolves as more evidence accumulates.  The results of which they (and some intrepid reporters) have then explained to the general public, well, those interested in learning about Earth and keeping up on the latest findings.  In this essay I describe what the Geologic Column is to a faith-shackled character that simply can't bring himself to accept the evidence.  So he ran away to hide from this essay.  

Could you do a better job of connecting?    How would you go about challenging someone who thinks 'I Know "God's Will" for certain'?  What if giving up on trump's 40% is not an option?  If we aren't changing minds, we are losing.  Thoughtful, suggestion and opinions are welcome.

.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The following appears in the July 2018 issue of the Four Corners Free Press

Working title was: Explaining the Geologic Column to Psalm1Tree. 

Colorado's Grand Staircase's Geologic Column - Wayne Ranney

(click on image for a better view)

https://earthly-musings.blogspot.com/2013/08/ancient-landscapes-of-colorado-plateau.html
___________________________________________________________

Saying No To Reality
Four Corners Free Press, July 2018

Recently, I was minding my own business listening to a fascinating talk on YouTube titled, “Rooted in Earth History: the Devonian transition to a forested planet.”  It was about strategies that Earth’s first ground-hugging plants adapted to escape the confines of Earth’s surface.  They did this in order to reach closer to our sun and further away from plant-eaters. 

This led to Earth’s first forests, which in turn led to an explosion of new environmental niches for life to radiate into. 

I learned some fascinating details regarding questions I’d been wondering about for a long time.  The lecture increased my understanding of evolution on this fantastic planet of ours, which has been a lifelong passion for me.

But my pleasant reverie was shattered by a YouTube comment that blind-sided me.  One ‘Psalm1Tree’ wrote in all seriousness: 

“There never was a Devonian period, just as there never was a Cambrian, Jurassic, Triassic etc. period. That's because there never was a Geologic Column. That is a 19th century construct that has no data whatsoever to support it.”

Besides avoiding the topic of the video, the comment is such an ignorant statement on so many levels that most who know anything about geology and evolution would simply clamp on the head-vise and back away. 

Unfortunately, decades of ignoring such belligerent ignorance about important aspects of our life and planet have led to its becoming so insidious and commonplace that our government is controlled by Republicans who disregard obvious physical realities on personal whim.   Justified only by a hubristic conceit that they are doing “God’s duty,” they are in fact all about pursuing their own EGO’s bidding.

I decided to engage Psalm with a short video that rationally explains what the geologic column is all about.  Then came my second shock.

Pageant of Earth's Evolution (in 24hr) part two

Since my introduction was so long I posted it separately.

FourCornersFreePress, December 2019

In the first half of this look at Earth’s 4.6 billion year old pageant of Evolution, scaled down to 24 hours, Earth’s first enduring Life took about 4 hours to claw together an existence within very tiny, very simple, very protective sacks, against an extremely harsh environment.

After that, Evolution progressed very slowly.  Why?  Because Earth’s hostile environment provided limited means, this stifled further development.  Which brings us to a key early scientific breakthrough in perspective, namely that an organism cannot be understood without also understanding the environment it lives within.

Pageant of Earth Evolution (in 24hr) part one

A nice thing about having my own blog is that I get to do what I want and since I've finally completed the big project I assigned myself this past summer - I'm going to repost the first half of my Pageant of Evolution in 24 hours before sharing the finale in the next post.  

Four Corners Free Press, August 2019

In last month’s celebration of Earth’s Pageant of Evolution I touched on the interplay of tectonics, geochemistry and archaic life. The intimate love-making of Earth's geology and biology - to put it poetically rather than scientifically. 

Getting back to the science, scientists have learned about the why and how of various ocean bottom structures that provide the catalyst between geochemistry and biochemistry, by helping bind basic molecules into complex organic building blocks of life.

This month to convey the immensity of Deep Time I’m scaling down Earth’s 4.6 billion years to 24 hours. A billion years take 5 hours plus change, 3.2 million years tick by every minute. Our human story fits into Earth’s past 4-5 seconds. Imagine that. 

Pageant of Earth's Evolution (in 24hr) part one

Four Corners Free Press, August 2019

In last month’s celebration of Earth’s Pageant of Evolution I touched on the interplay of tectonics, geochemistry and archaic life. The intimate love-making of Earth's geology and biology - to put it poetically rather than scientifically. 

