Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Can you live without oxygen? - Atmospheric Oxygen Depletion

If global warming doesn't make you ponder our children's future, ATMOSPHERIC OXYGEN DEPLETION should. And it is already happening.

When the Earth was formed 4.6 billion years ago, there was no oxygen in the atmosphere. The oxygen in the atmosphere today was emitted by plants - phytoplankton and sea weeds in the ocean, and trees, shrubs and grass on land, through the eons. Plants, through photosynthesis, absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) and emit oxygen (O2), so the animals can live. Eliminate the plants in the ocean and on land, and the animals, both marine and terrestrial, will suffocate.



Next, any kind of burning consumes oxygen from the atmosphere and emits CO2 into the atmosphere. In fact, every 1 unit of CO2 increase is accompanied by 2-4 units of O2 decrease.



We don't need an Einstein to figure out that if we keep on burning fossil fuels, and cut/burn down forests, and acidify the ocean impacting on the phytoplankton, not only do we cause global warming, we deplete oxygen from the atmosphere, as well as the sources (plants) that can regenerate it. The result is the steady decline in the atmospheric oxygen concentration in the last 20 years when O2 concentration was globally monitored.



The pre-industrial oxygen concentration in the atmosphere was about 21%. Today, some places register as low as 16%. Reportedly, some enclaves of high human population and concentration, especially in large and technologized cities, have scored as low as 7% (?), e.g. parts of Tokyo and some cities in India. According to OSHA rules on atmospheres in closed environments, "if the oxygen level falls below 19.5% it is oxygen deficient, putting occupants of the confined space at risk of losing consciousness and death."

Symptoms of sea-level oxygen deprivation is similar to those of altitude sickness - include shortness of breath, headache and nausea.

Read more: http://blogcritics.org/scitech/article/atmospheric-oxygen-levels-fall-as-carbon/page-2/#ixzz1kPnIFklN



As late as 2007, we expected a 2.0 degree C (3.2 degrees F) global temperature rise by century's end. Now, we have revised it to 6-7 degrees C (9.6-10.4 degrees F) by 2100, and 4.0C/6.4F rise by 2060. 4.0C/6.4F is the die-off threshold of oceanic phytoplankton which currently regenerates 50% of the planet's oxygen, and the shut-down threshold of most land plants.

Of course the current generations won't suffocate immediately, but continue with our present oil/coal-burning trajectory and our children's children and the animals will have a hard time just to catch a breath.

Don't we even care?


Anthony Marr, Founder and President
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Global Anti-Hunting Coalition (GAHC)
Anthony-Marr@HOPE-CARE.org
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.facebook.com/Anthony.Marr.001
www.facebook.com/Global_Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.facebook.com/AnthonyMarr13
www.youtube.com/AnthonyMarr
www.HomoSapiensSaveYourEarth.blogspot.com
www.DearHomoSapiens.blogspot.com
www.HOPE-GEO.blogspot.com
www.ARConference.org

Monday, January 23, 2012

Can you live without oxygen? - Atmospheric Oxygen Depletion

If global warming due to rising atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations does not make you ponder our children's future, lowering atmospheric oxygen (O2) concentration should.

When the Earth was formed 4.6 billion years ago, there was no oxygen in the atmosphere. The oxygen in the atmosphere today was emitted by plants - phytoplankton and sea weeds in the ocean, and trees, shrubs and grass on land, through the eons. Plants, through photosynthesis, absorb CO2 and emit O2, so the animals can live. Eliminate the plants in the ocean or on land, and the animals, both marine and terrestrial, will suffocate.


Next, any kind of burning consumes oxygen (O2) and emits CO2 into the atmosphere. In fact, every 1 unit of CO2 increase is accompanied by 2-4 units of O2 decline.


We don't need an Einstein to figure out that if we keep on burning fossil fuels, and cut/burn down forests, and acidify the ocean impacting on the phytoplankton, not only do we cause global warming, we remove oxygen from the atmosphere.


The pre-industrial oxygen concentration in the atmosphere was about 21%. Today, some places measured register as low as 16%. Reportedly, some enclaves of high human population and concentration, especially in large and technologized cities have scored as low as 7% (?), e.g. parts of Tokyo and some cities in India. Symptoms of sea-level oxygen deprivation is similar to altitude sickness - include shortness of breath, headache and nausea.



