tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-82438008581241082342024-03-14T01:10:35.950+08:00Ocean Cities: on the ocean, on the equator - 海上城市 - Kotakota SamuderaSolving at least half the world's problems through equatorial ocean living, carbon sequestration, and fish farming [concept outlined in post of 21 Nov 2010]Mark Peatyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09964128707828534283noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243800858124108234.post-72742462495098355702017-06-04T00:14:00.001+08:002017-06-04T00:14:11.381+08:00How to double the biological productivity of the ocean!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span><span> <span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="UFICommentBody"><span>I
am continuously disappointed to see that nobody is discussing one of
the biggest potential solutions to the future world food crisis. The
action I propose is to increase the biological productivity of the
ocean. As I see it we ought to be able to double the amount of
phytoplankton - single celled algae and the like - currently growing in
the ocean by means of artificial upwellings of ocean bottom water. </span><br /><br /><span>The
point of this is that in the ocean *<b>shit sinks</b>*. This simple fact is
what limits the amount of life in the ocean because the average depth of
the ocean beyond the edge of the continental shelf is about 4km.
Sunlight is absorbed by sea water at the rate of about 90% per 75 metres
of depth. Ie only 1% gets to 150m down, 0.1% gets to 225m, 0.01% gets
to 300m, and so on. So at the bottom it is pitch black but that is where
all the plant food goes to. Without hurricanes and tropical cyclones to
stir up the waters now and again or cold currents bumping into the edge
of a continental shelf or the odd island chain, the oceans would be pretty much devoid of living things. </span><br /><br /><span>What we humans need
to do is create artificial upwellings through the generation of
centrifugal surface currents - in effect, upside down vortices. This can
be achieved using very simple technology in the form of wind driven
pontoons linked end to end in great circles. Each such floating circle
would need to be at least 4km across, to be on a par with the ocean
depth and so 13km or more in circumference. By using wind and wave
energy these pontoon rings can be made to circulate continuously and
thus drag surface water around with them; centrifugal inertia of this
moving surface water will take it outwards and water from below will
come up to replace it inside the ring.</span><br /><br /><span>This process
will lead to cold, nutrient rich, bottom water rising to the surface and
mixing with warmer water at the surface, and being heated by daytime
sunlight. Vastly more phytoplankton will be able to grow near the
surface which will both sequester far more carbon dioxide than currently
*<b>and</b>* provide food for far more animal life than currently. </span><br /><span>In
other words this is how we can sequester carbon dioxide, combat ocean
acidification, and sustainably support more than enough fish to supply
protein for the extra billions of people *<b>and</b>* regrow ocean ecosystems. </span><br /><br /><span>IMO this is a no-brainer!</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span><span><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="UFICommentBody"><span>[copied from my post to Facebook group <br />"</span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/30579496309/">Tired of Climate Change Deniers? </a></span><span><span><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}"><span class="UFICommentBody"><span>"] </span></span></span></span></span></div>
Mark Peatyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09964128707828534283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243800858124108234.post-73059617486305429082015-07-11T20:33:00.001+08:002015-07-11T20:33:12.219+08:00World seabird populations in catastrophic decline - The Scotsman<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://www.scotsman.com/news/environment/world-seabird-populations-in-catastrophic-decline-1-3827960" target="_blank">The Scotsman - Sat 11 July 2015</a> <br />
also<br />
<a href="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2015/06/17/4253305.htm" target="_blank">ABC Science</a> <br />
Some of their key assertions:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"WORLD seabird populations have suffered a staggering 70 per cent drop over the last 60 years, according to new international research. "</blockquote>
<blockquote>
"This means around 230 million seabirds have disappeared across the globe since the 1950s."<br />
"The study, which analysed nearly a fifth of global seabird populations,
showed overall numbers declined by 69.6 per cent since the 1950s."</blockquote>
The text of the original study can be found at <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0129342" target="_blank">PLOS ONE</a> <br />
Here is their Fig. 2:<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/figure/image?size=inline&id=info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0129342.g002" target="_blank"><img alt="Fig 2" src="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/figure/image?size=inline&id=info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0129342.g002" /></a></div>
<br />
<strong></strong>Paleczny M, Hammill E, Karpouzi V, Pauly D (2015) Population Trend of the World’s Monitored Seabirds, 1950-2010. PLoS ONE 10(6):
e0129342.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0129342<br />
<br />
I came across a link to The Scotsman article in the FaceBook group <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/1461637340746816/" target="_blank">I Friggin Love Jellyfish [You get to see some beautiful jelly fish photos]</a><br />
<br />
For what it is worth below is the response I posted there.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.0"><a class=" UFICommentActorName" data-ft="{"tn":";"}" data-hovercard="/ajax/hovercard/hovercard.php?id=806048738&extragetparams=%7B%22hc_location%22%3A%22ufi%22%7D" data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.0.0" dir="ltr" href="https://www.facebook.com/mark.peaty?fref=ufi"><span data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.0.0.0">Mark A Peaty</span></a></span><span data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.0"> </span><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$text0:0:$text0:0">As
