Sam Kneller's Blog, page 47
September 14, 2017
Biblical Hebrew – An Amazing Language, both Simple and Deep at the Same Time
Biblical Hebrew is the principal language of the Old Testament. To really understand the Bible, a comprehension of how Biblical Hebrew works can be very helpful. Read on …
In comparison to Biblical Hebrew, the 20 volume Oxford Dictionary exposes 171,000 English words in current use. Quite a difference. One might think that with an infinitely smaller vocabulary the Biblical Hebrew would be easier to understand. To the contrary, there’s much less controversy with the millions and millions of words in the Oxford Dictionary than the entire 419,687 words of the Old Testament mainly in Biblical Hebrew.
(Origin of the Universe chapter 3.1)
English 170,000 words. Biblical Hebrew: 8,000 words but it is amazingly simple and deep at the…
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If you happened on this page about Biblical Hebrew I suggest you quickly read these other pages to find out the relationship between this language and The Explanation of what’s happening in our world: Why Theology?, Sacred Books and The Bible. You’ll better understand why this page talks about Biblical Hebrew.
Now, we are going to make a brief incursion into an interesting aspect and complexity (or simplicity) of Biblical Hebrew. This is greatly expounded in Origin of the Universe, the third book of The Explanation series.
It’s these complexities/simplicities which open the way for the multitude of ‘interpretations’ of the biblical texts. The cacophonic confusion that surrounds the most printed, and probably the least understood book of all times.
As one of my Hebrew teachers said, “every translation is an interpretation”. Simple and profound, each language has its own vocabulary that often doesn’t have an identical counterpart in another language. So, how do you decode it? This is where a translator’s sensitivity, culture, education and even belief or non-belief come into play.
Keep in mind that I’m not asking you to believe or accept any of this … what I’m saying, what you might think the Bible says or doesn’t say, whether the Bible is true or false. All of that is neither here nor there. We’re simply dealing with the literary best-seller of all times that was originally written in Hebrew. All we’re doing is analyzing some vocabulary.
Let’s jump into the deep end … the buoy is right there to grab onto
Here are four biblical texts from the Kings James Bible. Notice the highlighted, bold, italicized words.
Exodus 21:19
If he rise again, and walk abroad upon his staff, then shall he that smote him be quit: only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall cause him to be throughly healed.
Proverbs 20:3
It is an honour for a man to cease from strife: but every fool will be meddling.
Isaiah 30:7
For the Egyptians shall help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore have I cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still.
Obadiah 3
The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground?
In the image below, even if you have no knowledge of Biblical Hebrew whatsoever, it is easy to see that the 4 Hebrew words from excerpts of the four verses above have three identical letters: shin, beth, taf. (Hebrew is written from right to left that’s why the English is ‘jumbled’ and also needs to be read, in blocks, from right to left).
From reading these four verses in English… in any and all translations… you’d never guess or know in 1000 years that these 4 phrases come from ONE AND THE SAME ORIGINAL Hebrew word ‘Shevet’. And you’d be hard-pressed to find the relationship between these phrases if any.
What I submit to you is this: From reading these four verses in English–in any and all translations–you’d never guess or know in 1000 years that these 4 phrases come from ONE ORIGINAL Hebrew word ‘Shevet’. And you’d be hard-pressed to find the relationship between these phrases if any.
What, if anything, do these four English words, from the single Hebrew word (shevet) have in common?
Loss of time
Ceasing
Sitting still
Habitation / cease
Read 4 Bible phrases in English. You’d never guess that they ALL come from ONE ORIGINAL Hebrew…
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This short expose is not intended to give answers. It is simply to explain that beyond: Experience, Philosophy, Science and Religion there’s a fifth option: Theology. That possibly hasn’t been properly explored to find out about what makes our world tick.
If I go to the crux of the matter, and give you a little challenge … go and ask a well-known political or other experienced leader, go and question a philosopher, go and quiz a scientist, go and query a religious representative about those four verses above and ask them what, if any, relationship there is between the four different translations of the unique Hebrew word.
Can they enlighten us? I wonder, maybe… Well, theology can and will enlighten us.
In conclusion, this is just a hint, an inkling of what Biblical Hebrew is all about. You don’t have to read Biblical Hebrew, you don’t have to memorize it, you don’t have to learn its vocabulary to deepen your comprehension of theology.
I’m not going to give you the answer now to the above ‘question’ but I will give you the tools and show you the METHOD so you can Unlock Bible Meaning for yourself … and find the answer to the above enigma … and many others. Help and deeper understanding of Biblical Hebrew and ultimately the sacred book–the Bible–is not far away.
This blog post is an excerpt from chapter 3.1 of Origin of the Universe
Dig Deeper into The Explanation
Join The Explanation Newsletter to stay informed of updates. and future events. No obligations, total privacy, unsubscribe if you want. Your gift is a free pdf of The Explanation and a free pdf of Answering the Big Questions in Life
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Email address:
Learn how to play Take Inventory – The Interconnectivity Game (free) that nourishes your neurons and is taking the world by storm. Play a round with family and friends. View the above videos and use the tags at the end of this blog for dozens of ideas to play Take Inventory – The Game.
See the index of the book Inventory of the Universe to find a specific chapter and read it online.
Purchase Inventory of the Universe at Amazon – Purchase the Kindle version
Google Play – Barnes@Nobles – Kobo – iTunes
Unlock Bible meaning via Biblical Hebrew … with no fuss. The free video course that puts you in the driver’s seat to navigate the Bible as never before. Join now
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September 12, 2017
The Water Cycle Continues but Where the Water Goes has Changed.
Human behavior does affect the climate … and it comes back to batter us like a boomerang.
The water cycle continues unabated, but where the water goes is another matter. Drying up and removing wetlands forces water to run off and accumulate where it wouldn’t normally go.
It has been said that water tells the story of humankind and earth… first, we are composed of water; second, water shapes land both by years of erosion and by depositing sand, sediment and salt in the shape of basins and river deltas and alluvial fans, which form deserts; third, you can trace the migration of humankind throughout the world back to the rivers, seas, lakes and oceans.
(Audit of the Universe chapter 3.1)
The water cycle adding in the equation of human consumption.
We are at the Water Cycle Café, which to recap Inventory of the Universe, is a European or American-style diner restaurant that looks like the entire Earth, where air, water and food interrelate and ordering, cooking, serving and disposal run on the water cycle: precipitation > canopy interception > snowmelt > runoff > infiltration > subsurface (groundwater) flow > evaporation > condensation > sublimation (absorption).
This time, however, the Café is closed. How can that be? The water cycle never stops… does it?
We have never thought about the history of water in human civilization, in agriculture and industry, of humans as stewards of water… and yet we are, and we have been for centuries.
Is the Water Café still viable?
How much of the fresh water in the world is accessible for drinking, bathing, washing and all vital human activities? In other words, who has access to water? Would you believe that 11 percent of humanity, or 783 million people, has no access to clean drinking water?
Galacti, dressed in a waiter’s uniform, wonders, “There are finite, limited quantities of fresh water on the world menu. What are you humans doing with it?”
Consider that in Bangladesh, the country alternates between drought, with dams in India keeping water away from Bangladesh during the dry season, and rain. The country can be 70 percent underwater, imagine women washing and doing chores in waist-deep water. The Gorai River in Bangladesh/India is changing course in dry season, and drying up, so much that in a few more years it will be permanently cut off from the Ganges, leaving many without water.
We view a protest by Bangladesh and Indian citizens who are fighting the constructions of dams in India. We have never thought about protests over a river a world away for most of us. Human activities shape the environment, and the water cycle, sometimes in dramatic and deliberate ways with unintended consequences.
Nile River/Aswan Dam
In the Water Cycle Café, a dam blocks the natural flow of the water. We meet an Egyptian official and an Ethiopian farmer. The farmer believes she and her people have a right to their share of the resources of the Nile, and she has petitioned her government to divert more of the Nile River, thanks to a project named the Renaissance Dam, to her fields and her neighbors’ fields, and to provide more energy for her country.
“We have water for teff grass, the staple of Ethiopia that is used to make spongy injera bread, and energy, not necessarily for the people of Egypt,” Galacti announces. “That’s the blue plate special, 1,300 to 6,600 billion gallons of water going to Ethiopia and flowing out of Egypt—which has been getting the majority of the water since 1956.”
The Egyptian official strongly protests the move, aided in his protests by international agencies, and an official from the Sudan rejects any Ethiopian claim to a greater share of the water.
Human behavior does affect the climate ... and it comes back to batter us like a boomerang.
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Meanwhile, the international crusader Wikileaks reveals plans that the Egyptian and Sudanese governments have drawn up for a launching pad that will enable an attack by Egypt against the Ethiopian Grand Renaissance Dam, which along with the other dams in Ethiopia generate 4,612 MW of electricity, over double the Hoover Dam which supplies a good part of California, Nevada and Arizona.
Unlike coal-fired plants, there are few drawbacks to hydroelectric power—except of course in this case where there is armed conflict over water as a resource. The Egyptian and Sudanese official must face the ire of the Ethiopian farmer and her neighbors, with whom they plead to support a new leader in Ethiopia that can resolve the conflict.
The farmer in Ethiopia is tired of having to scratch out a living in drought conditions while the Egyptians enjoy the lush Nile River valley and the benefits the water brings (although the Nile is far from pristine). The Egyptians argue that they invented hydroelectric power and should have dams, although in the region Ethiopia is now ahead of Egypt in installed hydroelectric capacity.
“Besides, Ethiopia should remember that drought conditions are ‘normal’ for the Sahel, in which the country is located, that’s just a feature of the property,” Galacti comments. “However, it’s not getting better… could the water cycle be responsible? And who changed the water cycle?”
Climate Change and the Water Cycle
Severe weather changes due to human-made global warming are affecting the state of the world’s water, which we have all seen in disasters such as, recently, Hurricane Sandy as well as typhoons in Vietnam. Global sea levels have risen between .2 and .5 meters between 2007 and 2012, with a projected rise of one meter or more by 2100. The flooding from ‘Superstorm’ Hurricane Sandy, we learn, was due in part to sea levels in the northeastern U.S. rising faster than the river deltas in Southeast Asia. Water, essential for life, has become a fierce adversary.
Severe weather changes due to human-made global warming are affecting the state of the world’s…
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Why have the oceans been rising? Let’s have a look at the water cycle. There is a major point missing–those steps involving living beings, notably humankind. Plants and animals do not impact the water cycle negatively; only humankind does with construction of dams, removal of groundwater from wells, water abstraction from rivers, and the loss of 60 percent of the wetlands in the past 100 years (1909-2009).
“No blaming city dwellers for the run on water,” Galacti announces. In fact, worldwide water use figures show that far greater quantities of water are used in industry (22 percent) and agriculture (70 percent) than urbanization (8 percent). In the US, Europe, China and Mexico and around the world, farmers are encouraged to use up the 70 percent of water that overwhelmingly goes to agriculture, resulting in waste and inefficient practices, as the Aral Sea story below illustrates, or risk losing vital irrigation.
The café offers a ‘bumper crop’ of corn, for tortillas, papayas, grapes, strawberries… the ‘fruits’ of this water usage.
This blog post is an excerpt from chapter 3.1 of Audit of the Universe
Dig Deeper into The Explanation
Join The Explanation Newsletter to stay informed of updates. and future events. No obligations, total privacy, unsubscribe if you want. Your gift is a free pdf of The Explanation and a free pdf of Answering the Big Questions in Life
TheExplanation.com
Email address:
Learn how to play Take Inventory – The Interconnectivity Game (free) that nourishes your neurons and is taking the world by storm. Play a round with family and friends. View the above videos and use the tags at the end of this blog for dozens of ideas to play Take Inventory – The Game.
See the index of the book Inventory of the Universe to find a specific chapter and read it online.
