Our Earth Climate—Going with the Flow or Shifting the Goalposts

YEAR 2015 BEAT HISTORICAL RECORDS

2015 hottest & most active on record. Can we take it? Or will we break it?

Last December’s climate conference in Paris set a goal—agreed on by the Earth’s most powerful mid-East, West and Southern nations—to hold our combined increase in the global average temperature to two degrees Centigrade (2ºC) /Celsius, or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit—above pre-industrial levels.

Now February 2016 has already reached world temperature limit, see below.

Climate-speak—no time for fairytale flowery language: do or die

If we continue at the rate we’ve been going, NASA’s climatology computer model shows dramatic swings happening in world temperature, volcanic activity, and rainfall—not in twenty years, but in two.

As the predicted temperatures rise, the same group of scientists admit that ‘model uncertainty’ grows: that means it becomes increasingly more likely that we will experience “unforeseen, often disastrous” events. Hurricane Katrina? Just a fond memory.

It’s doubtful we’ll hold the line at two degrees Centigrade, but we need to give it our best shot. With anything that exceeds that target, we’re talking about enormous changes in global precipitation and temperature patterns, huge impacts on water and food security, and significant sea level rise
NASA Goddard Climatologist P.Sellers

2015 hottest, wettest, & most active on record. Can we take it? Or will we break it? The Earth, that is.

Climate Summit—The Science View: We Submit—or Else

Reducing carbon dioxide emissions—”by 2050″ or a similar approximation is no longer acceptable. We are being asked to step up and be counted—to right some of the wrong we are/have been doing—and mend our ways.

Bite the Bullet or Die

We outgrew killing whales. Maybe now we can stop killing ancient redwood groves

‘I believe future generations will look back on 2015 as an important but not decisive year in the struggle to align politics and policy, with science. This is an incredibly hard thing to do. On the science side, there has been a steady accumulation of evidence over 15 years, that climate change is real’
Piers Sellers, NASA physicist/climatologist 1/17/16

Upper limit 2ºC or 3.6ºF

Piers is convinced that if we continue unabated on this trajectory—i.e. make promises and do nothing—we could lead ourselves into a very uncomfortable, even dangerous, place.

Climate Ceiling Reached
The hottest on record is no joke in NASA and NOAA kingdoms. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration at Goddard and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration take their newest computer science statistics seriously.

Tropospheric-stratospheric effects, exaggerated in El Niño years, produce increasing warm/wet summers

In perfect (space) timing, January 17th was launch date for Jason-3, the Space people’s answer to their weather-prediction prayers.

For this beauty*, NASA and NOAA cooperated with the French space agency to get their baby strategically placed in orbit—understandably—to monitor North American shores—impacting both Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Their data will also serve wider world systems on other shores.

Jason-3 adds to a twenty-three-year satellite monitoring of global sea surface maximum height levels—a measurement with scientific, commercial and practical applications related to climate change.
It is essentially a record of world currents and weather. Jason-3 data will be used for monitoring global sea level rise, researching human impacts on oceans, aiding prediction of hurricane intensity, and has marine navigation capability.

Its initial 2016 mission—is planned to last a minimum of three years.

*Sadly the Falcon-9 rocket, planned after re-entry to be recycled in the best Space Shuttle tradition, failed to land on its target—an unmanned platform in the Pacific—exploded and destroyed the platform. Oh well, another $1million down the tubes. Back to the drawing board for Vandenberg air base buffs.

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch…

After Trinity National Forest fires devastated half a county, natural regrowth has been encouraged

What can we back on Earth do?

Instead of multiple repetitive wars among ourselves, it’s been suggested we combine our intelligence for a war on emissions.