far as I can see there is something that can be done: Feed the Friggin
Fish! Sea birds need fish to eat, big fish, marine mammals, and humans
need fish to eat and the number of humans is increasing still. Our
hominid population will top out at about 11 billion apparently [based on
2 kids per couple which is becoming the trend world wide it seems]. </span></span></span></span><br data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$text0:0:$text1:0" /><span data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"></span></span></span><br data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$text0:0:$text3:0" /><span data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$text0:0:$text4:0">All
the above carnivores need fish to eat and those fish need to eat
smaller fish, and so forth down the food chain and the smallest fish eat
krill and the like and the smallest crustaceans eat phytoplankton. </span></span></span></span><br data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$text0:0:$text5:0" /><span data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"></span></span></span><span data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$text0:0:$text8:0">So,
to feed the food chain requires nourishing the phytoplankton and other
algae. What those plants need is lots of nutrient laden water. Now the
thing which limits the amount of ocean biomass is, IMO, the fact that In
The Ocean, Shit Sinks out of the reach of sunlight. </span></span></span></span><br data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$text0:0:$text9:0" /><span data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"></span></span></span><span data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$text0:0:$text12:0">If anyone is disposed to question this simple proposition consider this: </span></span></span></span><br data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$text0:0:$text13:0" /><span data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$text0:0:$text14:0">1/ The surface of the ocean is not covered in floating feces, and</span></span></span></span><br data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$text0:0:$text15:0" /><span data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$text0:0:$text16:0">2/
the abyssal plain has a layer of mud [AKA "ooze" which has a better
sound to it I think] but this layer of oceanic ooze is always thinnest
at and near the mid ocean spreading centres and thickest - many metres
thick - at those regions of ocean bottom furthest from the spreading
centres. </span></span></span></span><br data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$text0:0:$text17:0" /><span data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"></span></span></span><span data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$text0:0:$text20:0">Normally
the only way nutrient rich bottom water gets to the surface is when a
deep ocean current runs into a continental slope or island chain or when
strong cyclonic winds create an upwelling. So what *we* need to do is
create lots of artificial upwellings.</span></span></span></span><br data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$text0:0:$text21:0" /><span data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"></span></span></span><span data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"><span data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$text0:0:$text24:0">That
is not rocket science! It just needs *us* to make it happen! It has
already been demonstrated that wave power can be successfully harnessed
for this task</span></span></span></span><br data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$text0:0:$text25:0" /><span data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"></span></span></span></blockquote>
<span data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1"><span data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body"><span class="UFICommentBody" data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0"><a class="" data-reactid=".u.1:4:1:$comment1648802858696929_1648876075356274:0.0.$right.0.$left.0.0.1.$comment-body.0.$range0:0" dir="ltr" href="http://www.wrrc.hawaii.edu/bulletins/2000_12/aumix.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.wrrc.hawaii.edu/bulletins/2000_12/aumix.html </a></span></span></span></div>
Mark Peatyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09964128707828534283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243800858124108234.post-90426107956722379112014-01-04T16:40:00.000+08:002014-01-04T16:42:36.401+08:00Web links on the subject of ocean upwelling<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a href="http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explorations/02quest/background/upwelling/upwelling.html" target="_blank">US gov. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration</a> </li>
</ul>
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a href="http://www.see.ed.ac.uk/~shs/Hurricanes/fishstocks.pdf" target="_blank">Griffith University, Queensland, Brian Kirke Enhancing fish stocks with wave-powered artificial upwelling</a> </li>
</ul>
This has some very practical suggestions for the most effective and economical methods of pumping<br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a href="http://www.whoi.edu/ocb-fert/page.do?pid=40717" target="_blank">Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute OCB program Ocean Fertilzation </a> </li>
</ul>
Very brief but shows examples of simple wave powered uplifting tubes<br />
<a href="http://www.int-res.com/abstracts/meps/v364/p257-268/" target="_blank">Nitrogen fixation-enhanced carbon sequestration in low nitrate, low chlorophyll seascapes</a><br />