Purchase Inventory of the Universe at Amazon – Purchase the Kindle version
Google Play – Barnes@Nobles – Kobo – iTunes
Unlock Bible meaning via Biblical Hebrew … with no fuss. The free video course that puts you in the driver’s seat to navigate the Bible as never before. Join now
Since you read all the way to here… you liked it. Please use the Social Network links just below to share this excerpt of Inventory of the Universe, The Water Cycle Continues but Where the Water Goes has Changed.
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September 7, 2017
The Sacred Book (if it exists): Could it Possibly be the Bible?
Why would I focus on the Bible? Of all the Sacred Books could it be the only one to answer all the ‘why’ questions?
One could read that introductory question and retort, ‘Sam, that’s a Catch 22 conundrum: You’ve got to read, study, comprehend and be an expert of ALL the sacred books before you can possibly decide if there’s just one that answers this criteria.’ That, in itself, is a lifetime endeavor. Indeed some have gone that route.
(Origin of the Universe chapter 2.3)
I’m not an expert in all these books and I don’t have a lifetime to devote to such a study. Do I throw my hands up in despair? No. Let’s look at some basics, starting with some numbers of major religious groups. Why religious groups? Because they are the ones that refer to sacred texts. You can find more information on these statistics of believers here.
Christianity (31.5%)
Islam (23.2%)
Hinduism (15.0%)
Buddhism (7.1%)
Folk religions (5.9%)
The sacred book(s) used by each of these religious orientations is specific.
Hinduism
Refers to the Vedas of which there are four: the Rigveda, the Yajurveda, the Samaveda and the Atharvaveda. The point I’d like to bring to your attention is their content: mantras, benedictions, text on rituals, ceremonies, sacrifices and symbolic-sacrifices, commentaries on rituals.
Another text which forms the basis of Hinduism and which is shared to some extent with Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism is the Upanishads. These sacred writings discuss meditation, philosophy, spiritual knowledge and worship. They delve into –brahman–the nature of ultimate reality and–mokṣa–the path to and character of spiritual liberation. The Upanishadic goal is to reveal the way to an individual’s freedom, their liberation in this life or after-life. It is about the individual, one’s knowledge about their soul.
Buddhism
Their sacred work entitled Tripitaka exposes rules and regulations of monastic life that cover dietary rules, dress code all the way to certain personal conducts that are prohibited. These are wisdom texts. Another sacred work is Dharma which reveals the purification of human beings and their moral transformation. The word ‘dharm’, when used by the Sikhs, refers to correct religious practices that lead to the path of righteousness. Buddhist training revolves around three key elements: higher virtue, higher mind and higher wisdom.
Then, there’s the all-important Dhammapada composed of stories and sayings of Buddha. The theme of Buddha’s teachings was to promote the Buddhist way of life.
The conclusion I want to draw here is that these sacred works focus mainly on personal development and leading a life of piety. These works do not delve into subjects and matters that deal with the why of the Universe, Earth, Mankind. Their wisdom teachings and way of life characterizes people in the East. Taoism and Confucianism propose the maintenance of ethics and the cultivation of virtue while Chinese folk religion adds in shamanism, ancestor worship, magic, ghosts and other spirits.
This is where the dualistic forces of nature, that we in the West are so aware of, come into play when we talk about yin and yang. The darker, softer, calmer, feminine ‘yin’ opposed to the brighter, harder, passionate, masculine ‘yang’. A person learns from both the yin and the yang and thus lives in harmony. Hence, some prefer referring to these Eastern teachings as a way of life or a philosophy rather than a full-blown ‘religion’ as we know it.
The question in the post has nothing to do with the veracity, quality, practicality or depth of the sacred books of the East. That’s not what we’re discussing. The only point is: focus on finding a sacred book that answers, in a coherent complete way all the questions Inventory of the Universe and Audit of the Universe have provoked. These sacred books do not pretend to do that.
The Eastern sacred books to not pretend to answer all our 'why' questions in a coherent…
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This type of religion, philosophy, mythology, wisdom in all its ethnic variety, forms and traditions accounts for almost half of the world’s population. The other approximate half of our planet has a different basis.
Islam
As we know, Islam is based on the Quran. What we need to realize is, that like Christianity, Islam is an ‘Abrahamic Religion’. That is. both believe in the sacred nature of the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament, believed to be composed by the prophet Moses. Along with this, traditional Muslim understanding highlights passages in the Quran which affirm the Christian Gospel as valid revelation of God. Of course each religion has its particular interpretation of these same scriptures. And, as we know, within each of these two mainstream religions there are many, many groups, each holding their particular ‘viewpoint’.
With Islam representing about a quarter of the world’s population and Christianity’s 2 billion followers, another third, their foundational sacred book has taken on a life of its own. And that brings us to the Bible.
Bible
In the West the sacred book is the Bible. Judaism limits itself to the Old Testament but Christianity accepts and believes in both the Old and New Testaments. Some Christian religions consider additional works as sacred. These works may throw light on some of the questions we are considering but the cornerstone key and common denominator of Western religion remains the Bible.
When you really get down to it, the only book that is considered sacred, that is, inspired by a non-human source that can possibly begin to answer all our questions is the Bible.
The only book considered sacred that can possibly begin to answer all our questions is the…
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I realize that’s a huge statement. I realize you might not agree. I realize you might adamantly disagree.
Here’s the challenge: Show me ‘writings’ that do answer ALL these questions.
I also understand that you might acknowledge the Bible as a ‘special work’ but not accept it as a ‘sacred book’ and certainly not as one inspired by a s/Source beyond humanity with answers to all our mundanely, earthy questions. Ok, this is where I need to ask you for patience. Such a subject takes time to develop and that’s what the rest of this book, Origin of the Universe, intends to do. Please read on.
Why would I focus on the Bible? On what is known as the Old and New Testaments? The Bible is an incredible paradox. All-time best-seller, all-time number of misunderstandings.
If you have not read the two short lead up posts on Theology and Sacred Books prior to this one I suggest you do so. Particularly if you are not a Bible advocate. Maybe you’ve had no interest or turned off interest in this book. You’ll quickly learn how and why I’ve progressed to focusing on the Bible: We want and need writings that answer the ‘why’ questions.
The identifying sign of the One Sacred Book
we’re looking for is that it will give
real, coherent complete answers to the BASIC questions
for which MANKIND does not have answers .
Questions which are so basic as to defy the imagination.
List of Basic Questions Mankind cannot Answer
Why is it that man is intelligent?
Why is it that in spite of all the geographic separations with unique animal and plant species that are found nowhere else, man is the only species that is worldwide?
Why is it that mankind is responsable for the state of this planet?
Why is it that no matter where mankind is on Earth s/he’s sociable?
Why is it that no matter where mankind is on Earth s/he’s living in some form of relationship, generally marriage?
Why is it that no matter where mankind is on Earth s/he’s obliged to raise their children?
Why is it that no matter where mankind is on Earth s/he’s their children take so many years to reach maturity?
Why is this world is such an upset state? And how is it possible to clear it up.
etc. etc.
Click here for a partial list of dozens and dozens of questions and points to ponder that are included inInventory of the Universe (This list is coming soon … but you can freely download the book or read it online to see these questions for yourself)
Our ONE sacred book must answer not just 25% or 50% or 72% but 100% of these questions and indeed even the questions that we don’t think to ask!
Our ONE sacred book must answer 100% of our 'why' questions and even the questions that we…
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Of all the Sacred Books I listed in a previous post, the Bible is the only one that has the answers to these fundamental questions of life–and, if you don’t mind, I’ll add death–because since we’ll all go through that, it is a very basic question which we cannot ignore: Why death? What is its purpose? Is there an afterlife? Why? How? Where? Under what conditions? Does everyone participate? and the list of down-to-earth questions goes on and on.
Now, let’s get down to brass tacks. That I’ve focused attention on the Bible is nothing new. After all there are many preachers pounding out messages from the Bible. Hotel rooms carry a copy and they’ll even deliver one to your door free accompanied by people who will explain certain teachings directly from the Bible’s words.
So, why continue reading what I’m writing?
Because I submit to you that whatever language they are using other than the Biblical Hebrew (I will not get into the Greek for now) is incomplete and does not tell the whole story. Please don’t get me wrong. I wrote INcomplete and the WHOLE story. Oh yes, the English, French, German, Spanish Japanese, Chinese … indeed all translations DO TELL A STORY–but NOT THE COMPLETE STORY.
Sorry for the capital letters but I really need you to pay attention and stop and even get a little irritated by both the way and what I just wrote. I’d like you to be moved enough to become curious as to what the Biblical Hebrew says and what you might be missing in your comprehension of this ONE SACRED BOOK.
This blog post is an excerpt from chapter 2.3 of Origin of the Universe.
Dig Deeper into The Explanation
Join The Explanation Newsletter to stay informed of updates. and future events. No obligations, total privacy, unsubscribe if you want. Your gift is a free pdf of The Explanation and a free pdf of Answering the Big Questions in Life
TheExplanation.com
Email address:
Learn how to play Take Inventory – The Interconnectivity Game (free) that nourishes your neurons and is taking the world by storm. Play a round with family and friends. View the above videos and use the tags at the end of this blog for dozens of ideas to play Take Inventory – The Game.
See the index of the book Inventory of the Universe to find a specific chapter and read it online.
Purchase Inventory of the Universe at Amazon – Purchase the Kindle version
Google Play – Barnes@Nobles – Kobo – iTunes
Unlock Bible meaning via Biblical Hebrew … with no fuss. The free video course that puts you in the driver’s seat to navigate the Bible as never before. Join now
Since you read all the way to here… you liked it. Please use the Social Network links just below to share this excerpt of Inventory of the Universe, The Sacred Book (if it exists): Could it Possibly be the Bible?
The post The Sacred Book (if it exists): Could it Possibly be the Bible? appeared first on The Explanation with Sam Kneller.
September 5, 2017
Gas Emissions: Al Gore, Cool Cities, Carbon Tax–For Real Change
Gas Emissions are the key to clean atmospheric conditions through environmental efforts. Is the worldwide gauge heading towards more murky or radiant environment?
Al Gore
A ‘property expert’ on Earth, former United States Vice-President Al Gore Jr., weighs in on the state of real estate. “Imagine,” Galacti says, “he was the one that said ‘The most vulnerable part of the earth is the atmosphere’! He organized the first hearings on global warming in the United States in the 1970s, but his focus has been on the entire earth and the climate.”
(Audit of the Universe chapter 2.5)
Al Gore has traveled the world, visiting many of the same places and seeing the same phenomena detailed in the stories we’ve shared thus far in this chapter, observing and reporting the same stunning effects of atmospheric change. He called Hurricane Sandy, in 2012, a warning. As the bizarre storm approached the Eastern U.S., according to Gore, the hurricane’s storm surge gained strength and power from aberrantly warm coastal waters as well as sea level rise.
On his tour, Al Gore speaks to an audience in China, talking about how we have filled the atmosphere of the ‘picture perfect’ Earth from space with pollution. A Chinese-English banner honors the lecture he is giving. Just hours before, he has been in planes, in cars, writing the story of the ‘call to action’ he is making now.
He speaks of walls of water destroying property in Katrina—crops being destroyed by extreme heat—a hurricane in Honduras in 1998 that left 1.5 million people homeless—events that he literally and metaphorically ties to his maps and bar graphs. He can cite figures on CO2 gas emissions and Alaska’s ice retreating, but what reaches millions of people worldwide is the stories Al Gore tells of the way that what man is doing to the atmosphere affects all corners of the globe, all humans in various circumstances, regardless of race, region, religion or wealth.
Cool Cities: San Jose, California
In our last story, Al Gore has pointed to the need for individuals to create solutions—can one person make a difference? How about one city, or a network of cities? Since we’ve established that one location does indeed affect the atmosphere for the world—in ways we don’t realize—let’s focus on one city, a corner of our ‘property’.