Early 2016 has been a hard year for Earth-First proponents, particularly in the Pacific NorthWest where the lungs of the planet—the Giant Redwoods, Bristlecone Pine and Douglas Fir—reside. This ‘carbon storage unit’ of age-old trees has been functioning well until quite recently. Then some of the lumber companies—instead of respecting the tradition of replant, restore, regenerate—succumbed to the old dollar bribe:
success in any industry, it seems, is measured by the bottom line of the balance sheet.

Local so-called environmentally-friendly forestry interests—some calling themselves ‘Resource’ companies—have, over a generation, acquired tens of thousands of acres of ancient trees illegally from original California settlers, and are systematically felling them in the name of ‘harvest’.

CLEAR-FELLING OUR WAY TO OBLIVION

Pictish Calgacus leads 30,000 Caledonians into battle with Romans at Mons Graupius, modern Aberdeenshire, AD83, where 10,000 Caledonians died

The Caledonian Forest in Scotland is a prime example of successive raiders, decimating or razing to the ground every living thing—in the name of war—or progress. Sadly, while we may have learned how, we seem unable to implement our new knowledge: that wildlife—especially tree forms—maintain a balance which we humans have difficulty grasping: that our life on Earth would be a devastation—a vast wilderness—if we were to continue, to run amok, clear-felling our way to oblivion.

It happened to the precursor of the Sahara Desert. Now Namibia. And it’s occurring all over Brazil. More shocking, it’s happening in our own backyard—in the midst of the most-politically-correct university community in North America. And we seem blind to the signs, the gradual erosion of what was once a flourishing planetary breathing system—healthy ancient trees.

Our attitude to forests—their vibrancy, and consequently our own continuing existence—seems faulty.

In Europe during both world wars, all participating countries felled trees to build with, and to burn—as part of the ‘war effort’.

France decimated the Alsace region and felled throughout the Loire valley, regardless of ‘aspect’—the term used in gardens of great houses, when meshing planting with a pleasant view. In Germany—while many southern forests were left untouched—e.g. Schwarzwald, Poland, Eastern bloc, northern trees suffered in an endless drive for more war fuel.

Hill of Barra, Aberdeenshire, showing rear route taken by Bruce’s troops to quell local Comyn opposition, 1308

Scotland suffered heavily. Deterred from obliterating millennium-old giant yews in their own home counties, the English pounced on (what was left of) the Caledonian Forest in Aberdeenshire, Kincardine and Forfar, and finished off what raiders had begun centuries before.

Most ‘recently’, Robert the Bruce, self-crowned king of Scots, began his march a.k.a. tree-burning at the Battle of Barra, 1308, in central Aberdeenshire and burned his army’s route thirty miles to the North Coast. The Caledonian forest—pine in particular—never recovered.

The Caledonian Forest had only just revived after Roman burning!

North Britain Conquest and Retreat

Regenerating the Caledonian Forest—author with Tacitus’ Mons Graupius in background

In November of AD83, as winter began its icy grip, Roman general Agricola pushed for one more battle in North Britain, before retiring to the comfort of Rome. It is said he took the Caledonians by surprise, but it is more likely Roman foot soldiers had more leverage on steep mountain terrain than the antiquated wooden chariots of the Picts. Rallied by the piercing cry of their battle-horn, the fearsome gold boar-headed carnyx, thirty thousand Caledonians gathered on the slopes of Bennachie. Ten thousand bodies were left dead after the battle.

In plain below Bennachie-Mons Graupius, 5thC Pictish Picardy Stone shows Caledonian lineage

Solitudinem faciunt Pacem appellant
They create a Wilderness and call it Peace—Calgacus exhorting his Caledonian tribes to battle at Mons Graupius

Tacitus could not possibly have known what Calgacus said to his troops before the battle of Mons Graupius—GRAMPIAN mountain range in Aberdeenshire—even the Chieftain’s name fails to appear in any Kinglist. Yet this one particular phrase from his speech has a genuine feel about it, as if Tacitus had heard it himself from the lips of captured Pictish warriors, and was moved to write it down. Publius Cornelius Tacitus’s job on the march was that of recording the exploits of his father-in-law, Gnaeus Julius Agricola (AD40-93), on the British campaign. They returned to Rome long before the snows took hold, leaving devastation behind.