This is one of the links in Woods Hole OCB document<br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a href="https://www.google.com.au/search?newwindow=1&site=webhp&source=hp&q=artificial+upwelling&oq=artificial+upwe&gs_l=hp.1.0.0j0i22i30l4.4789.11934.0.19422.17.13.0.4.4.0.858.6337.2j1j0j2j2j1j5.13.0....0...1c.1.32.hp..8.9.1373.4B3plyVMnuA" target="_blank">Artificial Upwelling ... using the Perpetual Salt Fountain</a> </li>
</ul>
<div>
Must be downloaded as a .pdf file. The 'perpetual Salt Fountain' is an experimentally verified flow of cold deep water *up* a pipe, driven by the lesser salinity of water within the pipe because the salinity of the surface water is higher, due to its higher temperature enabling more salt to be dissolved. </div>
<div>
The system obviously has to be primed by cold water being sucked/pumped into the tube first but thereafter it seems that the upwards flow will continue indefinitely. [To me that is counter intuitive but that of course is why they were doing the experiment.]</div>
<br />
<div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><a href="http://www.wrrc.hawaii.edu/bulletins/2000_12/aumix.html" target="_blank">Artificial Upwelling and Mixing (AUMIX)</a> </li>
</ul>
</div>
Simple and straightforward experiment in wave powered AU in progress off Hawaii; it works.<br />
<br /></div>
Mark Peatyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09964128707828534283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243800858124108234.post-48046358091190657242013-12-30T15:26:00.003+08:002013-12-30T15:31:19.703+08:00Dr Sylvia Earl - what to do about the loss of fish populations<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I just today heard a session on ABC Radio National featuring an interview with Dr Sylvia Earl who has been studying the ocean for many decades. It was fascinating to hear and it was quite salutary to hear how in the 1960<i>s </i>and '70<i>s</i> Dr Earl was having to push to get herself included on expeditions just because she was a woman.<br />
<br />
One thing that worried me though is I heard nothing from Dr Earl or the interviewer, etc, about actually <i><b>feeding</b></i> the fish! Dr Earl described how so many regions of the ocean and the rivers flowing into it have been irrevocably changed by human plundering and polluting. One suggestion offered was to stop eating fish. Well I have to say I cannot bear that thought.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: blue;">What we need to do is <span style="font-size: large;">Feed the Fish!</span></span></b> </div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
This can only be done on a scale large enough to be useful if we, the human beings of this planet, start drawing up nutrient rich water from the ocean bottom. </div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Remember folks: In the Ocean -- Shit Sinks</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
That is why all the good stuff that ocean plants need is down there, four kilometres below, hidden away from the sun light so neither the planktons nor the multicellular plants can get at it. </div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
But we can! We can bring it up to the surface.</div>
</div>
</div>
Mark Peatyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09964128707828534283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243800858124108234.post-70159113062118860732013-12-30T14:59:00.000+08:002013-12-30T14:59:50.720+08:00Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I have been trying to draw some diagrams to explain what I think we should be doing. I will scan these and post them here in the next day or so.<br />
Meanwhile, here is a link to similar minded thinking displayed on Wikipedia.<br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_thermal_energy_conversion" target="_blank">Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion</a><br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>A thing to remember is that none of this is rocket science! <br />This is all doable with technology already available and very well understood. </li>
<li>As the Wikipedia article shows, this is a 'base load' technology; it will just hum along in the background for ever and a day. This power source will keep insulated ice in a frozen, solid, less-dense-than-seawater, state for hundreds if not thousands of years. </li>
</ul>
Notice that the authors of the article are pointing to all the things I have mentioned in the description in the side panel at the right hand side of this blog page<br />
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Mark Peatyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09964128707828534283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243800858124108234.post-59316550566984778522013-02-04T23:10:00.001+08:002013-02-04T23:10:10.265+08:00Society for the Reversal of Ocean Acidification & Creation of Ocean Havens<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I have never done anything like this before but it is becoming clear to me that the only way to get this project under way is to act as if <b>it is already happening</b>.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
The</div>
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<i><b>Society for the Reversal of Ocean Acidification and Creation of Ocean Havens</b></i>, </div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
is hereby proclaimed.</div>
<br />
<br />
The acronym for that would seem to be SoROACOH which could be pronounced in a manner close to the name of Sirocco, the dry wind from the Sahara which blows into southern Europe. Non native speakers of English might want to pronounce the "A" sound as well. Of course anybody who participates might want to improve on the name; such suggestions will be welcome. Note, my daughter Gwyneth vetoed ".. Creation of Ocean Cities" on the grounds that bogans [= persons with more time than wits on hand] would add a "K" to the end of the initials. She is probably right.<br />
<br />
Cheers</div>
Mark Peatyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09964128707828534283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243800858124108234.post-71727450284800070402011-08-24T01:13:00.000+08:002013-02-04T22:26:33.648+08:00The Last Great Global Warming - article in Scientific American Magazine<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The July 2011 issue of Scientific American Magazine contains an article describing what is now known about a period of global warming that occurred about 56 million years ago. </div>