In the US and Canada, the City of San Jose joins such cities as Ottawa, Canada, Elmhurst, Illinois, and Lansing, Michigan, in signing on for a series of milestones to bring about real change for the better. After taking the first step in signing the US Mayors Climate Protection Agreement (Canada has a similar agreement), San Jose passed a law for reduction of 25% of greenhouse gas emissions. The city aims to nearly quadruple the reduction to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2045. San Jose made progress in meeting its 2012 goal. Unfortunately the next 4 year plan took a dip. Hopefully they can turn it around.
With its 10-point Green Vision Plan, the City Council is providing leadership for the Sierra Club Cool Cities San Jose team, which unites organizations and small groups of citizens in the effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions citywide. Part of this effort is to educate individuals, organizations and businesses about the benefits of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and energy efficiency.
“One point of the Green Vision Plan we really like: Ensure that 100 percent of public fleet vehicles run on alternative fuels,” Galacti says. “Also: Divert 100 percent of the waste in the landfill and convert 100 percent of the waste to energy.” Practical steps towards ‘home improvement’, but do they work? As for the first, since 2007, 40 percent of the public vehicles (buses, police cars, etc.) now run on alternative fuel.
By building mass transit and high-speed rails, expanding the city’s network of charging stations for electric/hybrid vehicles, switching 40 percent of vehicles to clean natural gas, bio-diesel, bi-fuel/clean natural gas unleaded blend, electric, electric-unleaded hybrid, and other ‘green’ vehicles such as methane, San Jose has been able to reduce consumption of fuel and greenhouse gas emissions from 1,307,191 gallons and 18,232 tons, respectively, to 982,003 gallons and near the target of 13,000 tons.
With regard to the fuel, imagine one person in the city fleet driving the equivalent of 65,000 miles or a car in need of serious maintenance, per year, cutting back on the commute and driving 40,000 miles–still a great deal of driving, but the car is in better shape and gas emissions have been reduced. The 18,000 tons of emissions, the equivalent of toxic metals in noxious coal ash waste, is being reduced to nearly 13,000 tons, or the equivalent of harmful volcanic debris that covered the airport in Yakima, Washington, following the Mt. St. Helens eruption of 1980.
As for the second, the city conducts ‘waste phaseout’ sessions, and 73 percent of trash has been diverted and, through city partnerships with corporations, converted to ‘green energy’ such as biodiesel, biogas and so on.
San Jose sends 494,000 tons of garbage to landfills annually, and in the six years since enacting the plan, has reduced that to just 133,380 tons–multiply that by six and that’s 800,280 tons as opposed to 2.9 million–imagine several open cargo containers, all stinking up the air until it is unbearable, reduced by nearly three-quarters–the stench does not go away, but is more bearable.
What can one city or even a network of cities do? Consider the ‘eco-cities’, communities either founded on or adapted to self-sufficient self-sustaining industry and energy, of Freiberg, Germany, Auroville, India, Curitiba, Brazil, and Stockholm, Sweden, recognized as ‘The European Green Capital’ in 2010. Although the challenges of developing ‘eco-cities’ are great and difficult to achieve, select communities are accomplishing much.
What can one city or even a network of cities do to improve gas emissions? Consider the…
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Carbon Tax
‘Living on this planet entails some cost to improve and upgrade,’ Galacti says. ‘Some humans want to have a ‘special assessment’, the way many of you do in your towns and cities, neighborhoods and homeowner’s associations. This ‘special assessment’ is called the carbon tax, and many people feel that it is too much to pay and would take money and resources away from other ‘improvements’. The carbon tax is designed to make people change their habits and drive more emission-efficient cars, use fewer luxury goods that consume energy, and so on.
In China, which we’ve covered in detail, there is a proposed carbon tax of 10 yuan per tonne of carbon dioxide, increased to 50 yuan by 2020, a jump from $1.60 to $4.40. Most of this tax will be applied to coal, and will chiefly affect exports of Chinese goods, resulting in higher prices that may not be affordable worldwide. In Australia, the price is $23 per tonne and has upset the 10,000 coal miners that have lost jobs—the carbon tax proved to be a tough sell for Australia’s former prime minister. Emissions have dropped by 7 percent from 2011 to the present, a figure that could be due to decreased demand and installing solar panels.
In 2020 in the UK, the price of carbon could rise to 54 Euros per tonne, which UK businesses say will cost them 9.3 billion pounds, which will be passed on to the consumer. Yes, it can curb gas emissions as we see in Australia, but can businesses afford it? Subsidies for biofuels have reduced the price of gasoline, encouraging people to drive more, thus possibly increasing emissions—we mention this to point out a solution that was supposed to be good but is actually making the climate worse.
Man can be his own worst enemy even in trying to solve problems—despite some gains and improved climate, is the economic hardship of the ‘carbon tax’ worth it?
Man can be his own worst enemy even in trying to solve problems—sometimes solutions equate with…
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Conclusion
We have ‘airspace’ but the air is there for everyone—China, America, Africa, Russia, Europe, the Middle East, Oceania. Our international tour group forms a major world convention and ponders the state of the air. We take a moment to just breathe—smog-filled air, pure air, oxygen tanks—we need all the oxygen we can get because next we are going to be diving into deep waters.
This blog post is an excerpt from chapter 2.5 of Audit of the Universe
Dig Deeper into The Explanation
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August 31, 2017
The Nagging Question: How do Humans Function and Affect the Universe?
Humans never end with their questions. The way of Theology is a possibility to find real answers.
Humans with their unbridled imagination and ingenuity have managed to involve themselves in just about everything that affects our planet. The sacred book (if there is one) must answer questions about this interplay between us humans and the surrounding world we live in and depend upon.
What follows is an outline of the second book of The Explanation series, Audit of the Universe, in the form of social network hashtags (used on FB, T, G+ and Pin). The hashtags are accompanied by one article dealing with that subject and a universal question for which humankind sits around and debates possible solutions (plural). THE sacred book must give us THE answer and ALL these answers must be pieces that fit together to form the coherent complete puzzle picture.
You can find the hashtag outline for the series The Explanation at this page.
You can find the hashtags with hundreds of articles with my comments about The Explanation here. And, when you’re reading an interesting article in any media you can use these hashtags to enhance the library of information of how humankind functions and affects our Universe.
1 #AuditSpace
Orbiting ‘space nation’ data centre could avoid all Earthly laws https://buff.ly/2iMFWDT #Laws control #international waters but not so ‘space’. It’s a ‘free-for-all’ and some of taking advantage of this vacuum. Who does #space belong to? #theExplanation #AuditSpace
(Origin of the Universe chapter 2.2.3)
2 #AuditAtmosphere #AuditClimate
Carbon Dioxide Levels on the Increase Worldwide. What’s Happening? https://buff.ly/2x1s1ge Is the #COP 21 #climate agreement history or actuality? What is the state of affairs of #Earths #atmosphere? #theExplanation #AuditAtmosphere
3 #AuditWater
Air guns used in offshore oil exploration can kill tiny marine life http://buff.ly/2vtw3N5 #zooplankton killed off, commercial #fish species endangered. Maybe we need #oil but we also need fish. The dilemma needing both when the obtention of one obliterates the other. What do you do? #theExplanation #AuditWater
4 #AuditLand #AuditPollution #AuditResources #AuditEcology #AuditEnvironment
Developing countries: Growing threat of urban waste dumps http://buff.ly/2t5JWCF By 2025 it will be enough to fill a line of #rubbish trucks 5,000 kilometers long every day. This is a real down-to-conundrum. Some #cities have made great #progress to improve but globally who is facing this issue? #theExplanation #AuditPollution
5 #AuditFlora
Reassess dam building in the Amazon http://buff.ly/2svDjdJ This article says: The framework avoids the common pitfall of evaluating each dam in isolation. It’s not just #dams. Have we forgotten that everything … and I mean everything to do with our planet, within the Universe, is connected. It’s a puzzle with the all the pieces assembled … perfectly. It’s coherent completeness. With 17% of the world’s fresh #water supplies the #Amazon is a huge reservoir. What are we doing? #theExplanation #AuditWater #AuditFlora
6 #AuditFauna
Ocean Life Eats Tons of Plastic—Here’s Why That Matters https://buff.ly/2x7WrNT #Humankind has turned the world’s #oceans into what #scientists call a “plastic soup.” And guess who the end #consumer of this soup is? You and me. We’re chewing on our own #garbage. #theExplanation #AuditFauna #AuditPollution
7 #AuditLife
Frequency dependence limits divergent #evolution by favoring rare immigrants over residents http://buff.ly/2rpQdVN This is a very short introduction to a complex aspect of evolution. My opinion is that you can’t know if one plus one is going to equal two. More complexity to an already complex subject. #theExplanation #AuditLife
5 #AuditHumanBody
New concerns raised over value of #genome-wide disease studies http://buff.ly/2uxz5QJ This article states: These ‘peripheral’ #DNA variants probably act through complex biochemical regulatory networks to influence the activity of a few ‘core’ #genes that are more directly connected to an illness. It’s time to realize how complex the body is and how #plasticity plays a role in making each human an individuality. #theExplanation #AuditBody
9 #AuditBrainMind #AuditBrain #AuditMind
Genes, Ions, and Other New Frontiers in Psychiatry http://buff.ly/2tXjuvj This article is complex but a rapid perusal by the uninitiated reveals that dealing with the disorders of the #brain and mind #are not easy–at all. One of the key questions is: can brain #medication fix the mind? A more fundamental question is: What’s the difference between the brain and mind? #theExplanation #AuditBrainMind
10 #AuditHumanSingularity
Why Migrants Keep Risking All on the ‘Deadliest Route’ http://buff.ly/2v7dD4m Beyond social, financial and political pressure why do humans practically always try to get ahead? What incites them to improve their lot in life? #theExplanation #AuditHumanSingularity
#AuditInventiveness #AuditCreation
25 Great Songs About Following Your Callings http://buff.ly/2sjL4AI Living the authentic life … overflowing with passion … we love those uplifting songs. Worldwide humans crave leading an exciting vibrant full life. Why does humankind have that spark within them? A spark we spend a lifetime igniting and transforming into personal glow. #theExplanation #AuditHumanSingularity
#AuditEmotions
The 1 Skill College Students Wish Their Parents Taught Them https://buff.ly/2wFGlyn It’s emotional preparedness includes the ability to: Take care of oneself; Adapt to new environments; Control negative #emotions or #behavior; and Build positive #relationships. This is the basis of #human #society starting with the #individual and then their circle, particularly their #family. #theExplanation #AuditEmotions
#AuditGood&Evil
Your Old Cell Phone Can Help Save the Rain Forest http://buff.ly/2t7p2Ef Why is it that humankind possesses both positive and negative #genius to do immense good and harm? #theExplanation #AuditHumanSingularity
#AuditHumanCommunication
No Confessing Our Partner’s Sins http://buff.ly/2w8Umkh A good guideline is to search out the part that we contributed to the #breakdown. It is enormously helpful when both #partners agree to #mutual #accountability. Only then can a positive shift take place in the #conversation. #theExplanation #AuditMarriage #AuditCommunication
#AuditHumanChallenge
Three Steps to Elevate Your Perspective http://buff.ly/2vsbbcj Why can each one of us have #thoughts? Allow #stimuli into our #consciousness? Have #opinions, #knowledge, #dreams, and #values. #Human #minds continually explore new #perspectives as we face #challenges. #theExplanation #AuditHumanSingularity
#AuditHumanResponsibility (sk: this is something we should learn as a child)
The Humanity of Regret https://buff.ly/2ufKunA Basic #humanity is the innate capacity for interest in the well-being of others. In #adversity it motivates sacrifice. In #emergency it motivates #rescue. It allows us to grow beyond the limitations of personal #experience and #prejudice. The more in touch with basic humanity, the more humane we feel. When out of touch with it, we feel less humane. #theExplanation #AuditHumanSingularity
11 #AuditHumansFunction
1) #AuditHumanNature
Varieties of Truth? http://buff.ly/2viyNQy This is a must read article for anyone really interested in finding #truth. It clearly explains what truth is, where it comes from and how to be careful in ascertaining it. In a #world of free-flowing #information can we really know what truth is? #theExplanation #AuditBehavior #AuditHumanNature
2) #AuditFreeWill
3) #AuditBehavior
Negative Behavior: #AuditSociety #AuditFamine #AuditTerrorism
#AuditSuicide