As late as 2007, we expected a 2.0 degree C (3.2 degrees F) global temperature rise by century's end. Now, we have revised it to 6-7 degrees C (9.6-10.4 degrees F) by 2100, and 4.0C/6.4F rise by 2060. 4.0C/6.4F is the die-off threshold of oceanic phytoplankton which currently regenerates 50% of the planet's oxygen, and the shut-down threshold of most land plants.

Of course the current generations have no chance of being suffocated, but continue with our present trajectory, and our children's children and the animals will have a hard time breathing.

Don't we even care?


Anthony Marr, Founder and President
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Global Anti-Hunting Coalition (GAHC)
Anthony-Marr@HOPE-CARE.org
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.facebook.com/Anthony.Marr.001
www.facebook.com/Global_Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.myspace.com/AnthonyMarr
www.youtube.com/AnthonyMarr
www.HomoSapiensSaveYourEarth.blogspot.com
www.DearHomoSapiens.blogspot.com
www.HOPE-GEO.blogspot.com
www.ARConference.org

Friday, January 20, 2012

Chinese Activists rescue 1500 dogs - with help from police!


First of all, please read the blog in this link
http://drstevebest.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/truck-with-1500-dogs-bound-for-chinese-restaurants-intercepted-by-liberators/#comments
which depicts Chinese activists rescuing a truck load of 1500 dogs meant for the meat market in China. More encouraging still is that the police assisted them in the rescue. Following is my comment on this blog.


I’m a Chinese Canadian ARA and a vegan, and am as appalled as anyone else, and ashamed. Were I in China, I would be among those doing the rescue, especially since it happened in Guang Dong, the province of my birth, the worst province indulging in this atrocity. I want the Chinese ARAs to know that I am holding the Western fort for them, and letting the world know of their heroic deeds, and inciting people in their support.

This policeman is actually feeding a dog

About the assistance by police, my first thought was: Try rescuing a truckful of chickens or pigs here in Canada or the USA and see what the police would do. Right now, China is lawless on this issue, so it is anyone’s call on the spot, so I also commend the police for choosing to cooperate with the ARAs rather than what I might have expected – to arrest them. China is right now working on a new animal-protection legislation, but it won’t come to light till 2013. So, right now, it is like the Wild West, and the “sheriff” just happens to side with the “outlaws”.

Reported here is by no means an isolated incident. These highway rescues have been happening in various part of the country over the last few years.

Chinese demo

Not just highway rescues, but large demos. Anyone looking at China before, say, 2008 would see a very different picture. Go to [Hand in Hand with Asia's Animal Activists] and you will get an eyeful of the new Chinese activism. I ask all to join in their support, instead of the same old same old Chinese-bashing, from verbal extremes of “I HATE the Chinese!”, “All Chinese are evil!”, and “Let’s go kill a Chink!” to physical street level beating (need I post a video of a Chinese kid being beaten up by a bunch of white thugs in Chicago?). All who have made such comments (not in this thread) should be mindful that they are including the Chinese ARAs themselves in this abuse, myself included, and my family, my Chinese friends and colleagues, NONE OF WHOM has ever eaten cats or dogs, much less skinned one alive. Such widely accepted racism is currently running rampant in a movement supposedly based on anti-Speciesism (what is wrong with this picture?), and no authority in the movement has stood up (other than Dr. Best here) to address this issue. The severity of the language reminds me of what was directed at the Jews of Europe in the 1930s. By the same token, I am seriously concerned about the possibility of a Chinese holocaust in the not too distant future which could rival or even surpass the Jewish one in the 1940s.


Having lived in the Western world since 1965, I have seen numerous cruel and evil acts against animals, from factory farms to “sport” hunting to bow-hunting to the Canadian seal hunt to the Bayou alligator slaughter to Western fur farms...


... to leg-hold trapping to rodeo to animal circuses to animal experimentation and vivisection to tearing the heads of turtles off with the contestants’ bare hands in some “Snapping Turtle Fest” in homeland America (need I post a video of this so that the people of other cultures could likewise over-generalize that all Americans are cruel and evil?)… I’ve found often that the finger pointers are often “far sighted”, who can see what goes on in a back alley in China, but blind to what goes on in their own backyard.


The big difference is that these atrocities in the West are often well hidden whereas those in China are wide in the open. This cruelty-concealment is done in a big way by GOVERNMENT – witness the [Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act] which makes taking behind-the-scenes pictures and videos of factory farms and circuses and rodeos and research labs a federal crime punishable by jail time. This amounts to deception on top of cruelty, and I ask American finger-pointers to please take a look at their own culture. Their culture says, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”, “Remove the beam in your eye before worrying about the mote in others’.”, down to “Before you accuse me, take a look at yourself” by Eric Clapton.