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During that period:</div>
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"in the course of a few thousand years—a mere instant in geologic time—global temperatures rose five degrees Celsius, marking a planetary fever known to scientists as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, or PETM.</div>
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<blockquote>
"Climate zones shifted toward the poles, on land and at sea, forcing plants and <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/topic.cfm?id=animals">animals</a> to migrate, adapt or die. Some of the deepest realms of the ocean became acidified and oxygen-starved, killing off many of the organisms living there. It took nearly 200,000 years for the earth’s natural buffers to bring the fever down."</blockquote>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnAtnxAyNCqonkdSOmy2-PQjOTZfBOKshTUvc17tPPTn399ORzUMBPQ2-H0bSas07cXe1X_eEaJTsFaRItIVN5MjuJRdG68RPW9jZVFeKVvDvrI96zKGsn6Rw-gPvmeBOGCD8HAFt8Iw/s1600/the-last-great-global-warming_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnAtnxAyNCqonkdSOmy2-PQjOTZfBOKshTUvc17tPPTn399ORzUMBPQ2-H0bSas07cXe1X_eEaJTsFaRItIVN5MjuJRdG68RPW9jZVFeKVvDvrI96zKGsn6Rw-gPvmeBOGCD8HAFt8Iw/s1600/the-last-great-global-warming_1.jpg" /> </a></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span class="imageCredit"><span class="" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: none; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0pt none; clear: none; color: inherit; cursor: auto; display: inline; float: none; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0pt; outline: medium none; padding: 0pt; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; text-indent: 0pt; text-transform: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: inherit; word-spacing: inherit;"><span class=" aptureTMMSelection" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: none; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0pt none; clear: none; color: inherit; cursor: auto; display: inline; float: none; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0pt; outline: medium none; padding: 0pt; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; text-indent: 0pt; text-transform: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: inherit; word-spacing: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; background-image: none; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0pt none; clear: none; color: inherit; cursor: auto; display: inline; float: none; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0pt; outline: medium none; padding: 0pt; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; text-indent: 0pt; text-transform: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: inherit; word-spacing: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; background-image: none; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0pt none; clear: none; color: inherit; cursor: auto; display: inline; float: none; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0pt; outline: medium none; padding: 0pt; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; text-indent: 0pt; text-transform: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: inherit; word-spacing: inherit;">Image: Illustration by Ron Miller [from the magazine]</span></span></span></span></span></span></i><span style="background-color: transparent; background-image: none; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0pt none; clear: none; color: inherit; cursor: auto; display: inline; float: none; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0pt; outline: medium none; padding: 0pt; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; text-indent: 0pt; text-transform: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: inherit; word-spacing: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; background-image: none; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0pt none; clear: none; color: inherit; cursor: auto; display: inline; float: none; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0pt; outline: medium none; padding: 0pt; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; text-indent: 0pt; text-transform: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: inherit; word-spacing: inherit;"></span></span></div>
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The article's author <span class="byline aptureTMMSelection"> <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/author.cfm?id=2902">Lee R. Kump</a></span> describes how the researchers went to the island of Spitsbergen in the <span style="background-color: transparent; background-image: none; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0pt none; clear: none; color: inherit; cursor: auto; display: inline; float: none; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0pt; outline: medium none; padding: 0pt; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; text-indent: 0pt; text-transform: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: inherit; word-spacing: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; background-image: none; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0pt none; clear: none; color: inherit; cursor: auto; display: inline; float: none; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0pt; outline: medium none; padding: 0pt; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; text-indent: 0pt; text-transform: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: inherit; word-spacing: inherit;">Svalbard archipelago within the Arctic circle to retrieve drill core samples saved from earlier exploration work done during commercial mineral exploration. These sediment samples contained material which had been deposited throughout the PETM period and which had since been undisturbed underground until the drillers arrived.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; background-image: none; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0pt none; clear: none; color: inherit; cursor: auto; display: inline; float: none; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0pt; outline: medium none; padding: 0pt; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; text-indent: 0pt; text-transform: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: inherit; word-spacing: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; background-image: none; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0pt none; clear: none; color: inherit; cursor: auto; display: inline; float: none; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0pt; outline: medium none; padding: 0pt; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; text-indent: 0pt; text-transform: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: inherit; word-spacing: inherit;"><br />