Getting back to the science, scientists have learned about the why and how of various ocean bottom structures that provide the catalyst between geochemistry and biochemistry, by helping bind basic molecules into complex organic building blocks of life.

This month to convey the immensity of Deep Time I’m scaling down Earth’s 4.6 billion years to 24 hours. A billion years take 5 hours plus change, 3.2 million years tick by every minute. Our human story fits into Earth’s past 4-5 seconds. Imagine that. 

Pageant of Evolution (3), Earth's Evolution in 24 hours (#a)

Here’s my third Pageant of Evolution, Four Corners Free Press column, again I couldn’t avoid starting back at the beginning, but this time it feels like I’ve gotten the solid footing that was evading me previously.  I admit I don’t feel particularly pleased with the first and second, but I do like this third essay and look forward to seeing how well I manage to finish the story of our Earth’s Pageant of Evolution.

My next column will continue into the Metazoic and Cenozoic when Life started utilizing all the resources and potential that Earth had spent all those billions of years processing and developing.  The period that highlights how much environment and climate dictates how Life evolves and who thrives or dies.

Four Corners Free Press, August 2019

In last month’s celebration of Earth’s Pageant of Evolution I touched on the interplay of tectonics, geochemistry and archaic life. The intimate love-making of Earth's geology and biology - to put it poetically rather than scientifically. 

Getting back to the science, scientists have learned about the why and how of various ocean bottom structures that provide the catalyst between geochemistry and biochemistry, by helping bind basic molecules into complex organic building blocks of life.

This month to convey the immensity of Deep Time I’m scaling down Earth’s 4.6 billion years to 24 hours. A billion years take 5 hours plus change, 3.2 million years tick by every minute. Our human story fits into Earth’s past 4-5 seconds. Imagine that. 

Pageant of Evolution (2), geological rearranging.

Here's my second Pageant of Evolution column, of course as I've said before I never finish projects I simply meet deadlines.  So it is that the version I'm sharing has gone through some more edits since the one that appeared at the Four Corners Free Press.  I'll be following this post with more highlighted video lectures by real sciences who will supply real substance behind this enthusiast's overview of Earth's magnificent Evolution.

(click image for better view)

Last month’s Four Corners Free Press column left off with Earth looking like a snowball roughly seven hundred million years ago.  In fact, there were a number of snowball epochs in Earth’s past, though most didn’t actually have glaciers growing all the way to the equator.  For this column those specifics make little difference since my point is mainly to introduce folks to the marvelous dynamics of Earth’s Evolution.  More exacting details are easy to find on the internet.

Pageant of Evolution (1), the warm up.

(click for better view)

A couple month's ago I was feeling guilty for not submitted anything to the Four Corners Free Press in a while.  Also I'd been all involved in that filthy downer job of sorting through Jim Steele's "What's Natural?" deceptions and I needed something positive.

So, with days to go before deadline, I decided to write about the Pageant of Evolution.  I cheated by rewriting the evolution pitch off this blog.  I though it would be a cinch since I think about Evolution a lot anyways.

During those days (and since) I tapped into a wonderful vain of scientific lectures on YouTube regarding latest findings in "origins" research, as well as the Evolution process in general to help refresh my memory and to get my creative juices flowing.

Instead I wound up chagrined and annoyed by how out of date I'd allowed myself to get.  But as they say, the project is never finished you only meet deadlines.  So even as I was summiting this column, I knew I had to give it another shot.  I'm sharing this Pageant of Evolution #1 because I want to explore my own learning process and the development, dare I say evolution, of my understanding.  Sharing the agony of defeat, along with the joy of victory and constructive learning.

Besides being chagrined, I was thinking of times I'd referred to myself as a student of climate science and now feeling mighty silly about that conceit.  I may be a genuine "Student of Life" but I'm no scholar, no "Student" - I come to realize, to appreciate, that I'm a self-taught  "Enthusiast," a lover, a poet, Earth and life are a stage and experiencing it is my game - with science being my clearest path to better understanding my observations.

A real student of science possesses a discipline, a focus and sticktoitiveness I can't muster.  I'm like a happy puppy dog were every new scent is a fascinating adventure.  Though at 64, a creakier puppy for sure, oh but what a collection of experiences and learning.

b) Saying No To Reality, denying the Geologic Column. A response.

