Wednesday, January 4, 2017

#A - Considering the Republican Disconnect From Planet Earth. (Where EM's debate started.)

For a point of reference, I've decided to Repost the op/ed that started my current debate with EM over the Republican Disconnect from our Planet's Physical Reality.   EM made comments to this piece that I took prime time with two blog posts, along with an invitation which EM accepted and on January 1st I posted "#3 E.M. has his say. Debating the Republican Disconnect from Earth's realities" where he makes his arguments.  I've followed with three responses and there are more to come.

Still for argument sake I thought it would be good to slip this in here.
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The following started as a response over at Center For Inquiry forum.  But it took on a life of its own and I'd like to share it over here, the quote that got me going:

“I agree that there are lots of justifications to have a negative outlook for our future.  But I do think that although our ability to destroy ourselves is increasing all the time, we are also, on average, getting better at treating each other better.  (I wish I could say the same for how we treat our planet, but with our population and growth rate and 'improving standard of living', we have a long loooong way to go.”)  

(for the record this was written several months before the election.)


CC:  I wonder how you feel after this election "campaign" and its result?

As for our planet, we are her guests.  Earth has only so much to offer us and after a few hundred years of sucking out and consuming everything as fast as possible, all the while getting ever more contemptuous and disconnected from our Earth’s physical realities, she's running out of what we need to survive.  Our slow learning curve doesn’t mean a thing to how Earth reacts to what we have done to her.  What we don’t know is certainly going to harm us. 

Science tells us about Earth’s simple physical reality.  No matter how much bullshit Republican delusionals have hurled at this edifice of knowledge and understanding, the overwhelming observational evidence supports what the scientists are tellings us. 

Misrepresenting what scientists say likewise doesn’t change the facts.  Choosing to ignore it doesn’t mean the changes aren’t continuing underfoot.  Here I’m reminded of an excellent song worth sharing at this point.  I’ve wanted to share it since first hearing it downtown Denver during the 2008 Democratic Convention.  Their poetry does a pretty job of conveying a certain ugly reality about how things work in Washington DC and how oblivious most people are to it.

 Oakhurst - Moonshine Still

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Bringing it back down to Earth and appreciating her realities.

I’ll repeat, we are Earth's creatures and its guests.  We've achieved incredible things, but it was all on account of Earth providing us those raw materials, not to mention creating us.  Raw materials four and a half billion amazing years in the making.  

A fantastical pageant who's story can be told, thanks to the serious organized study of countless thousands of people who have carefully examined her clues, which are to be found all around us - if you have eyes capable of seeing.

Tragically, these days thanks to Hollywood, Corporate and Evangelical brainwashing, most are left blind to any awareness, let alone appreciation for this planet that sustains us.  Republicans have gone out of their way to banish respecting Earth from their mindscape, profits and power seems all that matters in their childlike reality.   

Say ‘global heat and moisture distribution engine’ and its blank stares all the way around.  Yet, the same clueless people feel quite comfortable slandering serious scientists and the painstaking information they have accumulated.  

Republicans seem blind to Earth’s story of countless folds within folds of constructive harmony flowing down the stream of time.  If this sounds hippy-dippy and you’re ready to toss epitaphs at me, let me first ask how much do you know about it?  

How curious have you been about our home planet Earth?  Do you know about the evolution of elements in the stars, or the evolution of minerals here on Earth, or the long periods it took simplest pre-cellular units to learn the lessons needed before moving in with each other and on to more complex cells, then organizations of cells?  

Do you know about the fantastical pageant of life, first in the oceans, then on land.  Or how we can watch a developing human embryo and follow human’s evolutionary life stages from simplest early creatures through the stages of our distant reptilian and mammalian past, each having left its unique traits.  

Do you understand that our atmosphere has a likewise fascinating evolutionary story.  A story you need to truly appreciate before you can understand anything realistic about global warming induced climate change and what it means for this planet and the society that depends on her good health.

Mr/Ms Republican (and lurking Russians) You’ll never have any sort of fundamental understanding about Anthropogenic Global Warming, without first learning about Earth’s Evolution.  I suppose that’s one reason why we have so easily sacrificed our children’s futures.

For the Curious:

Appreciating Earth's Climate
Who says understanding Earth’s Evolution is irrelevant?

http://whatsupwiththatwatts.blogspot.com/p/understanding-earth.html
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Here's a nice introduction to Earth's interwoven systems.

Earth From Space - Nova

Natural World
The groundbreaking two-hour special that reveals a spectacular new space-based vision of our planet. Produced in extensive consultation with NASA scientists, NOVA takes data from earth-observing satellites and transforms it into dazzling visual sequences, each one exposing the intricate and surprising web of forces that sustains life on earth.

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