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<span style="background-color: transparent; background-image: none; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0pt none; clear: none; color: inherit; cursor: auto; display: inline; float: none; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0pt; outline: medium none; padding: 0pt; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; text-indent: 0pt; text-transform: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: inherit; word-spacing: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; background-image: none; border-collapse: collapse; border: 0pt none; clear: none; color: inherit; cursor: auto; display: inline; float: none; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0pt; outline: medium none; padding: 0pt; position: relative; text-decoration: inherit; text-indent: 0pt; text-transform: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: inherit; word-spacing: inherit;">What the deposits revealed, in summary, is that </span></span></div>
<blockquote>
<div id="conceptsBox">
<ul>
<li><strong>"Global temperature rose</strong> five degrees Celsius 56 million years ago in response to a massive injection of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.</li>
<li><i><u><strong>That intense gas release</strong> was only 10 percent of the rate at which heat-trapping greenhouse gases are building up in the atmosphere today.</u></i></li>
<li><strong>The speed of today’s rise</strong> is more troubling than the absolute magnitude, because adjusting to rapid climate change is very difficult."</li>
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The fossils in the mineral records indicate that absorption of carbon dioxide by the ocean caused significant acidification which happened then much slower than is happening now. Even so, something like 30 percent of all species of ocean flora and fauna die out.<br />
<blockquote>
"[the] evidence suggests the pace of Earth's most abrupt prehistoric warm-up paled in comparison with what we face today. The episode has lessons for our future."</blockquote>
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Mark Peatyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09964128707828534283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243800858124108234.post-1019815766145021882011-06-19T23:03:00.000+08:002011-06-19T23:03:58.602+08:00Richard A Feely interview about ocean acidification on ABC Radio National - 'National Interest' program<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">If you download the whole edition of the "In the National Interest" program, Richard Feely starts at about 29th minute and goes for about 10mins. </div>Mark Peatyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09964128707828534283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243800858124108234.post-9654531416673828492011-05-30T02:31:00.001+08:002011-05-30T02:32:45.322+08:00Study of ocean acidification using natural volcanic C02 seeps<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Another study - reported on the Physorg website - predicting the demise of coral reefs; a longer time-frame here: they say the die off may occur at the end of 21st Century<br />
<a href="http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-05-ocean-acidification-diversity-resiliency-coral.html">http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-05-ocean-acidification-diversity-resiliency-coral.html</a><br />
<br />
that article's source listed as:<br />
"Losers and winners in coral reefs acclimatized to elevated carbon dioxide concentrations," Nature Climate Change, June 2011. </div>Mark Peatyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09964128707828534283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243800858124108234.post-52658420617611683912011-05-15T17:01:00.000+08:002011-05-15T17:01:32.315+08:00More bad news for corals<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">An Australian researcher has found that acidification of the ocean gives some seaweeds an edge over their coral neighbours.<br />
<blockquote>"The new study experimentally confirms this hypothesis using two of the most abundant species co-occurring—and competing—on the Great Barrier Reef. The branching coral<i> Acropora intermedia</i> and the brown fleshy seaweed <i>Lobophora papenfussii</i> were placed in tanks exposed to four different carbon dioxide-dosing regimes, simulating the range of historical and projected ocean acidification conditions: pre-industrial, present-day, mid-century and late-century carbon dioxide levels ...</blockquote><blockquote> "The new study experimentally confirms this hypothesis using two of the most abundant species co-occurring—and competing—on the Great Barrier Reef. The branching coral<i> Acropora intermedia</i> and the brown fleshy seaweed <i>Lobophora papenfussii</i> were placed in tanks exposed to four different carbon dioxide-dosing regimes, simulating the range of historical and projected ocean acidification conditions: pre-industrial, present-day, mid-century and late-century carbon dioxide levels"</blockquote>Click the link to see the short article on <a href="http://www.seaweb.org/news/ou16-4.php#story2">Seaweb</a>.<br />
Their <strong>Source:</strong> Diaz-Pulido, G. et al. 2011. High CO2 enhances the competitive strength of seaweeds over corals. <i>Ecology Letters</i> 14(2): 156-162<br />