Since, 2018 was the climax of a decade long crescendo in my decades long effort to network with rationalists, scientists and science communicators, in what I fancied was our communal struggle to confront the nonsense that corporate funded science contrarians and select politicians were so successfully peddling to an under-informed and mostly disinterested public - and since New Year's Eve is upon us, I'm collecting some of my favorite essays in an effort to summarize my perspective.  

Here's another look at the importance of understanding evolutionary reality.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The following appears in the July issue of the Four Corners Free Press
Working title was: Explaining the Geologic Column to the Faith Blinded Psalm1Tree. 

Colorado's Grand Staircase's Geologic Column - Wayne Ranney

(click on image for a better view)

https://earthly-musings.blogspot.com/2013/08/ancient-landscapes-of-colorado-plateau.html
___________________________________________________________

Recently, I was minding my own business listening to a fascinating talk on YouTube titled, “Rooted in Earth History: the Devonian transition to a forested planet.”  It was about strategies that Earth’s first ground-hugging plants adapted to escape the confines of Earth’s surface.  They did this in order to reach closer to our sun and further away from plant-eaters. 

This led to Earth’s first forests, which in turn led to an explosion of new environmental niches for life to radiate into. 

I learned some fascinating details regarding questions I’d been wondering about for a long time.  The lecture increased my understanding of evolution on this fantastic planet of ours, which has been a lifelong passion for me.

But my pleasant reverie was shattered by a YouTube comment that blind-sided me.  One ‘Psalm1Tree’ wrote in all seriousness: 

“There never was a Devonian period, just as there never was a Cambrian, Jurassic, Triassic etc. period. That's because there never was a Geologic Column. That is a 19th century construct that has no data whatsoever to support it.”

Besides avoiding the topic of the video, the comment is such an ignorant statement on so many levels that most who know anything about geology and evolution would simply clamp on the head-vise and back away. 

Unfortunately, decades of ignoring such belligerent ignorance about important aspects of our life and planet have led to its becoming so insidious and commonplace that our government is controlled by Republicans who disregard obvious physical realities on personal whim.   Justified only by a hubristic conceit that they are doing “God’s duty,” they are in fact all about pursuing their own EGO’s bidding.

I decided to engage Psalm with a short video that rationally explains what the geologic column is all about.  Then came my second shock.

(Sd2) Need a Real Dialogue About Climate - FCFP, January 2018 - Steele debate #2

I've been finishing up my line by line dissection of Mr. GOP's March Letter to the Four Corners Free Press Editor.  Since he was complaining about how I presented climate science I figured I should include the column he was taking issue with.  It appeared in the January 2018 Four Corners Free Press.

We need a real dialogue about climate.  

by Peter Miesler, January 2018, Four Corners Free Press.

Early in December U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt told lawmakers he intended to organize a “Red team v Blue team” exercise to debate climate change.

Pruitt is being willfully blind to the fact that the scientific aspects of global warming have already been thoroughly debated by experts. It’s expected that Pruitt will orchestrate a lawyerly winner-take-all debate. One that’s based on rhetorical trickery and a ruthless disregard for facts.

It’s a shame, since we Americans needs a constructive educational dialogue. A debate where honestly representing your opponent’s arguments and data is as important as honestly representing your own data. One where objective learning is the goal, and where truth matters.

Speaking of honestly representing the science, on November 9th Dr. Kevin Trenberth, senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder and a lead author for IPCC’s Scientific Assessment in 1995, 2001, 2007, a giant in the field of climate assessment, gave a talk at the Fort Lewis College Climate Symposium explaining what scientists have learned about our planet. It sounded to me like a potential Blue team opening statement.

Saying No To Reality

Working title was: Explaining the Geologic Column to the Faith Blinded Psalm1Tree. 

Over at my ConfrontingScienceContrarians blogspot I examined a recent exchange with a god fearing delusional - oh ...,  is that rude?  I would submit, it's not a fraction as rude as the ruthless malicious trickery and lies Faith-Blinded people have used to justify their total rejection of constructive learning and sober assessment of critical down to Earth physical facts - be they about our planet's Evolution, which is essential for understanding our planet's processes and this particular time in Earth's ongoing story - or Anthropogenic Global Warming, which people can't grasp without a fundamental understanding of the evolution of our Earth's global heat and moisture distribution engine.

