SUPERSTORMS, MR. CONDOM, AND EQUANIMITY

 HAPPY 51st EARTH DAY:

FIRE! Try to imagine a Superstorm fire that is so intense, 3000℉(hot enough to melt steel), that it can melt the organic layer of soil and turn it into a waxy substance that rain water cannot penetrate, with 75% of the topsoil eroded, in some cases the burns go down into the bedrock and can take a 1000 years to recover the soil and vegetation. 

PINE GULCH FIRE NEAR
 GRAND JUNCTION

Loraine and I had arrived in Colorado during the month of August, 2020, in the wake of the Covid-19 virus for over a month. We landed at her Grandfather's cabin outside Durango. Before that, we had just missed being trapped by the 2nd largest fire in Colorado's history,  the Pine Gulch fire near Grand Junction, where 138,000 acres went up in flames. 

We hung around the cabin, isolated in the woods with only a few neighbors nearby, we kept checking in on our relatives and friends in California. The Covid numbers were off the charts and the record setting Superstorm fires of Northern California were out of control. At the end of the year, nearly 10,000 fires had burned and destroyed 4.2 million acres. That is roughly 4% of the state, the largest wildfire season recorded in California's modern history.  

Jim 

As luck would have it, our next door neighbor in Colorado was an X- forester, named Jim Dick, who turned me on to a very informative book called: "First put out the Fire-Rescuing Western National Forest From Natures Wildfire PANDEMIC", by James Peterson, IBSN: 978-1-7923-3277-7 published in 2020.  Hmmm... now we have 2 pandemics in the same year! The book talks about the diminishing funds from the National Forestry budget, that our being ushered out by FEMA for other natural disasters like floods, earthquakes and hurricanes. Consequently, since 1992 there has been

BAKER LAKE TRAIL 
IN IDAHO

14,000 jobs lost in the forestry service, and an annual shortfall of 3 billion dollars. The USFS cares for 193,000,000 acres of land and close to half (80-90 million), are in a death spiral from drought (feathered by climate change), being overstressed with an overcrowding of trees (that act like magnets for insects diseases like bark beetles) and wildfires.  The other problem associated with wildfires is the effects it has on our bodies. In the April 2021 issue of National Geographic they did some excellent illustrations on particle size. The main culprit is

ON MT. HOOD LOOKING AT 
MT. ADAMS 28 MILES AWAY

PM2.5 (fine particle matter). When inhaled, these particles from a wildfire can go directly into the alveoli of your lungs and into your bloodstream. To give you an idea how bad the 2020 fires were; they have been equated to the air quality of one of the most polluted cities in the world - New Delhi, India. The skies of New Delhi are choked with an annual PM2.5, which is 10x worse for good air quality, a target number set by WHO. Otherwise, lung diseases, such as bronchitis, asthma and pneumonia are exacerbated. And to top that off, the poor wildlife firefighters can't even wear respirators because of the weight involved to carry them. To this day, I still suffer chronic bronchitis from growing up in Riverside, California with the smoggy days so bad you couldn't see the other side of the road and I'm sure the PM2.5 was similar to some of these superstorm wildfires. And the latest projections, according to Jeff Denbolm, who leases Cal Fire crews equipment," is on a frightening trend, Wildfire propensity is forecast to be tenfold in the next 3 decades". "That's six months of smoke a year!!" Now that is really scary stuff for people with respiratory conditions.  

A CLOSE UP HIKE TO
BAKER LAKE, IDAHO

So why do I care? Besides the obvious death and destruction, there were many times this past summer, that we hiked, unknowingly, in forests that had burned. In some cases these forest had burned almost 20 years ago, and walking through these conifer tree forests was like walking through a "death zone, of standing chard tree statues."I mean, no ground animals, no sounds, no birds, nothing but burnt trees to frame your pictures. It was erie and I was in disbelief. I had a sense of  hollowness inside myself, as I was trying to understand the cause of these major burns.

TRAIL IN COLORADO

So I had to read the book,"First put out the fire", by James Peterson.  Here is a quick synopsis of what I learned: 1. We need prescribed burns. 2.  Thinning of the younger trees. 3. Burning the debris from the thinning. There are already some lumber companies that are utilizing smaller diameter logs for a whole a new concept by using them as laminates for building materials.

There is some hope though. Joe Neguse, a congressman from Colorado, has plans to make a difference. As the new Chair of the National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands Committee, he plans to shift the Federal approach to wildfire prevention. One of his first actions is introducing a piece of legislation to establish a "21st Century Conservation Corps." Fantastic, sounds like a new version of the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) started by FDR back in the 1930s in the New Deal. Neguse hopes to get this bill off the ground that would funnel $40 billion back into protecting our public lands and hire a new generation of forest managers. He also hopes President Biden will make it part of his secondary infrastructure for the future of our country.

Plus we have more good news. California is getting onboard with a 536 Million plan for WildFire Prevention recently announced by Governor Newsome's office in early April of 2021. This will include fire prevention measures and vegetation management .... Yeah that's a start.