Heartland of the Caledonian Forest—Aberdeenshire—was historically hit hardest. Unlike Westcoast Scotland, soil and climate here are receptive, rich and varied. The balmy Gulf Stream circles the Orkneys and Ultima Thule and then streams towards these ‘lowland’ hills, bringing balanced seasons to an already rich environment.

Climate, soil and people are more fertile/kindly than in rocky west coast ravines. Caledonian Scots pine, pinus sylvestris thrives. So does farming.

19thC tree-felling was kinder on California Redwoods, leaving more natural gaps for regeneration

When the Romans burned their way north, they were looking for gold. They found rebellious tribes and left them for dead, along with their forests. Robert the Bruce, in the summers of 1308-1310, burned the hunting (pine) forests of his rival for the throne, Comyn Earl of Buchan, and left nothing behind.

Two world wars finished off what was left of minimal remaining Caledonian pine stands.

Now, centuries on, Scotland’s Forestry Commission helps smallholders and landowners to replant oases of indigenous forest—pine, birch, oak and hazel—with maintenance grants to keep them sheep-and-deer-free—not an easy task in what are now (2000 years later) rich agricultural rolling meadows.
Other private agencies—like Trees for Life Scotland—have initiated their own planting programs, restoring pine, birch and aspen in deer-free ‘exclosures’, to encourage regeneration of natural understorey. Pine marten, snowy owl, crossbill, goldfinch and crested tit have all returned to such reclaimed woodland.

Biomass—Use or Abuse of Alternative Fuel

Trinidad Pier in whaler days, now a Northern Humboldt fishing village and resort

Controversially, Humboldt State University—seen by many academic institutions as a forerunner of enlightened attitude to use of technology within the natural environment—has mistakenly taken up the cudgel of biomass—as a back-door entry into the thorny climate problem. Unfortunately, their research has not been completely transparent and investigation reveals ‘substantial’ funding from forestry interests which are not impartial to the outcome of the University’s plan.

Biomass, seen as waste from a single campfire, may be relatively harmless to our atmosphere. Big business biomass, however—the University declares it will run its whole energy program on biomass fuel, instead of conventional statewide power sources—comprises woodland waste: milling detritus, forest-floor leftovers, mixed in a suitably nice cocktail of machine oil, sawdust sweepings, with an occasional drop of diesel—to go.

Local Earth-First activist group Climate Crisis Humboldt spoke in forum last week with HSU Senate, suggesting they reconsider their plan, and deliberation is underway within the hallowed halls.

The Humboldt climate group’s cry has not gone unheard. They are supported by European and international interests, embodied in Friends of the Earth, who are pushing for cancellation from the (higher—U.S.) Senate!

There is hope—if the state’s most northern university changes, the rest of California’s campuses will follow their lead. There is already considerable antipathy in the county towards the underhanded way in which funding from a local forestry giant has been offered as bait.
After it was pointed out to them that more carbon is stored by older/larger trees, than by acres of smaller young saplings, the company’s tree-felling operations have been temporarily halted by popular demand.

Global Temperatures Already Rising

Now statistics for February 2016 already show a marked upward trend, with unprecedented temperatures in both hemispheres.

February 2016 global temperatures already reached top limit

As March brings spring growth, the climate question will come up again and again. Earth Day—April 20th—celebrating John Muir‘s birthday and his “wilderness America”—is targeted by tree sitters, EarthFirsters and volunteer forest guardians in Pacific NorthWest, in their march for the trees.

Earth Mother is indeed listening to our cries this spring. And if we choose to mend our ways, she might even forgive us and bring back her beauty—or her Beast.