I wrote up my observation regarding Psalm1Tree's fraud for a column in the July issue of Four Corners Free Press, which has now hit the newsstands.  Following the column, I share links to four information packed footnotes that fill in details that I didn't have room for in my article.

Colorado's Grand Staircase's Geologic Column - Wayne Ranney

(click on image for a better view)

https://earthly-musings.blogspot.com/2013/08/ancient-landscapes-of-colorado-plateau.html

_______________________________________________________

Saying No To Reality
Four Corners Free Press, July 2018

Recently, I was minding my own business listening to a fascinating talk on YouTube titled, “Rooted in Earth History: the Devonian transition to a forested planet.”  It was about strategies that Earth’s first ground-hugging plants adapted to escape the confines of Earth’s surface.  They did this in order to reach closer to our sun and further away from plant-eaters. 

This led to Earth’s first forests, which in turn led to an explosion of new environmental niches for life to radiate into. 

I learned some fascinating details regarding questions I’d been wondering about for a long time.  The lecture increased my understanding of evolution on this fantastic planet of ours, which has been a lifelong passion for me.

But my pleasant reverie was shattered by a YouTube comment that blind-sided me.  One ‘Psalm1Tree’ wrote in all seriousness: 

“There never was a Devonian period, just as there never was a Cambrian, Jurassic, Triassic etc. period. That's because there never was a Geologic Column. That is a 19th century construct that has no data whatsoever to support it.”

This Is What Democracy Looks Like - Breen LandUseCode Community Meeting

After a short intro with a big digression, here's the follow up to my previous post, which looked at the connections between "SaveLaPlata" and the Koch octopus.  Here's a report on a very informative local meeting and example of genuine democracy in action.

I appreciate this concerns but one obscure county, still change the names and the contrived local "issue" - and this is playing out throughout the USA in the run up to the Nov. election.  

Koch network to spend $400 million during 2018 midterm election cycle

By Jonathan Easley - 01/27/18 - The Hill.com

Why am I sharing this?  Guess, I still dream of a genuine grassroots uprising, and yes perhaps even networking with some people of passion, ethics and being part of it. (citizenschallenge at gmail.)    
       

Statistical Certainty vs Geophysical Realities - communication challenges

Looks like Bates is on hold for a couple posts so I can look at a discussion at the blog …and Then There's Physics.  Though I'm prefacing it with an essay I wrote "Colorado Floods - statistical certainty vs geophysical realities" about the September 2013 televised release of the preliminary report on the torrential rain event that hit central Colorado a few weeks earlier. Given by the Western Water Assessment (WWA) together with Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES).  

All in all it was an excellent understandable detailed report, fact after fact after fact.  But when reporters asked scientists to tie those facts together, the messaging broke down into babble because the panel members were too ...?... to dare make Thee AGW connection.  

I'm prefacing my repost, with the kickoff comment at ATTP.  Some commenters are rather critical of what I've done, though some appreciate what I'm trying to convey and agree.  My unpolished style has taken a few hits.  No doubt I wish I had more time to focus on it, bet I could do much better, bit more schooling would have been lovely, alas that is not my fate, doing the best I can with what I got, I ask the reader's indulgence and focus on the issue being raised.

izen says:

March 26, 2017 at 4:13 pm

@-ATTP

I agree that the rate of warming, or the distribution between land, sea and air of the energy accumulating from a rising forcing is a matter of scientific interest. 

How that interest, and research is reported and framed has been shaped by seepage. The result is what can look like reasonable scientific language, but because of a carefully established misleading context that language can be parsed in general terms that confirm the misinformation.

Most important lesson of US Election 2016

My column in the December Four Corners Free Press

Dec 19th is rapidly approaching and too few are questioning Trump's many foreign entanglements among other serious National Security questions. Matters that need public outcry, because no politician has the backbone to confront these real concerns without strong public support.  Where are you?

During Thanksgiving I had a fascinating discussion with a career Navy man who introduced me to an entirely new perspective I hadn't thought of before.  My take away understanding is that,  once we had a United States of America and a government that required a president, now we have a multinational corporation with a CEO in charge of marketing and PR and we (armed forces) are there to serve him.  If true, it seems to me a disastrous turn of events.