Should we stop saying ‘commit’ suicide? https://buff.ly/2uUSG0X Semantics about a serious matter. Minor cogitations about a major growing issue touching all #ages in #society today. How can we better prevent such #suicide? #theExplanation #AuditBehavior
#AuditLies
How Do You Know If Supplement Claims Are Hype or Truth? https://buff.ly/2uq0F5Y There’s a How Do You Know If Supplement Claims Are Hype or Truth? https://buff.ly/2uq0F5Y There’s an increasing number of #fraudulent claims associated with #nutritional and #fitness products in the market. Why are #producers and #distributors #lying in the first place? #theExplanation #AuditHealth #AuditLies
#AuditViolence
War and violence drive 80% of people fleeing to Europe by sea, not economics https://buff.ly/2w9pOBA #Family #insecurity and #fear. Country riddled with #conflict, #torture, forced labor and #sexual #violence drive #refugees to seek safer havens. The real problem is #leadership, or lack of it, in the home countries. Why and what’s the solution? #theExplanation #AuditViolence
#AuditDrugs
Microdosers say tiny hits of LSD make your work and life better http://buff.ly/2t0jcUu Microdosers say tiny hits of LSD make your work and life better #Anxiety, #depression and #wellbeing. All are top-of-the-list health issues today along with #selfmedication. Why is it that in the most advanced #society on Earth we have such conundrums? What have we missed regarding mental health? #theExplanation #AuditDrugs #AuditHealth
#AuditSex
Victims of American Hedonism Counted in Millions of Unborn http://buff.ly/2trikok The origin of #abortion. Prominent new-left theorists, such as Herbert Marcuse, championed Sigmund #Freud’s “pleasure principle.” Marcuse argued – and campus radicals eagerly embraced – the notion that #sex was the key to #individual fulfillment. #Marriage and the traditional #family were to be subverted through sexual perversity and #promiscuity. It was Marcuse who coined the phrase “Make love, not war.” #theExplanation #AuditSex
#AuditAnxiety
Can Marriage Survive When Your Child Dies Under Your Watch? http://buff.ly/2uI7Kvc Very poignant, very real, be it #death or an #accident. I believe one of the keys to #recovery is looking beyond the circumstances that caused the incident to be able to understand what death is and why it even exists. Yes, this sounds preposterous … but, is it possible to know? #theExplanation #AuditAnxiety
#AuditWar
U.S. Vows Tougher Action on North Korea After Missile Test https://buff.ly/2uCuTOa Each day brings its rhetoric regarding North #Korea. How do you deal with a total recalcitrant #person, #community or #nation? #theExplanation #AuditBehavior
Positive Behavior: #AuditTruth #AuditCourage #AuditONG #AuditUN #AuditVolunteer #AuditCharity
#AuditPhilanthropy
Why Ikea’s flatpack refugee shelter won design of the year https://buff.ly/2hzVTg2 Making a difference for #refugees. Some positive news of #shelters and #dwellings that really work. #Philanthropy is alive and helping where it can. #theExplanation #AuditBehavior
4) #AuditEthics #AuditRules #AuditMorality
The ethics issue: The 10 biggest moral dilemmas in science https://buff.ly/2vV4fFy We know that #ethics are important, but what role do they play in #humankind’s #behavior? Who has the #responsibility and #authority to establish and enforce ethics? Maybe we should get back to the basic #questions first. #theExplanation #AuditEthics
5) #AuditJustice #AuditLove #AuditDiscipline
Medicine: Heroes of global health http://buff.ly/2f7jmog A film, Bending the Arc, discusses what can be done to improve world health. Its name is based on a quote from nineteenth-century social reformer Theodore Parker, who said that society’s actions arc towards justice over time. Is society tending to more or less justice? #theExplanation #AuditJustice #AuditHealth
6) #AuditChange #AuditRepentance #AuditSorrow #AuditConscience
Why What I Hate in You Also Says Something about Me https://buff.ly/2uqDnZE Really knowing one’s #inner #self and taking action to #correct it are two of the hardest aspects of #behavior #human-beings have to accomplish. Why is this inward search so difficult? #theExplanation #AuditChange
7) #AuditForgiveness
12 #AuditHumansSocialize
Iraqi Christians targeted for deportation face ‘death sentence’ in Iraq, lawyers say http://buff.ly/2t5gr1M Reading this makes one realize how complex our social problems have become. #Globalization is a reality that includes ethnicity, religiosity, #nationalism, internationalism. The bottom line is: how should peoples socialize? From individuals > communities > nations we’re all intermingled but we don’t have common values, responsibilities and obligations. Where (if they exist) are the standards for #humankind? #theExplanation #AuditHumansSocialize
#AuditRelationships
Lead by Listening https://buff.ly/2frSi2V In the Western #world, ‘#Social #Sciences’ are taking the lead over ‘Physical Sciences’. Interest in the needs of ‘#people’ has emerged as a priority. Each person is an #individual with a different #history and #story. Yes, to help a fellow #human-being we need to let THEIR story emerge within the context of a trusting relationship. Why are #relationships so important? #theExplanation #AuditRelationships
#AuditIndividuals
YOUR CHILDREN ARE WATCHING, DADS http://buff.ly/2t2FkL0 The question of the role of #men, be it in #Church or out is raised? What is the role of #male and #female? #theExplanation #AuditIndividuals
#AuditMen #AuditMale
Is There Really a Boy Crisis? http://buff.ly/2t4FMaO Maybe we need to define the #role of the #male #gender. Only when we know why males exist can we begin to define how to help #men and #boys. #theExplanation #AuditMale
#AuditWomen #AuditFemale
Feeling Lonely? Talk to a Woman http://buff.ly/2u9oFFB the #foundation of an #interaction that reduces #loneliness is the feeling that you’ve been #understood by the other person. When you believe the other person “gets” you — or at least an aspect of you — you instantly feel more seen and known, which is a precursor to feeling more #connected. #Women play a very important role in #relationships. #theExplanation #AuditFemale
#AuditCouples
When Does Your Relationship Feel Most Valuable to You? https://buff.ly/2vM4ZMo Finding a 100% #compatible #couple is utopic. There are always complementary and contrasting interests between two #people. Why is it that interests draw #couples together or drive them apart? Why is there #attraction and repulsion? #theExplanation #AuditCouples
#AuditMarriage
I don’t want to have sex with my husband any more http://buff.ly/2vAD3aV #Passion, #love, #marriage, #family and … #sex. How do they all mesh? Should they all mesh? Is there a reason for a long-lasting relationship and what’s the key? #theExplanation #AuditMarriage #AuditSex
#AuditSex
When Spirituality and Sexuality Clash http://buff.ly/2sBfMHM #Sex and #spirituality, conflict or compatible? #theExplanation #AuditSex
#AuditParents
Heroes’ Origins: Must Superheroes Suffer Parental Loss? http://buff.ly/2viAOMx A revealing 15 minute video about the influence of #parents on the future of a #child’s life. Parents play a very important role in the #family. #theExplanation #AuditParents
#AuditFather
Father Absence, Father Deficit, Father Hunger https://buff.ly/2vy7j5E Remember ‘Father knows best?’ Well, they don’t know it all the time but #fathers are half the reason a #child is there and #parenting, for best results, needs both the #mother and the father together. Why is the traditional #family so important? What is father’s role? #theExplanation #AuditFather
#AuditMother
Mothers, Daughters, and Relationships http://buff.ly/2r7KVOw Helping your daughter navigate her own relationships is no cakewalk. The relationship between #mother and #daughter is priceless… not to mention that between father and daughter. They guide and prepare children to become adolescents, then adults then parents. These are intimate relationships shared only by human beings in a social organization we call the #family. What place does family play in society today? #theExplanation #AuditHumansSocialize
#AuditChildren
Buyer Beware: Two New Apps Your Tweens Should Avoid https://buff.ly/2wCybqm The only control of use of apps by youngsters is by #parents. Parents communicating with their #children. There’s an indelible #family #relationship that needs to be nurtured. What are the respective roles of the family, parents and children? #theExplanation #AuditFamily
#AuditChildRearing AuditParenting
Youngsters Encouraged to Kill Possum Joeys in New Zealand http://buff.ly/2vl34hC Has #killing become so mundane that we allow #kids to participate in #animal #extermination hunts? What does this do to a #child’s #mind? #theExplanation #AuditFauna #AuditChildRearing
#AuditFamily
Colombia legally recognizes union between three men http://buff.ly/2v9EJev We are just helping people realize that there are different types of #love and different types of #family. A new #relationship. What and why are there such social unions as marriage and family? #theExplanation #AuditFamily
#AuditNations
Panama cuts formal ties with #Taiwan in favor of China http://buff.ly/2sn5fjX Inexorably #geopolitical relationships are shifting from West to East. Can a country, no matter how strong it thinks it is, be isolationist in a world where other nations are developing and flexing their muscles? #theExplanation #AuditNations
#AuditGovernment
Central Americans, ‘Scared of What’s Happening’ in U.S., Stay Put http://buff.ly/2eWTXgS #Hondurans sit tight and endure the #poverty and #violence that have driven hundreds of thousands to seek work and sanctuary in the #United #States in recent years. Why can’t local #government in these Central American countries get their act together? #theExplanation #AuditGovernment
#AuditEurope
European Nuclear Weapons Program Would Be Legal, German Review Finds https://buff.ly/2huMtme Because of the possible loss of the #American guarantees that have safeguarded and united European allies since World War II there are indications that the idea of a #European #nuclear program has escalated from informal discussion to official policy-making channels. #theExplanation #AuditEurope
#AuditMiddleEast
Israel and Hezbollah are heading for a new, devastating war in the Middle East http://buff.ly/2ttokgj The article states: This incredibly unstable and violent moment in #geopolitics is undermining the central element that kept #Israel and #Hezbollah from overstepping each other’s red lines: fear, or rather a balance of fear based on the belief that the next #conflict will be devastating for all sides. #theExplanation #AuditMiddleEast
#AuditWorld Globalization
13 #AuditHumansProduce
#AuditEconomics
As anti-G20 protests begin, Merkel says growth must be inclusive http://buff.ly/2u4I3qu The #rich get richer while the #poor get poorer. We need some sort of distribution of #wealth and #consumption of sustainable #resources. How can we have inclusive #economic #growth rather than individual #prosperity. #theExplanation #AuditEconomics
#AuditHealthLone Star Tick Bites Are Making People Allergic to Red Meat http://buff.ly/2t16MYY #Allergies are on the rise. Is the glass of our #health getting fuller or emptier? #theExplanation #AuditHealth
#AuditScience Past – Prehistory – Paleontology – Archaeology – Evolution
Taxonomy anarchy hampers conservation http://buff.ly/2rMiZng The classification of complex organisms is in chaos. There is disagreement as to what a ‘species’ is and this leads to a free-for-all in the way biologists worldwide are classifying animals, birds, fish and insects. What is the real reason? #AuditoftheUniverse from #theExplanation
#AuditPrehistory
Scientists Discovered a Giant Crocodile With T-Rex Teeth https://buff.ly/2udxjU1 One must ask the question why would a #crocodile with this massive size develop on such a small island as #Madagascar? #theExplanation #AuditPreHistory
AuditTechnology Future – Transhumanism
AI summit aims to help world’s poorest http://buff.ly/2rWVS9t Artificial Intelligence is a science of the future. Raising machines to do what humans accomplish. Starting with thinking and decision-making based on options … even new never thought-of options before. We call this inventing. A vast domain with huge potential but how can AI and #robotics be guided to address humanity’s most enduring problems, such as poverty, malnutrition and inequality. Can we close the gulf between #AI and the poor or will that gulf grow? #theExplanation #AuditHumanityProduces
14 #AuditHumansReason
The Enigma of Reason (review) https://buff.ly/2umpu2D Why do we #humans ‘reason’? I would add, with our #minds? This is a very short #review and you can read the article but the key here is that #researchers ask this question about #humankind. The answer is vital and The Explanation devotes a full chapter to how we reason while Origin of the Universe will answer that #question. #theExplanation #AuditHumanityReasons
1) #AuditLeadership
War and violence drive 80% of people fleeing to Europe by sea, not economics https://buff.ly/2w9pOBA #Family #insecurity and #fear. Country riddled with #conflict, #torture, forced labor and #sexual #violence drive #refugees to seek safer havens. The real problem is #leadership, or lack of it, in the home countries. Why and what’s the solution? #theExplanation #AuditViolence
2) #AuditPhilosophy
Why the Five Stages of Grief Are Wrong https://buff.ly/2hWTbBy They were somewhat designed to soften some of the #stigma associated with #death and ended up changing the way much of the #world thought about death. Therein is the key: what is death? Unless we can truly define what death is, real help is limited. #theExplanation #AuditPhilosophy
3) #AuditScience #Facts #Knowledge
4) #AuditReligion
A #Meditation on Love and Loss http://buff.ly/2tpSdmd The author says, I believe that the purpose of death is the release of love. Is ‘belief’ reality? How can we know the purpose of #love, #loss and even #death? #theExplanation #AuditReligion
Who can answer all these ethereal but real questions? Can humans? The conclusion of Audit of the Universe shows that humans can NOT answer them. So we have two options:
The questions remain unanswered.