It’s our choice. Our future.
©2016 Siderealview

Magnificence of the Three-Six-Nine and Timing of the Eschaton

The Transcendental Object at the End of Time

Kahauale'a: seismicity and solar flares = son et lumière

If you only knew the magnificence of the 3, 6 and 9, then you would have the key to the Universe
Nikola Tesla Никола Тесла; Serbian American electrical/mechanical engineer and inventor (1856–1943)

Nikola Tesla's Tower: he invented the Tesla coil in 1891--still in use 120 years later in radio, tv and electronics

“(I have conceived) a means…for man to transmit energy in large amounts, thousands of horsepower, from one planet to another, absolutely regardless of distance. Nothing can be more important than interplanetary communication.”

“My flying machine will have neither wings nor propellers. You might see it on the ground and you would never guess that it was a flying machine. Yet it will be able to move at will through the air in any direction with perfect safety, higher speeds than have yet been reached, regardless of weather and oblivious of ‘holes in the air’ or downward currents. It will ascend in such currents if desired.”
Nikola Tesla on his self-energizing craft

“Many recent crop circles presaging mathematical/symbolic resonance/code have appeared near transmitters/antennae. Tesla was fascinated by the ‘attraction’ antennae/lightning rods held for lightning.

History–the Shockwave that precedes the Eschaton
McKenna said: “Nothing is unannounced. If you are paying attention, stuff comes down the pike. First a little wave, then a medium wave, then the tsunami.

“This is what it’s like when an entire species prepares to move on to the next dimension” Terence McKenna, speaking in 1999.

‘We are in the shadow of this transcendental object at the End of Time; we are all gathered here at the endgame of processes–we are about to become unrecognizable.’
Terence McKenna on Omega Point or Eschaton

He calls Eschtology the ‘study of that Last Thing’; the Thing we are still unraveling: that ‘concrescence of becoming’. Just as Carl Sagan released his belief systems towards the end of his life, McKenna had doubts. He didn’t want to die; at one time he believed death might be overcome.

He tended towards Eastern thought, (*influenced by Teilhard de Chardin, a Jesuit monk); his viewpoint was suffused with mystical theology of Eastern orthodox Christianity which is teleological, Eschatological and Universalist.
He did believe that the Universe has purpose towards hyper-complexification, or advanced organization. He predicted it would occur faster and faster. “In this state there is an illusion which makes it appear as if Nature is tending towards something–towards caring.”

“We are on the brink of understanding between Western space-time-matter and the energy dynamic, where an event is NOT pushed from behind, but attracted by something ahead. The Universe is under the sway of the Transcendental Object at the End of Time. All Nature aspires to this state of perfect Novelty. Nature abhors habit; so it produces Novelty at every level.”

According to the traditional view, provided in the last 200 years by Science, we live in a ‘very ordinary galaxy in a very ordinary Universe’. But, if drawn by the Attractor, we (human beings) suddenly return to center stage, become important in the Scheme of Things, because we are presently the most novel species on the planet–evolving most rapidly–as part of the Cosmos’s own tendency towards higher order. ‘More than that, we are the carriers,’ says Terence.

Most novel development since sliced bread

Symbiosis: Man + Machine = Superconsciousness

Today, as we draw ever closer to that transcendental object at the end of time, TOATEOT, Humanity represents the cutting edge of complexity. The whole process is one of moving towards complexification, his Novelty; our Fusion as one Consciousness; the Omega Point.

When Omega arrives, Humanity will have reached the finite limit of the capacity of the body. It is then, McKenna predicted, we will “‘make it with machines’!: These machines are time compressors; they give us a false sense of eternity.”

He predicted Consciousness and Language would be the keys.

Our entire civilization cannot move a marble at the speed of light, but we can move information at the speed of light…
Terence McKenna on the human-machine symbiosis

Donna Haraway, "A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century," in Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature (New York; Routledge, 1991)

How could he know, thirteen years down the line from that prediction, that today we would be knee-deep in our umbilical connection to the Universe via the Internet? We are capable of holding three conversations at once, share omnipresent exclamations of momentary excitement, the discovery of a new spring flower: daily affirmations of our connection. We check out fifty blogs while the washing machine churns and still find time to email parents-child-friend. Last week I was invited to (and spent the evening at) a Blog Party.