It's going to take many individual citizens proactively engaging in a rational thoughtful constructive and vocal resistance to the coming Oligarch onslaught.  If these memes resonate with your own thinking, please figure out how to make them yours and pass them along.  Help jump start the dialogue.  One way or another we've got to get out of old comfort zones and engage in the reality of today's political landscape.   

Well, ... actually, that's not true, is it?  We can allow the dogs of war to have their way with us yet again.  America, it's your move!

_________________________________________________________________

Seems to me the single most important lesson of this election is that “The Lie” has become acceptable mainstream political currency. Though the Left is guilty of this, Trump and his Alt-Right champions and Republican tea-partiers have taken it to an entirely new level.

Sure politicians have always added their creative spin to the truth, but this is something different. Namely, a complete strategic rejection of ethics and honestly appraising the evidence at hand.

It manifested itself in Trump and the Alt-Right’s disregard for, plus their hideous incivility and hostility towards bona fide experts across the entire spectrum of our society. 

Well, that is, if those experts happen to bring unwelcome news about the reality of the physical world we depend on. On the other hand, any two-bit dilettante gets treated as a singularly authoritative “expert” if they spin a pleasing yarn. That is, plastering over serious down to earth facts with cynically crafted bull-poop whose sole intent is to hide from a true assessment.

Why would any forward thinking adult embrace such childish misdirection and just-so fairytales? By what manner of twisted logic do we rationalize ignoring evidence based constructive learning and the increasing understanding that has come through generations worth of dedicated capable individuals the world over?

What happened to humanity’s Intellectual Enlightenment? It suddenly seems farther away than ever and getting dimmer fast.

Calling out Trump's Rev. Burns and GOP absolutism

       Occasionally I write a column for the Four Corners Free Press out of Cortez, Colorado.  For their August issue I decided to write about the Republican platform, but while doing research I wound up getting side-tracked by their absolutism.  The new GOP demonstrates a contrived sense of superiority, which seems based on a fanciful notion that they alone understand "God" - even worse a conviction that they are somehow God's Chosen People.  Cementing that impression was reverend Burns' off-the-wall GOP convention invocation.

Here I repost my August FCFP column though I've added a couple lines specifically calling out Rev. Burns and pointing out that the God he's praying to is merely a reflection of his own petty partisan bigotry.  It is something that has nothing to do with any ultimate God of Creation and Time, Life and Love! 

It's ludicrous to think the creator of this universe would be picking sides like some trumpeting politician, oh but how the self-certain certainly do. 

( I include a copy of Burns' prayer at the end, along with a collection of quotes and links to interesting articles that look at reverend Burns.)

___________________________________________________________

Considering the GOP platform and Trump's Rev. Burns

The GOP Convention gave me a reason to read the 2016 Republican Platform which is the distillation of their rank and file’s world outlook along with their wish list, so it’s worth paying attention to. I had intended to report on it’s sketchy content.  Instead, I found myself overwhelmed by their attitude, which needs to be considered before the content can make sense.

For someone like me, a liberty loving rationalist who’s into the scientific enlightenment, the one that rescued humanity from religious superstition, someone who believes in evidence-based constructive learning about each other and this Earth from which we were born and which we shall all die back into, it’s a horrific document.

What made it especially frightening is its absolute self-certainty, along with a disregard, if not hatred, for all who are outside of their religious/philosophical tribe. It reads like there’s no more room for reason with this new Republican crowd, it’s their way or else, consequences be damned.

Here’s how they start: “We believe in American exceptionalism. We believe the United States of America is unlike any other nation on earth.”

Looming U.S. Midterm Election disaster

It appears that the pollsters are predicting that the I-won't-votes are going to hand over another election to the faith-based Republican party and their slick attack ads.

Thereby allowing the Republican's headstrong dedication to their pursuit of profits and religious absolutists, at the expense of rational assessment of evidence, to rack up yet another win in their ongoing War On Science - with it's rejection of real experts and the learning process.

And why is the GOP/TeaParty going to receive another election victory?  

Because too many good American's are going to be too good to bother voting, yet again?

But, the election isn't over yet - it is now and apathy has handed the faith based, science rejecting, faction another big victory -