We look to another s/Source for answers. It is this latter channel we’re following. That is the role of Theology: To find the s/Source’s answers–not what humans might imagine or interpret regarding this s/Source.
Who can answer all these ethereal but real questions? Can humans? No, they can NOT give valid…
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This way for the answers.
This blog post is an excerpt from chapter 2.2.3 of Origin of the Universe
Dig Deeper into The Explanation
Join The Explanation Newsletter to stay informed of updates. and future events. No obligations, total privacy, unsubscribe if you want. Your gift is a free pdf of The Explanation and a free pdf of Answering the Big Questions in Life
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Email address:
Learn how to play Take Inventory – The Interconnectivity Game (free) that nourishes your neurons and is taking the world by storm. Play a round with family and friends. View the above videos and use the tags at the end of this blog for dozens of ideas to play Take Inventory – The Game.
See the index of the book Inventory of the Universe to find a specific chapter and read it online.
Purchase Inventory of the Universe at Amazon – Purchase the Kindle version
Google Play – Barnes@Nobles – Kobo – iTunes
Unlock Bible meaning via Biblical Hebrew … with no fuss. The free video course that puts you in the driver’s seat to navigate the Bible as never before. Join now
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The post The Nagging Question: How do Humans Function and Affect the Universe? appeared first on The Explanation with Sam Kneller.
August 29, 2017
Detecting Air Pollution and its Results – What are we Breathing?
Worldwide 3 billion people in under-developed countries depend on cookstoves for their cooking and heat. Pollution or not? Traditional cookstoves or not?
Global Health Risks
‘If the storms and floods and wildfires don’t captivate your attention, then disease might,’ Galacti says. ‘Under real estate law I am required to disclose all health hazards on the property, our planet Earth, which is what I have been doing. We’re in the Sahel in Africa where this semi-arid belt of land hasn’t always had positive inspections and where suffering is a daily concern, but it is their home.’
(Audit of the Universe chapter 2.4)
Imagine years with no rain, in the Sahel or the sub-Saharan part of Africa as well as East Africa in which drought has been trending since the 1970s with diminishing rainfall over the last 20 years. This is of great concern as it affects pastures to maize and ultimately the impoverished populations of those regions. This drought is not just in sub-Saharan Africa, it’s in Russia, where there were dry spells in 2010, 2012 and 2014. Beginning 2015 although there is a minor improvement in water supply conditions, the British Isles showed some drought intensification.
In Asia, drought continues to be focused around Mongolia and northern India and In Australia, drought conditions remained relatively constant with some intensification in the interior of the continent. Fire danger continues to be high across New Zealand where water storage continued to be an issue, particularly on the South Island where drought had been declared, but saw improvement in 2017.
Several women living in a camp or in a village in the Sahel are concerned for the moment with the stresses of lack of water on their own country and region. International aid officials on site share the women’s concerns, since drought has been linked to meningitis epidemics as well as outbreaks of diarrhea in Sub-Saharan Africa.
What connection does drought have with disease? Epidemics of meningitis happen more quickly in dry conditions because dusty, windy conditions are more prone to invasion, carriage and transmission of the bacteria coupled with outbreaks of respiratory infections. As for diarrhea, unlike mosquitoes, flies multiply faster in drought conditions and carry diarrhea, especially in countries with poor sanitation management where ‘pit toilets’ are left uncovered.
‘Poor plumbing is a big issue,’ Galacti comments. ‘So are the flies.’
Other diseases have found a breeding ground because of climate change. For example in Europe in 2003, extreme heat caused circulatory diseases and aggravated respiratory ailments, to which children and the elderly are susceptible. Another effect of heat increase is air pollution from pollens and industrial pollutants. On the surface the African woman and the elderly grand-mere in Paris have nothing in common, except the weather. Epidemiologists and climatologists apply their minds to discerning patterns in disease associated with weather.
Air Pollution is reality, both invisible and visible. It's an unwanted guest in our lungs and…
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On the ground, Les Medecins sans Frontiers, the WHO or the Red Cross treat patients in international clinics and refugee camps. A parade of diseases pass through: tropical illnesses such as dengue fever, Lyme disease, tick-borne encephalitis, Mediterranean spotted fever, diarrhea—human suffering that scientists believe is linked to weather changes.
For example, in areas with record rainfall and flooding, malaria spreads faster because mosquitoes breed more. Lyme disease is rising in areas such as the northern US, as the extension of hotter weather prolongs the active season for disease-carrying ticks that also spread encephalitis and Mediterranean spotted fever. The global health risks are real in this ‘Earth property’.
Fortunately, there are real solutions being proposed.
Clean Cookstoves, Clean Air, Carbon in the Soil
A woman in Northern Kenya cooks a traditional meal on a squat open-air cookstove the size of a snare drum made from scrap metal, with a ceramic lining on the inside. The genius of the stove is that it works like a large-scale version of a simple match. An international alliance has made this possible. As you enjoy this traditional meal prepared for you and our group, you are tasting a potential solution to the problem of climate change.
For three billion people (mainly women) worldwide, preparing meals with traditional rudimentary cookstoves is a way of life that is contributing to climate change and health issues, as well as 3.5 million deaths a year from toxic fumes. As our ‘clean cookstove’ chef finishes cooking without clouds of toxic smoke, the woman’s neighbor coughs from the smoke from burning charcoal as she uses an ‘old-model’ traditional metal stove. Lung cancer has killed several of the women in the family in the ‘old-model’ stove household, as well as children under five years old.
The smoke is also harmful to the atmosphere: particularly since, in stoves that use wood and coal for fuel, people must either use up all the available wood or clear forests for coal mining operations—fewer plants mean more carbon emissions remain in the air. It is a cycle that keeps repeating because of poverty and stoves that use resources inefficiently and produce ‘black carbon,’ which contributes to global warming.
The woman with the ‘clean cookstove’ empties the ceramic drum, spilling out the remnants of the plant-based fuel it burns. The white-gray fuel, ‘biochar,’ contains nutrients for the soil, and the woman as well as her community will add the biochar to the fields to promote crop growth. ‘Clean cookstoves seems to be a step in the right direction,’ says Galacti, ‘but there are pros and cons in man-made solutions.’
Detecting Air Pollution
The satellites we examined in the last chapter allow us to examine air pollution in order to ensure the health and safety of humans and animals.
“Any of you that have children, listen up. You have asked me about whether this place is family-friendly,’ Galacti says. ‘Unfortunately, toxic pollution is harming your babies—it’s like secondhand smoke taken to new levels. It’s hard to cleanse a house of the smell of tobacco, especially when people continue to smoke.’
Researchers worldwide have collaborated in the largest study ever conducted that shows pregnant women’s exposure to air pollution emitted by vehicles and coal-burning plants causes babies to be born with low birth weight. Through a review of data collected over a fifty-year period scientists determined that air pollution particles, as thick as a soft downy baby hair, are having an effect on mothers. The study also noted that nations with tighter restrictions on air pollution, such as European nations, Canada, the US, have lower levels of pollution particles.
Using international satellites, researchers have measured air quality in Europe and the UK, North America, South America, Asia and Australia. At the same time they’ve correlated data from three million pregnant women in fourteen sites on five continents: and health risks in large geographic areas and over extended time periods. These researchers are skilled at accurately ‘diagnosing’ the pollution from, for example, sulfates released by coal in rural areas.
The team has discovered that the higher the pollution rate was at the study site, the more likely the women were to have underweight newborns weighing less than 2.5 kg or 5.5 pounds, confirming a Harvard study that suggests industrial sources tend to affect newborns more strongly than emissions from automobiles, although vehicular emissions are still of concern. Consider India, one of the chief sites of the survey, where one in four babies out of the 2.6 million born every year is underweight.
‘The hospitals in this part of the property, India, are overwhelmed,’ Galacti comments. ‘They’re used to seeing underweight babies because of hunger, but all this pollution is making it worse.’
Think of a scrawny, delicate baby that weighs less than a kilo, born in a Chennai hospital, while three other babies close to him in the same ward look typically healthy. From 2008-2012 Chennai has seen a dramatic increase of underweight babies born (11.7 percent to 15.6 percent in just four years). Lifestyle changes, hypertension, diabetes, and other factors may also contribute, but air pollution from vehicles, burning garbage, factories, etc. all leave airborne particles.
However, environmental research centres (Yale, Columbia) have ranked India last in air quality—pollution levels are five times above the safe limit for humans. India is the leading country in underweight kids, not all due to air pollution but largely due to hunger—in a country that already has child health risks, pollution is a new hazard. Think of a baby struggling to survive, a baby that fits into the palm of one hand—most people would be affected by such a heartbreaking site.
What does this mean for the underweight babies? They suffer many health problems, delayed mental and physical development, lower immunity to disease from viruses and bacteria, hyperactivity, colic, and so on. They are more likely to die earlier; indeed, low birth weight is one of the leading causes of infant mortality worldwide.
Whether we are aware of it or not, pollution is everywhere affecting both the born and unborn.
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We may not all live in severely polluted countries, but whether we are aware of it or not, pollution is everywhere, invisible or visible. Most of us have become used to microscopic pollutants in our air, in cities, countryside and homes. In the case of Beijing, one of the study centers, the dwellers of certain quarters of that city live with a concentration of particles over 700 micrograms per cubic meter. That’s more than 50 times the legal limit in the U.S. and Europe—although China is not yet in India’s league in terms or poor quality air, the Chinese are concerned—the world is watching.
‘Pollution affects every square foot of this property.’ Galacti says. ‘People are starting to ‘wake up’ to reality.’
This blog post is an excerpt from chapter 2.4 of Audit of the Universe
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August 24, 2017
The Why of Human Life: The Biggest Unanswered Question of All Time
Why Human life? It’s an enigma that humankind is really too scared to ponder. We really don’t know the answer. Yet this is fundamental knowledge–basic to understanding how we function.