MR. CONDOM= MECHAI VIRAVAIDYA:

Climate change is of course important, but the underpinning of all this is an unsustainable population growth by the human race. 7.8 billion and counting as of January 2020. This number was only 4 billion in 1974, almost doubling in 46 years. Crazy as that sounds, we will, without a doubt reach our carrying capacity as a species... way sooner than later. What to do..what to do... what to do... well, Paul Ehrlich took a stab at in 1968, writing the Population Bomb, trying to get people to limit their families to 2 children. Predicting world famine, which had some truth to it, but with the advent of the discovering "Super Rice" strains. This changed everything for underdeveloped countries and the population growth marched forward. Even the Sierra Club encouraged replacement population numbers back in the day. But, that was an unpopular topic for certain wealthy/religious contributors to the club. Then along came Climate Change and that has taken hold. 

Once again there is hope. Mr. Condom- Mechai Viravaidya of Thailand & the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are leading the way to population sustainability.  We were listening to Ted Talks one day, when Mechai spoke, he captured not only my imagination, but reminded me of the possibilities to make some fundamental changes in human growth numbers. www.ted.com › talks › mechai_viravaidya_how_mr_condom 

Mechai Viravaidya now 
80 years old

The new trends today are the Megacities (10 million people or more) and the number of Megacities in the world has jumped from 10 in 1990 to what the United Nations estimates to be 43 by 2030, YIKES!  In the 70's, Mechai incorporated the simple concept of using Condoms....by making it fun and intriguing.  With his ability to enlist community support and establish family planning, he has been able to change the face of Thailand. In so doing, the population rate of Thailand has dropped from an overall reproduction rate of 3.2% to .6% (kids per family dropped from 7 down to 2 children). FANTASTIC!

CO-HOSTED BY BILL AND 
MELINDA GATES

So Thailand has shown we can control our population! Mechai started an organization called PDA(Population and Community Development Association) back in the 1970's. Now this program has the backing of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and they are holding an International conference to include nearly 120 countries from around the world in 2022... now that is making a difference!: https://icfp2022.org/

PANDEMIC:  THE 4 TOOLS OF EQUANIMITY: Covid-19 Pandemic of 2020-21, what can I say?  Being a person born with the travel gene, it has been quite the challenge. We all probably did some house projects, learned some new hobbies did some soul searching to survive... and for me - time slowed down for the first time in my life. I found contentment in many of the simple things like our morning "jumble" in the newspaper, reading Dear Abby and enlisting several "Self Enlightenment" books. In this case, I reread one of my favorite books: "The Dalai Lama's Cat and the Art of Purring," by David Michie.

There was one particular section that talked about the 4 tools that we can use when so much is happening around us and everything seems out of control. I found these concepts particularly engaging and applicable to my life.

1. Impermanence:  Otherwise, never forget this too will pass. The only thing we know for sure, things will change in your life. If you feel bad now, no problem you will feel better later. 

2. What is the point of worrying? If you can fix, then fix it. If you can't, then every minute you spend worrying, you lost 60 seconds of happiness. 

3. Don't Judge. Personally, this has always been one of my weaknesses. It is so easy to pass judgement on someone else for lots of reasons: apathy, prejudice, hatred, jealousy, fear, etc. So now when I look at someone else, I really try to switch places with that person and understand what it is like from their perspective. In the book, it makes the point that if you get upset about losing your job, or end a relationship, this may be exactly what you need to open up more possibilities than you knew existed. 

Lotus, Pinterest.com

4. No Swamp, no lotus. This is about being humble. Suffering is like a swamp, it makes us humble, more adept at sympathizing with others and be more open to them. We become capable of transformation and of becoming beautiful, like the Lotus flower.

NEW ENERGY CONCEPTS FOR THE FUTURE 

MASSLESS ENERGY: Now, that's a new one! Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology (in Sweden) have produced a structural battery that is 10x more efficient than previous ones. And, better yet, it is actually part of the structure, because it has a Carbon fiber component, this paves the way for future cars with "Massless" energy storage.  https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/03/210322091632.htm 

GARBAGE IS GOLD- RECYCLED HOMES

In many parts of the world, products like tires and aluminum cans are just discarded. After all, there are more tires than trees on our planet earth. Here is a short 1 minute video on what Architect Michael Reynolds  did with a little ingenuity:  https://youtu.be/qNEBoSXmcoI

CHEVY AND FORD

Finally, Chevy and Ford are picking it up.... literally! Their pickup trucks (Silverado, and F-150) are being built in the near future with up to a 400 mile range per charge--now that will give those cowboys something to Yip about. 

NATURE CONSERVANCY: Is hosting an Earth Day Zoom with some of the environmental game changers as guests on Thursday, April 22nd: https://natureconservancy.brand.live/c/change-starts-here

In Closing

I see a lot more people out visiting in nature these days. Many families of all ethnic backgrounds, hiking together, riding bikes etc., maybe just maybe it is another beginning of our appreciation of the "Wonders of Nature." HAPPY EARTH DAY FOLKS.  I hope you find peace in nature. It is simply amazing.