There was absolutely no difference in my mind between attending the party in the ethers and one in person in the real world, except for the lack of champagne slipping down my throat. Brain synapses registered the same: maybe an even higher sense of ‘anticipation’ because some of our new Internet friends we’ve known for such a short time. We are only just getting the hang of this symbiotic wo/man-machine relationship; but it’s fun. Isn’t it? As Terence said, in coming together, we are becoming one Consciousness.

McKenna knew this time would come because he was tuned in–through shamanic conviction–to that experiential-knowing of our deep connection through our bodies to Nature to Earth-Solarsystem-Galaxy arm-Universe.

Immanentizing the Eschaton*

Grateful Dead at Winterland, 1973;
album cover art, courtesy Emek

You can’t go back and you can’t stand still
If the thunder don’t get you then the lightning will
Grateful Dead

“We now hold a catalyst for the human imagination of sufficient power that if we use it, we can deconstruct the lethal vehicle that is carrying us toward the brink of the apocalypse. And we can redesign it into a kind of starship that will carry us and our children out into the broad star galaxy we know to be awaiting us. But it’s a cultural test Nature is giving us. Intelligence is a grand experiment, upon which a great deal depends… and if it proves inadequate, Nature will cover it over with the same kind of cool impunity as she covered the dinosaurs, the trilobites…”

As McKenna’s own death drew near, his compassion for his fellow Man surfaced as the closest he ever came to faith in Universal Intelligence.

Glimpses into that Mind brought him into close alignment with Tesla’s own wonder of the Universe–and Number (top). The “magnificence of the 3-6-9” is the Phi spiral which entwines through everything. Both Tesla and McKenna spoke of the marvel of the Fibonacci sequence [3, 6, 9, 15, 24, 39…] and the stunning fractal it reproduces in Nature: from the Julia Set, Mandelbrot kidney-shape and the spiral of growth in plants, to the way galaxies spin in whorls and spirals: each according to an ever-expanding sequence of numbers–Nature’s fondness for one-third and two-thirds–themselves fractals of a greater whole.

The 'Julia Set' cropcircle appeared at teatime July 7th, 1996 next to Stonehenge, to the amazement of visitors. Even their trails have Fibonacci beauty

“We wonder why numbers–the product of the human mind–are so incredibly powerful for the description of Nature? Numbers arise in the depths of human restless emotion. What the relationship is of these things to each other is a deep mystery–the most difficult question for philosophy; one not even asked until 20thC–but it indicated a fundamental congruence of processes which are mental and at the same time relate to the world of Nature itself.

Phi spiral form in Fractal Mathematics

“I am an inventor/purveyor of a mathematical theory of Consciousness. I believe that, more powerful than any atom smasher or subtle than any space telescope, is the human mind. The human mind is the most subtle and superb of all instruments for the study and measurement of Nature.

“When we look into ourselves, we discover the same process that we discover in the birth and death of a species, flow of a river, collapse of a corporation or flowering of a love affair. Somehow this process is under the aegis of some sort of universal equation or description, so it doesn’t matter if it’s the birth or death of your hope, or the evolution of the Pacific Ocean. Processes always occur in the same way. Therefore congruence between the mental world of human beings, the abstract world of mathematics and the world of Nature–it’s the same Universal Stuff. This is why the concept of ‘truth’ can have some meaning.” Terence McKenna

...or we could, like the playful dolphin, keep up the game in the hopes that the Universe, in the form of a helpful humpback, might surface and give us the ultimate ride...