This post covers questions from Inventory of the universe chapters 7-10: Human Life > Human Body > Brain/Mind > The Human/Animal Dilemma. Keep in mind why we’re exposing these questions: Because we are searching for answers, coherent completeness where all the answers fit together to give us a clear understanding of the ‘why of the Universe, Earth and Humankind.’ A tall order, granted, We’re looking for a ‘book’ that contains these answers.
(Origin of the Universe chapter 2.2.2)
These questions need answers that create coherent completeness and explain the 'why' of the…
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Remember that at the end of Audit of the Universe we realized that Leaders, Philosophers, Scientists and Religionists have not given us this coherent completeness. In other words, humankind, of and by itself, cannot figure out the equation.
We’ve therefore turned to Theology to try and see if there’s some sacred book authored by a s/Source that is ‘beyond humankind.’ At this point The Explanation is not saying there is such a s/Source. I’m presenting the issues and it’ll be up to you to see whether these arguments lead to coherent completeness.
Below is a lengthy list including many ‘why questions’ for which we need solid answers. In fact you can NOT get a proper what / how answer UNLESS you know WHY!
As an example: How should we treat employees? You can give an answer but you can’t really give a complete answer–unless you know ‘why humankind exists’ This might sound disproportionate, but an employee, no matter where they are in the world, is a human-being. You can’t know what they need, how to keep them productive unless you know why that human life is in your employ. You might think you’re just dealing with a bunch of ’employees’ that have a ‘job to be done.’ but sooner or later there’ll be discontent because you’ve overlooked the ‘human life’ aspect of the question.
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We’re going deep, deep, deep to search for a sacred book with a s/Source, beyond humankind, that can throw light on this primordial subject.
Human Life
How can you have total worldwide peace and prosperity if you don’t have it first on an individual level? (page 164)
We recognize that DNA has a top-down approach to transmitting information that orchestrates the notes of the biological chef d’oeuvre in distinctive unique directions. This is where chronobiology is witnessed at its supreme. What do I mean by that? Think of DNA as having internal clocks, each set to the life cycle equivalent of what time it is in Paris, Rome, New York, Hong Kong, or Tokyo. These timers help juggle the millions of elements in a DNA chain, with instantaneous and meticulous exactitude, to produce various types of RNA that in turn combine the amino acids into the lengthy folded proteins that are propelled to the four corners of your body to keep life running. (page 165)
Our disturbing question comes up time and again: which came first? For instance, proteins produce amino acids while already having amino acids as part of their own structure. In a flowchart or organizational chart, which do you put first? (page 166)
When bonded together, these molecules form about five hundred chains called amino acids, of which only twenty are the building blocks of proteins. Why only that many? Why those specific ones? (page 170)
“Do you know where the amino acids come from?” asks Galacti. “Various sources. They can come from our food digested (metabolized) into amino acids that join the pool of amino acids in our blood stream, or these amino acids can be built from scratch, from simpler molecules, by other processes.” (page 174)
There are many fascinating aspects of protein synthesis, but this practically instantaneous folding into thousands of elegant 3-D geometric figures … Why these specific shapes? (page 177)
However, one cell can’t be important to human life—or can it? (page 178)
What else, exactly, goes on inside a cell? (page 181)
Only specific cells in specific places expire, while those directly adjacent are transforming into various skin cells, each with its specific functions. How is all this governed? (page 188)
Such cells have an internal self-destruct mechanism that takes them out of the normal cell circuit. “Is it too harsh to call that suicide?” Galacti asks. “Or is it more like a machine that shuts down? (page )
The question we want to ask is this: how can one fertilized cell know how to become which one of the approximate four hundred diverse cell types we have in our bodies? (page 190)
Move our hands, prick our fingers, or breathe, and we know that cell processes and the elemental atoms in DNA are at work right now, as are the vital elements of life, including the oxygen we breathe. The question is how. Are genes the answer? (page 191)
Remember, scientists are awakening to the real purpose of the about 80 percent of DNA that was considered junk. “In that case,” adds Galacti, “what surprises might the remaining 20 percent hold for us? (page 194)
With such interplay of nature and nurture, how can the species of mankind be so distinct? (page )
Why do transposable elements jump? How do they know where to insert themselves? (page 195)
With both addition and suppression of transposable elements, specific human functions and characteristics can be activated, silenced, or diseased. Since 80 percent of our genome is biologically active it could go awry. Why are we in particularly good health? (page )
How Many Genes, Chromosomes, and DNA Base Pairs Do Other Organisms Have? (page 202)
Why does a rare flowering plant in Japan called Paris japonica have the largest genome of any living organism that we have measured? (page 203)
Does a larger genome indicate a more sophisticated organism? (page 204)
What about the rudimentary, irregularly shaped Amoeba dubia that contains 670 billion base pairs of nucleotides, the blueprint for everything from its irregular one-celled shape to its tentacle-like pseudopodia that help amoebas move? How can amoebas possibly have a larger genome than we do? (page 204)
How do the base pair combinations in the DNA alphabet of a dog, which differ from a worm’s, produce the ears, nose, fur, and wagging tail of a specific dog breed, as well as the blood cells that differ from human cells? (page 205)
Or how do the genes control the specific head and thorax configuration of the fruit fly? (page 205)
Exactly how and why do the genomes and DNA produce the variations around us? (page 205)
Bodies Alive
We wonder at the history of speech. When were the first syllables or words spoken? Were they spoken by the ancient Chinese or by Indus Valley dwellers? (page 219)
How is it that the body contains the right amount of these minerals to make the spine and other bones strong? (page 222)
How is it that the lower bones are strong enough to keep us upright while the other bones, such as the pectoral girdle and the bones in the arms and hand, work together to do the daily tasks of living? (page )
Why do women have breasts? Why are women uniquely equipped to have children, making eggs that are fertilized with sperm cells? Why do men have more hemoglobin, the material red blood cells are made of, than women? (page 231)
Another difference is the body fat that provides women with curves and full hips; we wonder where these differences come from. Is it merely in the hormones? Is it in the DNA, or as doctors suggest, the brain? (page 234)
Brain and Mind
The control center is called the cerebral cortex, and it is the means by which we can reach answers to our main questions: Are humans equipped to perceive, think and reason? Even more importantly, if the answer is yes, then why is human life equipped to reason? (page 238)
Can the structure of the brain truly explain why we do what we do, how we think, why we love what we love, and why we fear what we fear? (page 240)
Wouldn’t it be nice if we all decided to practice positive associations? (page 254)
How do infants learn? How do they learn which number is larger, for example, or how to recite a nursery rhyme? How do they learn to do those things on command? (page 255)
Why should babies be able to read lips, and why does the freshness of their minds allow them to learn two languages (such as Spanish and English or French and German) more easily? (page 258)
Despite infant’s large brains, however, their neuronal structure is like a sensory library waiting to be filled and their brain maps are only blueprints. Why is this so? (page 259)
It’s no secret that teenagers’ brains work differently, but why don’t they have the same advantage as young children, whose brains contain about 60 percent more neurons than the teens’? Is there some sort of significance to teen brains being developed in some ways, but challenged in others, such as the circuits that control judgment, emotional control, and reasoning? (page 263)
Why do those bright, innocent, neuron-filled brains keep asking “Why?” “Why? (page 263)
Is there an underlying message we should be getting? Is the universal brain telling us something that we haven’t grasped yet? (page 265)
Why do all brains experience identical critical periods despite differences in sex and race? Why is it that the woman next to me, who was raised in Malaysia, has the same lifelong patterns of brain processing? You might well say that we think different thoughts in a sense because our experiences are different, but we are alike in cognitive activity. Is it because we are all humans? Surely, but is there something more at work? (page 265)
We are all pondering the fact that we think. What exactly does that mean? (page 266)
What exactly is the mind? We can see the brain on our scans with the neurons firing. However, can we detect the mind in those pictures made of particles? (page 266)
Which comes first: a thought or brain activity? (page 268)
Could we one day “see” thoughts (we’re hungry, we’re thinking about home, we’re in love) in our tangle of “computer wire” neurons as those neurons fire? (page 270)
It means that there’s a very important point that hasn’t even been addressed. How can the mental practice of thinking affect physical activity? (page 271)
There must be some sort of an interface. Wherever that immaterial thought is, what process causes it to take the material action that lights up the brain scan? (page 271)
Those three-week-old kittens and ducklings we spoke of earlier have reappeared in the lab, courtesy of Galacti. We watch them and we wonder: Do they think? Do their brain maps change? (page 274)
During our amazing journey, we’ve discovered a number of conundrums summed up by that unanswerable question: which came first, the chicken or the egg? Did amino acids come first, or did the proteins that contain and produce amino acids? Science and mankind still have much to discover, but can we answer such a question? Can we go beyond that? For instance, a common question is “What was ‘there’ before the Big Bang?” Another common question is “Where did that initial explosion come from?”
Let’s ask another: “We know that the expansion of our universe is accelerating, not decelerating. What implausible force is behind such a venture?” And another: “Since our universe is composed of space and time, and since it’s expanding, what is it expanding into? What’s out there beyond the extremities of our universe that is becoming a part of it at a rate of billions and billions of square kilometers per second?” Galacti has put on his kiddie cap and is asking his “why” questions: “Why does this universe exist? Why is man on Earth? Is there a point to life?” (page 278)
The Human /Animal Dilemma
There are philosophical questions like why are we here? Some say “Who cares? Does it really matter?” but others either offer ideas or are looking for answers to such questions, whether the answers are scientific, philosophical, or spiritual. And the ultimate satisfaction would be to have the answers satisfy the scientific, philosophical, and religious minds. Is this possible? (page 279)
Do animals demonstrate kinship as we understand it, or is it merely survival instinct? (page 281)
Animals kill to eat or in self-defense. They do not perform wanton, wholesale destruction, nor do they kill for fun. Somehow, this vast arena has established a living equilibrium. Can we say the same for man? (page 296)
The broad question is how each of these subjects, or pieces of the puzzle, relates to bringing peace and prosperity to Earth. The fundamental question is this: Do animals have a role to play in this? Can they participate in the discussion via clues and input? (page 302)
“Can man answer the question of how to attain peace and prosperity? (page 302)
Who would have ever thought a 3-D printer was possible? Yet man invented it. (page 306)
What Is an Animal? What Is a Human? (page 309)
However, when we look at the world today, who is transforming it? Who is at the heart of all, and I mean all the changes, modifications, and revolutions that have historically taken place and are reordering society at a seemingly speedier pace today? (page 309)
Why is it that a blind piglet can find its way to its mother’s nipples and begin suckling for its livelihood seconds after birth, while a newborn human baby would die if it did not have the nipple placed in its mouth? (page 312)
Why is it that colts and fillies can get to their feet, wobble, and walk around within minutes after their birth, while a baby lies on its back for months before even starting the process of turning over, getting up on all fours, crawling on all fours, standing, and finally taking its first steps around ten months after birth? Why is it that animals with smaller brains and lesser intelligence become independent quickly, while babies with a huge potential of intelligence take about eighteen years before we declare them adults?Why is it that animals are operational within seconds, minutes, or days and are able to eat, hunt, swim, fly, navigate, hibernate, and adapt to their environment, while children have to go through a lengthy process of years of education to learn the fundamentals of how to live and how to earn a living among many, many other things? Why do these capacities originate and manifest themselves in these ways? (page 312)
When seven billion people are playing with the same puzzle (of the Universe and Earth) according to their own different rules, can it resemble the original one for long? (page 321)
Can the puzzle’s masterpieces retain their perfect fit, each filling its position, functions, and responsibilities properly within the entirety of that intricate puzzle? Just what shape is our puzzle in? Is it still recognizable? How much sincere interest is there in trying to understand the original shape? Is there a limit to how far man can go in breaking off the edges of the puzzle pieces before the puzzle falls apart? What is the state of our universal heritage? Do we have peace and prosperity? Is it attainable for all? If so, how? (page 322)
There you have it, All those puzzling ‘why questions’ touching on every aspect of our Universe, from Space to Human life with our very special minds. Next week we’ll have the final questions for the a/Author of this much needed sacred book that will lead us to coherent completeness.