<br />
<br />
</div>Mark Peatyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09964128707828534283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243800858124108234.post-18774415114601756112011-03-28T02:29:00.001+08:002011-03-28T02:35:11.411+08:00Upside-down "Hills Hoist" - an idea about growing kelp in equatorial deep ocean<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">It occurs to me that one way of providing for the needs of kelp in deep ocean at the equator is to make something like an enormous, upside down, "Hills Hoist" circular clothes line and suspend this from a buoy. <br />
<br />
Like the Hills Hoist clothes line [see <a href="http://www.hillsproducts.com.au/Products/clotheslines/clotheslines/rotary-hoists/rotary-8/rotary-8-forest-glade">Hills Products</a> for examples of this] in which the central column can be wound up and down to facilitate easy hanging of cloths on the line, the upside down seaweed growing framework would be capable of being raised up at the start of a growing cycle to allow attachment of kelp and other seaweed seeds, and then lowered to the particular depth favoured by that species. Later the framework would be raised to facility harvesting and the seaweed. The buoys would need to be connected by a network of floating ropes or cables of which some would be linked no doubt to the Ocean Cities ice rafts. In order to keep the seaweed growing frameworks in good condition and not let them get damaged, or keep the kelp on them from being overshadowed by seaweed on other frameworks, some nodes of the network would need to be anchored to the sea floor four kilometres below.</div>Mark Peatyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09964128707828534283noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243800858124108234.post-83886605221714239562010-12-14T01:33:00.000+08:002010-12-16T00:39:06.493+08:00海上城市海上城市﹕我想世界上的人們需要建立幾張非常大的泊在海中的冰台。<br />
這幾大冰台可以泊在赤道。上面會帶城市﹐商業地﹐農村﹐ 娛樂 地﹐什麼的。冰台<br />
周圍的海水里會作海草場跟魚農場。Mark Peatyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09964128707828534283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243800858124108234.post-39185323207300690542010-12-01T02:33:00.000+08:002010-12-10T01:11:51.916+08:00Further thoughts on bringing equatorial ice rafts and kelp farming into being: social and political necessitiesFurther thoughts on how to bring equatorial ice rafts and kelp farming into being.<br />
<br />
Initial finance for pumping equipment, compressors, piping, insulation, second-hand nets, cables, building materials, food supplies, transportation, and so forth, will come from large companies wanting to invest in sequestration so as to ensure their own long term access to carbon credits.<br />
<br />
Government of the ice rafts will have to be democratic and also involve citizen/elector equity. Voting must be direct with possibly two aspects of the franchise: <br />
1/ delegates for equal sized electorates would meet as a parliament and would be elected by means of compulsory, partial preferencial, voting;<br />
2/ electors themselves would constitute a citizens' house where voting power would be in proportion to the individual's equity in the city.<br />
<br />
In effect each ice raft would have to be a type of municipality, a combination of city state, and proprietary company. It will be vitally important to prevent these municipalities spawning [of worse still <i>becoming</i>] entrenched bureaucracies so their constitutions would need to be overtly and unassailably democratic. One good way to bring that about will be to base them first and foremost on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with an emphasis on the essential need for embodiment of compassion, democracy, ethics and scientific method in the laws, policies, and projects the citizens create. <br />
<br />
I think it is not possible to overemphasize the importance of democracy in such an endevour. Karl Popper provided us with the theory to explain why democracies can succeed where dictatorships and authoritarian societies fail. The history of the 20th Century and this early stage of the 21st have shown us clearly that what he said is correct: democracy is a prerequisite for security, social stability and economic growth [and not the other way round]. The problems that have turned up and threatened disaster are more or less all the consequences of attempts at subversion of democracy and suppression of the openness it depends on.Mark Peatyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09964128707828534283noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243800858124108234.post-37549624758595879312010-11-21T23:26:00.000+08:002010-11-22T00:35:42.490+08:00How we can save our world and have fun in the process.<span style="font-family: verdana;">Dear reader, if you run into Sir Richard Branson please ask him to take a look at this. He might find it very interesting.<br /><br />It would be really good if everybody was interested in fixing up the environmental damage that has been caused by human activities. If that were the case I wouldn't have to write this because dozens of other people, most of them smarter than me no doubt, would have already written this and vast numbers of people would already be beavering away to make it happen.<br /><br />In my understanding the really big challenge coming our way is acidification of the ocean. The effects to be expected as the PH of the ocean decreases due to the ever increasing amounts of carbon dioxide being dissolved are that corrals will no longer grow, many kinds of shellfish will die out, and many kinds of bony and cartilaginous fish will die out also. We will all have to learn to eat jelly fish, and squid maybe.<br /><br />I propose a way to reverse the increase of carbon dioxide dissolved in the ocean. The method is to <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">sequester the carbon in seaweed, such as kelp</span>.<br />This can be done as follows.