The big Chinese crime is against cats and dogs, and I join in the condemnation, since I love cats and dogs and have served as guardian for a few of them in my own home. But many of the very same condemners eat meat and use animal products. To put things in some perspective, the number of dogs eaten in ALL OF ASIA amounts to about 16 million, cats about 4 million, with China’s share about 50%, or 8 million dogs and 2 millions cats, and that is in a population of 1300 million, whereas in the U.S.,with a population of only 300 million, the number of chickens killed per year amounts to some 870 million (not to mention the condition they have to “live” in, which is no better than that of the dogs-in-cages shown here), turkeys 240 million, pigs 113 million, cows 33 million, whitetail deer 10 million…

NOT in China

NOT in China

NOT in China

NOT in China

NOT in China

All for THIS?

Some still argue that dogs are intelligent and should not be eaten, in which case they should know that pigs are deemed more intelligent than dogs.

NOT in China (Smithfield, North Carolina)

In closing, unless one is a vegan, one has no moral authority to criticise any culture for animal abuse.

Chinese man caring for 140 rescued dogs in his home


Anthony Marr, Founder and President
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Global Anti-Hunting Coalition (GAHC)
Anthony-Marr@HOPE-CARE.org
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.facebook.com/Anthony.Marr.001
www.facebook.com/Global_Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.myspace.com/AnthonyMarr
www.youtube.com/AnthonyMarr
www.HomoSapiensSaveYourEarth.blogspot.com
www.DearHomoSapiens.blogspot.com
www.HOPE-GEO.blogspot.com
www.ARConference.org

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

10 damning facts about American-style hunting



This is in response to an American hunter defending her own first hand deer-killing while condemning other cultures for their offenses.

First, no ifs and buts, America is the hunting capital of the world. American hunters, numbering about 15 million, kill upwards of 10 million whitetail deer every year, plus deer of other species, plus bears, moose, elk... plus millions of duck and geese and pigeons, plus, going to Africa to hunt elephants, lions, rhinos, leopards, buffalo (the "Big 5"), some even boasting of killing elephants and critically endangered rhinos with arrows, plus coming to Canada to hunt "Big Game", e.g. Grizzly bears, Big Horn sheep... (The Chinese people do NONE of this.)


Second, I commend you for speaking out as a 16 yo. When I was 16, all I wanted to do was to play soccer. And I also respect you for your love for cats and dogs. But you are inaccurate to say that Americans do not eat dogs. Two of your national heroes, Merywether Lewis and William Clark, ate dogs regularly on their expedition.

Third, About your claim that deer "reproduce 10 times faster than humans", again it is a fallacy. I am the head of the Global Anti- Hunting Coalition and invite you to go there to take a good look at what American hunting is all about. I have dealt with hunting issues since 1996, especially whitetail deer hunting in America. First, American hunters kill upwards of 10 million whitetail deer, mostly for "sport" and trophy, but always trying to justify killing for fun as killing for food, although I have never seen any hunter leaving a trophy rack behind.

Fourth, about a deer's reproductive rate, it varies with the amount of food available. When food is in short supply, the deer have no fawns or singletons at most. When food is in plentiful supply, deer have twins and triplets. So, controlling deer's population by culling simply does not work, and is no more than a public-fooling tactic to gain public acceptance and support while indulging in their cruelty. By cutting down the population of deer by 50%, you increase the food per remaining deer by 200%, thus boosting the deer's reproductive rate. Hunters know this, and use this to perpetrate their atrocity especially in urban areas, the domain of the bow-hunters. Every year, they force their way into urban areas, claim deer overpopulation, kill off 50% or more of the deer, the deer rebound (called the Compensatory Rebound Effect), and the hunters come in the next year, claiming deer overpopulation, again. This alone shows that deer population "control" by hunting only serves to increase the deer population for hunting purposes.


Fifth, as with cats and dogs, there is a well established and well tested technology called ImmunoContraception (IC) already approved by both the FDA and the EPA, which can control deer population without killing them, but of course this would displace hunting-culling as a population control mechanism. And since all American governments on all levels are run by hunters or those politicians bought by hunting lobby, of course the use of IC has been all but banned.