This blog post is from chapter 2.2.2 of Origin of the Universe
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Learn how to play Take Inventory – The Interconnectivity Game (free) that nourishes your neurons and is taking the world by storm. Play a round with family and friends. View the above videos and use the tags at the end of this blog for dozens of ideas to play Take Inventory – The Game.
See the index of the book Inventory of the Universe to find a specific chapter and read it online.
Purchase Inventory of the Universe at Amazon – Purchase the Kindle version
Google Play – Barnes@Nobles – Kobo – iTunes
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August 22, 2017
Climate Change: is it Reality or Fiction? Where do you Stand?
Climate change, fact or fiction? It has become a daily subject nowadays, a controversial one at that. What’s your viewpoint?
Climate change, atmospheric conditions, weather upsets, temperature fluctuations, whatever we want to call it make daily headline news around the world. Televisions and Radio weather forecasts refer to topsy-turvy meteorology has become a buzzword in the last few years, Whether we like it or not, it’s part of our audit of the atmosphere.
(Audit of the Universe chapter 2.3)
Heat Waves
In 2003, in my home city of Paris, we experienced record temperatures at the same time as the rest of Europe, and the temperatures caused 70,000 deaths across the continent, in the UK, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, and Portugal for example, with 15,000 deaths in France alone. Many cities were unprepared for the minimum 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) temperatures.
Climate change, fact or fiction? It has become a daily subject nowadays, a controversial one at…
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Paris is used to cool nights year round, and certainly unused to the wildfires that raged through France. The historic architecture of Paris mixed with the concrete of the city created a ‘heat sink’ or heat island from which there was no relief, especially for the elderly. The hospitals were full.
French authorities were concerned about nuclear meltdowns since the high temperatures made cooling the 58 reactors (in 2003) difficult. Nuclear plants have a 50° Celsius or 122° Fahrenheit threshold. In the heat, the plants expel cooling liquid more rapidly than normal, making the reactors hotter. In the 40 degrees Celsius environment, conditions in the plants spurred the French to spray nuclear cores with water.
The conditions were no better elsewhere in Europe. There were forest fires in Portugal, flash floods from melting glaciers in the Swiss Alps, 9,000 elderly people dead in Germany. The 2003 heat disaster in Europe was the first time we could specifically link mass death and suffering to global warming and climate change—a sobering example, to be sure. Europe has never dealt with such extreme temperatures.
Imagine burning orchards in Portugal, where firefighters admitted to being completely overwhelmed by the blazes. Tiny sun-drenched islands in the Adriatic Sea have gone up in flames. Irrigation ditches and water wells dry from the heat in Italy. In Switzerland, the ancient permafrost melts and causing avalanches. Europe feels fire hazards and the ice crunch.
The year 2013 was cold and there were huge amounts of rain and erratic weather in the UK (cold, late spring). There was flooding in the US. In the UK, this extreme weather is linked to Arctic sea ice loss, according to a team of US and UK scientists that study the changing temperature and pressure gradients in connection with the melting sea ice.
Climate—associated with atmospheric conditions—has become a much used word in the last few years, unfortunately in a more foreboding way, that’s why The Explanation asks the question is the glass of peace and prosperity getting fuller or emptier when it comes to life conditions on Earth?
Fleeing Climate Change
Climate change, temperature change that is going on now, is not just a remote issue, right now it is affecting where people live and work, their very livelihoods and existence.
“Welcome to Maldives, a tiny island nation you never think about–the president of that country is considering resettling his people in other countries, and is ‘house-hunting’ internationally because of rising ocean levels and increased pollution,’ The highest island is in the Addu Atoll, it’s 2.4 m (yes, just short of the tallest basketball player, Paul Sturgess at 2.34 m) and the Atoll is home to over 32.000 people.
The president of the Maldives is considering resettling his people in other countries because…
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Galacti says. ‘These small island nations are tropical, poetic, romantic, and vulnerable, folks. Fifty small island nations such as the Maldives could fully disappear in twenty to thirty years. Imagine, whole islands where populations have lived a risky existence for centuries suddenly vanishing from the face of the earth. Even people who still have a nation are forced to flee in search of safety, security, and family. Look at these people … they won’t give you a good review of their part of this property.’
We can see this in the face of a woman in Bangladesh or India or Indonesia or even New Orleans post-Hurricane Katrina, a woman affected by the global sweep of a cyclone that makes landfall. Rising ocean temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico, in the Indian Ocean, mean increased storms: As the water temperature increases, the wind velocity of a storm passing over the Indian Ocean increases.
In the direct path of the flood and storm, the woman we have just met grabs her children and flees her home, a wooden homestead with a blue-tiled roof or perhaps a modern American home. Now, living in a refugee shack near the railroad in Dhaka, Bangladesh or in a FEMA trailer in New Orleans or even temporarily in the superdome in Texas.
Families struggle to remain calm, recalling their experience, as do people in the Yup’ik Eskimo village of 350 inhabitants, Newtok, Alaska, where massive flooding threatens to displace people from their ancestral homes. It’s the same region where the aerial photo of an unusually clear Alaska is taken and Newtok itself is completely clear. (Scientists estimate that 180 Native Alaskan villages are vulnerable.) The state has warmed twice as fast as the rest of North America within the timespan of 1958-2013.
Unfortunately situations where climate change comes directly into play are more and more frequent. What about the planetary response?
Extreme Events
Extreme weather is not a reality yet, however, there are ‘black swan’ or unexpected events linked to climate change. A team of climatologists uses the satellite data we gathered on the weather, as well as past data on bizarre weather patterns, to create a ‘global hotspot’ map for weather. The scientists use ‘pop-ups’ at each location—mini-movies that tell the story of each, such as the elderly people in the 2003 European heat wave. Other stories that have a medium to high correlation with climate change:
Wales/UK, 2000 and 2007: Villagers on the coast of Wales endure the wettest summer and autumn on record since 1766. The coastlines erode. Villages in peril.
Eastern Mediterranean/Middle East, 2008: All across Italy, Croatia, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria, etc., farmers suffer through the driest winter since 1902. Winter/spring wheat and cereals are damaged. The farmers struggle to produce enough for their livelihoods and their families.
Victoria, Australia, 2009: Devastating heat wave that sparks wildfires and destroys 3,500 homes, killing several families. The province weeps as 173 people die.
Western Russia, 2010: Hottest summer recorded since 1500. Wildfires destroy 25 percent of crops around Moscow as well as several homes. Heat and wildfires kill 55,000 people, including Muscovites and farmers.
Continental US, 2012: Following the four-state wildfire blaze of 2011, the US experiences severe crop-killing drought caused by the warmest July since 1895. Global food prices skyrocket.
The point is not to be negative but to place facts before us. This has got nothing to do with doomsday or predictions of disaster. The Explanation is pursuing an audit of the atmosphere, we’re evaluating the pros and cons of what weather forecasters and climatologists are telling us in 2017.
This blog post is an excerpt from chapter 2.3 of Audit of the Universe
Dig Deeper into The Explanation
Join The Explanation Newsletter to stay informed of updates. and future events. No obligations, total privacy, unsubscribe if you want. Your gift is a free pdf of The Explanation and a free pdf of Answering the Big Questions in Life
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Learn how to play Take Inventory – The Interconnectivity Game (free) that nourishes your neurons and is taking the world by storm. Play a round with family and friends. View the above videos and use the tags at the end of this blog for dozens of ideas to play Take Inventory – The Game.
See the index of the book Inventory of the Universe to find a specific chapter and read it online.
Purchase Inventory of the Universe at Amazon – Purchase the Kindle version
Google Play – Barnes@Nobles – Kobo – iTunes
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August 17, 2017
Why Questions are the First Questions to Ask about the Universe
Why? Why? Why? we ask starting at a very early age. Why aren’t we still asking that question? Where are the coherent complete answers?
At our age, we’ve been trained to not really ask why questions–or we’ve forgotten how to ask them.
At our age, we've been trained to not really ask why questions--or we've forgotten how to ask…
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Yet, the ‘Why questions’ are much more important than the ‘what?’ or ‘how?’ Either we’ve become fixed in our answers and think we know the why’s or we’ve become disillusioned because we haven’t received coherent complete answers from the time we realized that Santa Claus was a fake.
(Origin of the Universe chapter 2.2)
It’s possible we don’t even think about the ‘why questions’ anymore. This book, Origin of the Universe will answer the basic ‘why questions.’ In this blog post I’ll summarize some of the questions I left you with in Inventory of the Universe for the Space to Fauna chapters. Think about them–where are the answers?
Space (Expanding Infinity – chapter 1)
Two protons in the helium atom both have positive electric charges. How can this nucleus stick together instead of the protons pushing each other apart? (page 13)
Electrons are little, negatively charged magnets that should cling to the positive mother nucleus instead of moving about the empty space of the atom. Why don’t they? (page 14)
Why is it that if we modify the four fundamental forces that govern the entire universe in the slightest way, our universe would simply not exist? (page 19)
How do we know the universe started as a pinhead and is expanding? If so, from what central point does gravity exercise its pull? Is there still a “pinhead” point from which gravity dominates? (page 24)
Why did the Big Bang explode and spread the primordial soup—later the universe—with the precise speed to produce that universe? But in our present moment, we have to ask: why is the universe expanding at just such a speed? Why should it be so? How do we know it is so? (page 24)
How can an ever-expanding explosion come from a pinhead? What is the force that caused the initial inflation of the universe? Why wasn’t the explosion of elementary particles homogenous like a bowl of creamy asparagus soup but rather like chicken soup, with bits? (page 29)
How is it that the conditions of the Big Bang resulted in life on Earth? How is it that humans developed on Earth to ponder these questions? Why do we ask these questions and turn to people who we think have the answers? (page 32)
Atmosphere Cocoon (chapter 2)
Want to live on Venus, Mercury, Mars? No. You want Earth. It doesn’t have any of the dozens of catastrophic conditions in those other bad neighborhoods. How can that be? (page 45)
Why is Earth fertile? With fresh water? What about waste elimination? (page 47)
Why do the layers of Earth’s atmosphere have a totally different composition from space: 78 percent nitrogen and 21 percent oxygen? Even more enigmatic, why do entirely different gases have predominance within Earth’s confines? Why are nitrogen and oxygen in the majority on Earth? Where did they originate? How and when did our atmosphere trap them? How and when were these proportions established? (page 51)
How can nitrogen, this lifeless element, representing 78 percent of atmospheric content, be assimilated into plants, animals, and humans that have no direct absorption process for this fundamental building block of life? (page 53)
Nitrogen is inert and needs live bacteria to render it biologically consumable, but live bacteria must have nitrogen in their own amino acids to be alive, so which came first? (page 54)
Where did the material and energy in the pinhead come from? If they came from a supernatural origin, where did the supernatural origin come from? (page 54)
Planet Water (chapter 3)
Where did the 1,386,000,000 cubic kilometers of water in the oceans and the 24,064,000 cubic kilometers of freshwater stored in the ice caps and glaciers come from? Why does the surface of a planet called Earth consist of 71 percent water? (page 79)
Think of some of the other why questions to do with water. Why is it that water is one of the only elements that is in the three states of solid, liquid and vapor at ‘humankind’s living temperature?’ Such why questions expand our minds and our thinking.