<br /></span><ul><li>Kelp can be grown by means of attachment to cables or large nets suspended horizontally beneath the waves and parallel to the surface</li><li>It may be possible to grow corral in the same way<br /></li><li>The best place to do this is out in the open ocean around the equator because that is where there is most sunlight to provide energy for the algae to grow and near the equator tropical cyclones [hurricanes] do not occur because there is no strong Coriolis wind effect <br /></li><li>Nutrients for the kelp can be provided by raising ocean bottom water to the surface. This can be pumped upwards by the same kind of simple and robust technology used for extracting oil from the ground</li><li>The ocean bottom water is very cold and therefore can easily be mixed with surface waters to achieve optimum seawater temperatures for the kelp and corrals</li><li>The pumps for raising the ocean bottom water will be housed on very large <span style="font-weight: bold;">ice rafts</span> which will also provide a potentially vast area for people to establish permanent settlements, and factories for processing kelp, etc, into useful artifacts or chemical feed-stocks for plastic manufacturing</li><li>The ice will need to be insulated of course, above, below, and around the sides. This is all doable with current technology. Insulation in many places on the upper surface of the ice will be provided by soil and mulch.<br /></li><li>The inhabitants of the ice rafts could grow their own food crops. Oil palms, genetically engineered to be very short in the stem and growing in the soil and mulch for example, could provide another source for income.<br /></li><li>The energy for powering the bottom water lift pumps, the refrigeration compressors, and all the other needs will be taken from solar thermal concentration during the day, and at night from the temperature difference between surface water and ocean bottom water.<br /></li><li>The motive force will be generated by means of Stirling engines wherein the cold ocean bottom water will provide the heat sink while concentrated solar energy will provide the heat source by day<br /></li><li>Ice rafts of this sort could provide living space for many millions of people around the equator</li><li>Ice rafts of this sort could also provide a destination for eco-tourism; the possibilities are endless</li><li>For example, the equatorial location could also provide a place for certain types of launch facility for shooting small prefabricated steel parts into orbit<br /></li></ul>Cheers,<br />Mark Peaty<br /><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span>Mark Peatyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09964128707828534283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243800858124108234.post-18921599680316767312009-12-23T00:13:00.001+08:002011-03-19T14:24:38.373+08:00Solar powered cooking<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: monospace; font-size: 11px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thinking about solar power [AKA diurnal thermo-nuclear]; Maybe one of the most effective things we can do to counteract global warming and ocean acidification is to store heat energy in rocks and bricks to be used for frying, steaming and baking food. The simplest way of doing this will be to use curved mirrors to focus the sun's heat onto hollow pipes. The air inside the pipes needs to be heated to about 250 deg C but that just means the mirror concentrator for each such pipe needs to be about 6 times as wide as the diameter of the pipe. My recommendation is that the collector pipes are held immobile and exactly parallel to the Earth's axis of rotation. This arrangement means that the mirror concentrators only need to move right around the pipe once every 24 hours. [The word "Clockwork" comes to mind.] A Stirling engine can be used to pump/blow the hot air along an insulated delivery pipe [underground for preference], and into the bottom of the insulated rock pile or brick stack. The oven will be whatever shape suits the baking style of the home and will simply be the top part of the insulated brick stack with thick tiles for floor, walls and roof. The door could be hinged, or sliding, or just some kind of insulated metal sheet. As can be seen, none of this is "rocket science" is it! Furthermore, something similar but with different dimensions and lower temperatures could be made for drying the washing instead of using mechanical electric energy guzzling driers like so many urban households do now.</span></div>Mark Peatyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09964128707828534283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243800858124108234.post-29358840806823700632009-08-25T00:14:00.000+08:002009-08-25T00:37:28.663+08:00A little skepticism versus the infallibility of personal experienceBelow is a copy of a posting I have recently made [25 Aug '09] to a discussion group [about 'Consciousness] on FaceBook. In that particular thread I am being chided by "Dixie" an exponent of Zen meditation who tells me I am ignorant and deluded, because I don't sit and meditate like she does. I have taken to not denying such charges because, in my gathering dotage, I now see that it is true, at least for several reasonable values of the word 'true' anyway. But I am not happy to simply acquiesce in the assertions of somebody else's world view without challenge. I've been there, done that; there are too many other people who just wanna tell me how to think, for some reason or other. I am loath to just quietly accept the view of a person when they are asserting what amounts to the infallibility of personal experience.<br />Dixie has just remarked that she doesn't want to continue arguing "because this is not really a discussion any more", and so she is not going to post again, until I can prove that I have meditated as prescribed.<br /><br />>>><br />So Dixie, what you are saying is that your description of things MUST be right, <span style="font-weight: bold;">because it <span style="font-style: italic;">IS</span> right</span>. If I ask how you know that it is right, what makes you so sure that it is not "make believe", you say it is because you KNOW that it is right and it could not be wrong.