Sixth, since you object to cat/cat killing, first look in your own country. Bow-hunters have been clamoring for bow-hunting stray cats and dog in urban areas. See my blog: [Why cat-dog lovers should support anti-hunting] - http://​homosapienssaveyourearth.blogsp​ot.com/2012/01/​30-reasons-why-catdog-lovers-sh​ould.html

Seventh, where do you think the hunters get their 10 million extra deer to hunt every year from? Again they use the principle that the more deer food, the more deer. So they plant "food plots" of rich deer food like deer clover and rape (google) all over the country to max out the deer population - for hunting purposes - then blame the deer for causing traffic accidents. They even claim ecological damage by deer in certain urban parks (e.g. the Trexler Nature Preserve in Allentown PA - google "Anthony Marr Trexler"), and when you go into the park (which I did), what you see is acres of forest ploughed down, with rape and deer clover food-plots planted in its place. Of course innocent people like you swallow it line, hook and sinker, and not only support deer hunting, but participate in it.


Eighth, It never ceases to amaze me how people who seem to love animals so much and condemn other cultures for eating certain animals, would have no problem personally shooting an arrow into a beautiful deer in their own backyard.

Ninth, by the way, the huntersd know that by boosting the deer population by 10-20 million per year for hunting purposes, they would increase the number of human fatalities on highways due to deer-vehicle collisions. This has proven consistent year after year that an extra 100 or so human deaths would result. And, I repeat, the hunters know about this stat, but they do the food-plot thing anyway to satisfy their blood-lust. I call this pre-meditated mass murder or even terrorism. I hope you don't become one of the victims, but if you support this practice, and get hurt or killed on the highway, you have no one else to blame but yourself.

Tenth, one more thing about American hunting, and that is the very popular bow-hunting. The non-lethal wounding rate of bow-hunting is about 50%, meaning that of every 100 deer shot by arrows, 50 stagger around for days, weeks, even months, with one or more arrows stuck in non-vital parts of their bodies. (See cover pic and bottom pic showing deer with arrow stuck in heads, in the former case the eye.) And this is not horrendous cruelty?



Anthony Marr, Founder and President
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Global Anti-Hunting Coalition (GAHC)
Anthony-Marr@HOPE-CARE.org
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.facebook.com/Anthony.Marr.001
www.facebook.com/Global_Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.myspace.com/AnthonyMarr
www.youtube.com/AnthonyMarr
www.HomoSapiensSaveYourEarth.blogspot.com
www.DearHomoSapiens.blogspot.com
www.HOPE-GEO.blogspot.com
www.ARConference.org

Sunday, January 15, 2012

How vegan are you?



Many a time over the years have I been questioned on my veganism and activism. Here is a typical conversation:

Q: Anthony, are you vegan?

A: The V on my bike stands for "Vegan", though also for "Victory".

Q: How vegan are you?

A: How do you quantify veganism?

Q: Are you 100% vegan?

A: I try to be, but safer to say 99%, since we could never be sure what products we use contain exactly what ingredients.

Q: 99%-vegan is not vegan at all.

A: You have the right to consider me whatever you want.

Q: You say you try to be 100% vegan. How hard do you try?

A: Well, I see some 99%-vegans spending 99% of their energy making sure they get the final 1%, and other-99% vegans spending 99% of their energy in activism for the animals and the environment. I prefer the latter kind.

Q: I hear that you used to ride horses.

A: I still do, whenever I get a chance.

Q: I'm sure the horse hates being ridden.

A: He knows the sound of my car. Every time I go to the stable, he'd come gallop across the pasture to greet me, and I never ever bring apples or carrots. What I do bring is love.

Q: So you put a bridle on him and make him go where you want him to go. This violates AR principles.

A: Really? What principle is that?

Q: To not dominate another species.

A: And you don't?

Q: Of course not!

A: How often do you walk your dog?

Q: What's this got to do with anything?"

A: How often?

Q: Twice a day.

A: Do you let him run free?

Q: Of course not. I use a leash."

A: I rest my case.

Q: It is not the same.

A: Okay, tell me, how many wild animals live in your house? - Deer, bears, foxes, rats, field mice... how many?

Q: None.

A: So, how non-dominantly did you do it?

Q: Do what?

A: Evict these animals from this piece of land now occupied by your house, which used to be their home?

............. This refers to my backseat passenger, who is usually Shannon Wright.

Sorry, folks, for giving myself the last word, but, hey, this is my blog.