His predictions reflected his beliefs: that the human race is facing a dilemma: remain fixed in the plane of matter–or take off and find we have wings. He thought the amphibians must have had similar thoughts ‘…should we go up there and breathe the atmosphere… can we make it?’ Unlike the amphibians, we are breaking from the plane of matter; hurtling towards the Attractor at breakneck speed. The process is now in place, so that we must totally rewrite the script. No-one knows what will happen in the next 100 years, let alone in the next 100 days.

We are becoming a Community of Mind. But, ultimately, the only person in there is you.

‘You can argue, discuss and scientifically examine all you like, but it comes down to the same thing: Nobody understands what is happening. Not Buddhists, not Christians, not Government scientists, not anyone you know. So forget ideologies. They betray, they limit, they lead astray. Just deal with the raw data and TRUST YOURSELF. Liberate yourself from the Illusion of Culture. Take responsibility for what you think and what you do.’

We are about to make some new kind of leap. Before you enter the zone, you are an animal; after you leave the zone, you are a god. In the zone you are a schizophrenic and there’s a fire in the Madhouse at the End of Time. TMcK

The sweet pea Deva was first to explain to Dorothy Maclean the involvement of the Nature kingdom in human affairs

In the expanded New Age version, based originally on Eastern Orthodox ideas of Eternity–but quantized to fit with parallel universes, relativity of time and space, and the effects encountered in dreamtime and out-of-body experiences–the Eschaton, the ‘last thing’ has already happened. In *eternity/no-time everything already is, was and will be. So we can theoretically, from our position within (enclosed) time, already access the Eschaton in certain states of awareness. Also, we can choose to live as though continuing in such an awareness. In McKenna’s credo, it is extremely important to persevere: to live that belief, once experienced.

Both McKenna and Tesla were steeped in Nature: Tesla invented means to draw free energy from a naturally-occurring waveform attracting lightning to the earth; McKenna lived the last years of his life surrounded by his beloved wild Hawaiian forest, in his committed belief that Nature speaks, if one but listens.

Findhorn Foundation , a 50-year old Intentional Community in NE Scotland, was created around a Group Mind calling itself the Devas/Nature Kingdom. Dorothy Maclean, 92, the last of the community founders, continues to teach/write and spread Nature’s spiritual message widely. In her long life she has dedicated herself to sharing that vast store of knowledge imparted by the plant kingdom. She started small: the Deva of the Sweet Pea was first to speak to her. Still others have written/spoken of the wisdom given by Nature Spirits.

Virgin coast redwoods, sequoia sempervirens: Humboldt Co Freshwater Reserve, saved from clear-felling by Julia's treesit in Luna

Julia Butterfly-Hill–treesitter par-excellence–who almost singlehandedly saved swathes of virgin Redwood forest (Freshwater, CA, early 1990s), says her Sequoia host, Luna, whispered to her–mostly at night.

Several indigenous cultures, followers of the back-to-the-Earth movement–of which Ms Maclean and thousands of surviving Baby Boomers are a part–along with an upsurge in much younger Green/Alternative communities–advocate returning to ancestral ways of living in harmony with our surroundings; that we need to return to a state of reverence and respect for the Earth. Kiesha Crowther, Nassim Haramein and Drunvalo Melchizedek foresee mass exodus from cities and towns, should ‘earth changes’ become the norm.

McKenna would see our present earth-battering by solar flares (M-class flares yesterday, X-class flares today, see NOAA index, sidebar right) as yet another sign of the approaching Eschaton. I think he would again offer his previous advice: to take responsibility for how we think and what we do.

And may we have faith that the Universal Mind–manifesting as our Supreme Intelligence and Oversoul–and having our best interests at heart, will lead us with a kindly hand.
©2012 Siderealview

*There is no time at the End of Time because time is ‘restored’ in its fullness…every moment, every experience in all possible worlds/dimensions becomes eternal at the end of time. Not only what happened but what might have happened (or will happen), so it is essentially infinite. Nothing is lost.

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