Land (Our Earth – chapter 4)
What does pure dirt have to do with the cosmic tableau? Why is Earth, to our knowledge, the only planet with soil we can actually dig our hands and feet into? How is it that Earth can produce such a wide variety of foodstuffs? (page 83)
Why are there so many uninhabitable planets with “land” that won’t support us? (page 84)
Who am I? Who are we? How did we get here? What’s our purpose? What are we accomplishing here? Where is this stage of ‘man on Earth’ heading? Is it just ‘a stage?’ Is that all there is, if anything? What’s the point? (page 84)
Why is it that under our feet the colossally hot core of Earth is at 6,000 degrees Celsius? And the sun, just eight minutes away at the speed of light, with its fifteen million degrees Celsius core over our heads? How is it that the skin membrane of Earth remains at a steady 15 degrees Celsius? How is it that this “skin” supports life in the form of plants, animals, and the soil bacteria? We’re pondering the fact that soles of our bare feet on the Earth make us realize that this temperature is just right for water to flow, worms to squirm, animals to burrow, seeds to germinate, roots to absorb, and for humankind’s agricultural and other activities. (pages 85-86)
How is it that with all the interplanetary orbiting and the solar, stellar, and seasonal activity, average land temperatures vary very little and have been in a range that have supported life for millions of years? (page 86)
Working, eating, sleeping, and playing—Is that all there is to human life? (page 88)
We recognize that worms are good for the soil. But how good are they? (page 98)
The earthworm wouldn’t exist without the ideal conditions provided by the land, and indeed, vice versa. It’s another one of those “which came first?” (page 101)
The Flora Pivot (chapter 5)
Why do water and nutrients travel upward when the force of gravity normally pushes them down into the soil? (page 107)
The natural atmosphere is composed of just 21 percent oxygen. Where, then, do our travelers get the oxygen that is traveling down their windpipes? (page 109)
Corn plants support the bean vines trailing everywhere, while the squash prevents weeds from growing. How do certain plants complement each other so well? (page 111)
Like female wasps or bees in order to attract male wasps and bees, the Chinese orchids know exactly what scent signals to emit in order to gain the desired result: pollination. Surprise! How can these orchids with their appealing petals and seemingly fragile appearance lure hornets efficiently by producing a particular scent when the orchids themselves look nothing like honeybees? (page 114)
Why is it that flora, because it can transform nitrogen into an absorbable substance, is the pivot between the inanimate world of rocks and the living world of fauna and humans? (page 129)
Fauna (Animal Ability – chapter 6)
Warthogs display a kind of intelligence (or instinct, if you will). They enter their burrows in reverse so that they can charge predators that might be lurking nearby. The ingenuity of such an odd-looking creature makes us wonder: what else can animals do? (page 134)
Signs direct our attention. They read: “Communicators,” “Organizers,” “Navigators,” “Climbers/Swimmers,” “Toolmakers,” and “Home Builders.” How can animals have all of these capabilities? (page 134)
By all rights, a rattlesnake should eat a squirrel and its kits. But, it didn’t, what happened? (page 136)
Animals can communicate, but how do they “know” to do this? Is it in the genes, as with the bees’ pollen dance? Are animals capable of planning as we know it? Can they build societies? (page 137)
How can bacteria living inside us and dwelling on common household surfaces (as well as everything we touch) organize without brains? (page 138)
Should we call bacteria intelligent? Perhaps. Why do they seem to have awareness and an ability to organize in the most efficient sense at the cellular level? (page 140)
Baby rats have survival skills and mental abilities beyond those of newborn humans, who have larger brains! How can this be? (page 141)
In the spring, the butterflies return north, unerringly coming back to their point of origin. This migratory pollination ensures the survival of both the flowers and the butterflies. How does the butterfly do this? (page 143)
Why should hummingbirds be the only bird that can hover on the wind? Is it because they have no place to perch on the flowers? Why are they predisposed to this behavior? We know that we could not replicate their feats or their efficiency. (page 144 )
Can animals eventually learn from their surroundings as well? Can they invent solutions to solve problems? (page 148)
Why do animals, which we assume just blindly forage in the wild and locate food by instinct, demonstrate human-like problem-solving when they seek their dinner? (page 149)
Each honeycomb is constructed according to precise geometric angles. They are so precise, in fact, that even mathematicians miscalculated them. Bees are not capable of doing math or using a slide rule or protractor in order to measure. How, then, can the bees design with the efficiency of Frank Lloyd Wright? (page 150)
Penguins waddle with their jaunty, all-black tuxedo tails spread out behind them. “Why don’t they fly?” someone asks. “They have wings.” “They’re short compared to the rest of their body,” someone else observes. While pondering what penguins can’t do, we observe their strengths closely. “Don’t their feet and legs get cold?” (page 153)
In other insects, ice can kill body cells, but the black scarab is immune. How is this possible? (page 154)
These animal species preserve themselves without thinking about it, in response to stimuli and triggers from the environment. How do they do this? (page 156)
We watch the chimpanzees, the rats, or the warthogs in their exhibits and we imagine the un-animaginable: in the end, do these animals match man in intelligence even as they surpass him in the abilities to resist cold, build cities, and fly in ways that inspire poetry? (page 157)
The above are some of the basic why questions about the physical universe. The why questions about human life, the brain, the mind and man’s role compared to that of animals are coming up. It gets more exciting and interesting.
Remember that we are doing this exercise because the coherent complete theology, the s/Sources sacred book should be able to answer these why questions for us. In fact, the sacred book that can give us the answers should be the correct one–if a s/Source exists and if that s/Source has recorded answer to the why questions.
This blog post is an excerpt from chapter 2.2 of Origin of the Universe
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August 15, 2017
What Is Happening to Carbon Dioxide Worldwide?
Carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are increasing. Do we want polluted cities and tropical rain forests? Or fresh air, vibrant forests and livable cities?
Carbon Dioxide and the Greenhouse Effect
As we have seen in examining the burning of stars and in viewing prehistoric earth, carbon as the fourth most abundant element in the universe, is part of the atmosphere, inanimate objects (diamonds) and all living organisms, and makes life possible, ‘better living through organic chemistry’. In its purest form carbon is non-toxic to humans and animals.
(Audit of the Universe chapter 2.2)
Climate change based on human activity such as burning fossil fuels, agriculture’s development and reckless industrialization within the last two centuries is real—methane, nitrogen oxides and carbon dioxide are the ‘harvest’ we reap from this activity, and the end products are air contamination, ozone belt destruction and acid rains as well as an excess of carbon dioxide—a steady rise of 316 parts per million (ppm) in the air in 1958 to 400 ppm in 2013, an increase of 27 percent in 55 years.
Stations in Alaska, Greenland, Hawaii, Britain, Russia, India record 400 ppm. The safe amount of CO2 is 350 ppm according to global consensus. What is 400 ppm and what does it mean? Except for the prehistoric and pre-Homo Sapiens era, until the recent period between 1958-2013, the concentrations of CO2 were at 280 in the industrial period—350 is the safe limit. 400 may be the difference between record temperatures, the Canadian Arctic being completely green (as it was 2.5 million years ago for the Ice Age), and having glaciers worldwide. However, we are hitting 400 again within a short span even if it is just a moment in geologic time.
Tropical forests are razed to make way for pastures where cattle can graze and buying tropical wood products such as furniture made from mahogany and African okoumé, even pencils and toilet plungers that contain rainforest wood, contributes to the lack of oxygen producing trees.
The gases given off by burning fossil fuels allow the atmosphere to retain more infrared heat rays that warm or ‘microwave’ the earth gradually. Today the CO2 concentrations are off-the-charts higher than at any period in the past three million years.
CO2: West Antarctic Ice Sheet, Greenland, Alaska
Glaciers all over the world are shrinking, from the Perto Moreno Glacier in Argentina to the Tibetan Glacier, from the Glacier National Park in Montana to the largest ice shelf in the Arctic, the Wharton Ice Shelf that cracked in half in 2003. The most striking example is the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS).
“Take a look at that beautiful sheet of ice, folks. Historic and pristine,” Galacti says. “Unfortunately, it’s also cracking. It’s disintegrating. Definitely signs of wear and tear as we like to say in the real estate biz.”
A team of scientists and activists travel underneath the polar ice shelf in a nuclear submarine, wanting to see the disintegration of these majestic glaciers up close.
Land-based ice has crumbled at rapid rates, cascading like a tower of ice. The loss of ice in the stunning, pristine West Antarctic sheet is measurable: 40 percent reduction in 40 years. Our team of scientists has mapped 54 ice shelves around Antarctica, and discovered twenty of them that are melting because of predominantly West Antarctic warm ocean currents.
When we debate ‘climate change’ and whether it is occurring, whether the world is warming, we can talk about cooling temperatures as some have, but the shrinking of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is a fact. We have all the data from the main ice cores (cylinders of ice nearly half a foot in diameter collected from the depths of the ice sheet) to show the history of carbon dioxide, 430,000 years worth of data—to put this in perspective, 430,000 years ago, beings were first learning to make pigments by hand.
What does CO2 have to do with the WAIS, dubbed the most unstable glacier in the world? Some people argue that changes in the WAIS don’t amount to much as evidence of man affecting climate or ‘anthropogenic climate change’. There is increased heat in the ice and in the deep water that is directly linked to the steady increase in CO2 shown by the ice cores. This is causation, not correlation.
Physics and the very act of measuring the ice cores and calculating the man-made CO2, which is double the normal atmospheric CO2, are objective, real ways of determining what we know: that increased levels of carbon dioxide also increase the optimum temperature of the earth’s surface.
OK, we get it, we know that CO2 plays a role in what we are seeing. What exactly does the West Antarctic Ice Sheet do for the world? To put it another way: Why should we travelers and readers of The Explanation care? Is it important to have vast sheets of ice, and not just for aesthetic reasons? Is this truly a world problem? Aren’t glaciers somewhat smaller and less numerous than in the past?
The West Antarctic Ice Sheet is the largest single mass of ice on earth and is the only remaining ice sheet from the last glacial period that ended 12,500 years ago. Its impact is much more than that as we will see when we examine the state of water in the world in the next chapter of Audit of the Universe.
The melting of 98 percent of Greenland’s own surface ice is possibly explained by a change in the jet stream that trapped warmer high-pressure systems over colder areas. Greenhouse gas levels in Alaska and Greenland, as everywhere, have registered at 400 ppm
Do we need glaciers or are warm days in June in Alaska or a hotter summer at the WAIS a serious problem? The short answer is that ice sheets act as reflectors of the sun’s heat away from Earth. They are, in effect, a vital part of Earth’s temperature control system. The more ice sheets you have the more reflection you get with a resultant lower overall atmospheric temperature.
The counterpart is the less ice sheets you have the more the heat is absorbed both by the water and the land exposed by the disappearing ice sheets. This extra heat actually accelerates the melting of the ice sheets causing the irreversible conditions that scientists are now pointing to: the point of no return.
Extra heat actually accelerates the melting of the ice sheets causing the irreversible…
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Join The Explanation Newsletter to stay informed of updates. and future events. No obligations, total privacy, unsubscribe if you want. Your gift is a free pdf of The Explanation and a free pdf of Answering the Big Questions in Life
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Learn how to play Take Inventory – The Interconnectivity Game (free) that nourishes your neurons and is taking the world by storm. Play a round with family and friends. View the above videos and use the tags at the end of this blog for dozens of ideas to play Take Inventory – The Game.
See the index of the book Inventory of the Universe to find a specific chapter and read it online.
Purchase Inventory of the Universe at Amazon – Purchase the Kindle version
Google Play – Barnes@Nobles – Kobo – iTunes
Unlock Bible meaning via Biblical Hebrew … with no fuss. The free video course that puts you in the driver’s seat to navigate the Bible as never before. Join now
Since you read all the way to here… you liked it. Please use the Social Network links just below to share this excerpt of Inventory of the Universe, What Is Happening to Carbon Dioxide Worldwide?
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