<br /><br />But then one has to ask: do you mean that as far as you are concerned, it is not possible that you could be mistaken? Please understand that I am not asserting that you are mistaken, simply asking if you can conceive the possibility that your understanding could be wrong.<br /><br />My reason for seeking this clarification is precisely because I have experienced being wrong in the past, and also experienced being *right*. The being wrong in various ways showed me things about myself, and about how people 'tick'. The being right showed me how there is a way, and there can be times when, MY decision is right, simply right. But it always seems that other people want to describe my world for me using their words, their concepts. They may be well meaning, they might be nice people, but how can I know if they really know what they themselves are talking about?<br /><br />So this is why I ask, again, in other words: How can you be sure that what you experience in deep meditation is not just a deeper layer of naive realism?<br /><br />You see, years ago I had an experience in which I knew that "God" had touched me. I didn't need anybody else to confirm that for me, and I still don't. Because of the context in which this occurred, I became a Christian. But that was then. Now I am not a Christian, but I still know that it was God - though I would rather say "Life" - which touched me. I don't need anybody else to interpret my life, my world, <span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">for</span> me.<br /><br />I am looking for people who are willing to engage with our world constructively, and that requires that none of us assumes we have a monopoly on truth.Mark Peatyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09964128707828534283noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8243800858124108234.post-50440447140873861432009-05-03T19:05:00.000+08:002009-05-03T20:17:41.189+08:00Thinking new thoughts and daring to be different - the world has a new paradigm.For many years now I have been trying to work out what I ought to be doing. I suspect that many people have this as one of their projects, simmering away slowly at the back of their minds, if not at the front. I have come to adopt a collection of ideas, mostly pinched from other people of course but some seem to be my own home-brew. I have accepted for some time that there is a new paradigm a-brewing in the world, but couldn't see the totality.<br /><br />Recently I became aware once again of the theory underlying Stirling engines [an idea first patented by Rev Robert Stirling, a Scot, in about 1816]. I became aware also of the truly vast number of practical applications of Stirling engines and the fact there is nothing stopping the deployment of these machines in thousands of places around our planet for the purposes of using solar power for generating electricity, desalinating seawater, driving air conditioners, and so forth.<br /><br />A Stirling engine is simply a device for extracting useful mechanical energy from temperature differences in the environment. You can see for yourself on youtube that properly made Stirling engines can extract usable from the temperature difference between the skin of a person's hand and the air around them!:<br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUQ9qT58omc">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUQ9qT58omc</a> and<br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeP5LSfW05w">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeP5LSfW05w</a><br /><br />OK so that is not a huge amount of power and motion, but there is no intrinsic limit to how these machines can be adapted to different locations and circumstances:<br /><ul><li>Simple collection of hot air under glass/polycarbonate laid over suburban rooftops [a temp diff of at least 20 deg C possible]</li><li>ocean floor water at 4 deg C next to tropical/equatorial surface water at about 20 deg C [15+ deg C diff possible night and day but greater possible with solar heating]</li><li>all manner of solar tracking mirror concentrators [or Fresnel lenses] can create temperature differences anywhere up to a few hundred degrees.</li></ul>What this means is that all the protestations about solar power, wind power, and so forth being too expensive, or too inefficient, or too hard to implement, are just bollocks!<br /><br />I can see now that Mark's law # 4 is indeed true:<br /><blockquote>When people cooperate and work together then, to the extent that we cooperate, all projects become possible that are in line with the laws of physics. </blockquote>What this means is that the economists' preconception that 'value is based on scarcity' is an obsolete hangover from the pre-scientific universe.<br /><br />Now we can see that value is that which enhances the quality of human existence. Value as such is created through human labour and there is NO intrinsic reason why we cannot achieve the emancipation of all people from slavery, poverty, fear, preventable disease, and unjust exploitation.<br />Why can I be sure of this? Because the paramount truth about us now is that we really are a new species: Homo sapiens <span style="font-style: italic;">scientificus</span> and we are now in a position to take our place amongst all the other species living off the infinite stream of energy supplied each day by the sun. We have to wean ourselves off the milk of Mother Earth, ie stop burning all the liquid fossil hydrocarbons [rock oil] and crispy crunchy coals and lignites.<br /><br />The burning of such vast amounts of hydrocarbons from out of the ground has put us in danger of potentially overwhelming disaster: climate changes which threaten the agriculture we depend on for food, heating and acidification of the oceans which may destroy all the fish species we depend on for food. But we can do things differently. There is no need for us to continue being stupid. Being "stupid" means to continue doing something which has been shown to be intrinsically self-defeating. We DO NOT have to be so stupid. Each one of us is capable of changing, what it takes is exposure to true information presented in a format we understand by people we trust in a context we can relate to.Mark Peatyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09964128707828534283noreply@blogger.com0