Anthony Marr, Founder and President
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Global Anti-Hunting Coalition (GAHC)
Anthony-Marr@HOPE-CARE.org
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.facebook.com/Anthony.Marr.001
www.facebook.com/Global_Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.myspace.com/AnthonyMarr
www.youtube.com/AnthonyMarr
www.HomoSapiensSaveYourEarth.blogspot.com
www.DearHomoSapiens.blogspot.com
www.HOPE-GEO.blogspot.com
www.ARConference.org

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Where did Cain's wife come from?



This morning I again ran into the brick wall of religious Fundamentalism, this time in the following quote from www.Bible-Knowledge.com: "As Christians we have to believe in the literal interpretation of the Bible."

My immediate response is: No, Christians do NOT have to. Having absorbed 5 years of Christian and biblical training in secondary school, I am familiar with the Christian doctrine, the history of the Church and Christianity itself. Of course the quote at once defines the writer as a Fundamentalist, not someone with whom not all Christians except those on the far right, nor I, would be philosophically aligned. But, very well, I will play by his rule for a moment, and see where such a literal approach will lead us, start with the account of creation in the Book of Genesis itself. Quote:

Genesis 1:25
"... And God made the beasts of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:26
"And God said, 'Let us make man in our image after our likeness: Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Genesis 1:27
"So God created man in his own image, and the image of God created him, male and female created he them.

Genesis 1:28
"And God blessed them and God said unto them, 'Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over every living thing that moveth upon the Earth...

Genesis 2:5
"And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth and there was not a man to till the ground.

Genesis 2:6
"But there went up a mist from the Earth and watered the whole face of the ground.

Genesis 2:7
"And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostril the breath of life: and man became a living soul...

Genesis 2:18
"And the Lord God said, 'It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet (sic) for him...

Genesis 2:21
"And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof.

Genesis 2:22
"And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman and brought her unto the man.

Genesis 2:23
"And Adam said, 'This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called 'Woman', because she was taken out of man.

Genesis 2:24
"Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh...

Genesis 4:1
"And Adam knew Eve, his wife: and she conceived and bear Cain, and said, 'I have gotten a man from the Lord.

Genesis 4:2
"And she again bear his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain a tiller of the ground.

Genesis 4:16
"And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the Land of Nod on the East of Eden.

Genesis 4:17
"And Cain knew his wife; and she conceived, and bear Enoch, and he builded a city, called the name of the city after the name of his son Enoch..."


Now, questions:

1. Why does a monotheistic god refer to itself in the plural "us" in Gen. 1:26?

2. What does "subdue the earth" mean?

3. Does the Christian Fundamentalist really believe that "the first woman" was made out of a rib of "the first man"?

4. If the Land of Nod lay beyond "the presence of the Lord", was "the Lord" then not omnipresent?

5. Did Adam and Eve have navels?

6. Where did Cain's wife come from?

I really want to know, because all Americans may be ruled by one such person after the November election.



Anthony Marr, Founder and President
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Global Anti-Hunting Coalition (GAHC)
Anthony-Marr@HOPE-CARE.org
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.facebook.com/Anthony.Marr.001
www.facebook.com/Global_Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.myspace.com/AnthonyMarr
www.youtube.com/AnthonyMarr
www.HomoSapiensSaveYourEarth.blogspot.com
www.DearHomoSapiens.blogspot.com
www.HOPE-GEO.blogspot.com
www.ARConference.org

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Behind Blue Eyes

At this time within the AR movement is a large Chinese-bashing subculture going on, which runs rampant, unmoderated and uncontrolled, mostly by the West against "the Chinese" for eating cats and dogs. This bashing often reaches crescendos of hatred rivalled only by the hatred against the Jews in the 1930s and 1940s. The purpose of this piece is to show how ludicrously and ridiculously illogical this subculture is.

First, a disclaimer: I am a vegan, i.e. I do not ingest any meat, dairy products or eggs. This said, I have the license to critique the eating of meat of any kind, be it the meat of cows, pigs, chickens, whales, dolphins, fish, deer, dogs or cat.

Since I do not eat meat, of course I object to the eating of cat meat and dog meat. But do I see the eating of cow meat and pig meat and chicken meat or deer meat to be any better? Absolutely not! Eating of any meat of any species by a species that has the choice to go vegan but by and large does not is morally wrong, regardless of culture, pure and simple.

I see it as the height of arrogance and hypocrisy for a culture over 95% of whose population eat beef, pork, chicken and deer to bash another culture less than 1% of whose population eat dogs or cats.

Here is the math:

In USA:
8.7 BILLION chickens
33.3 million cattle
246 million turkeys
2.2 million sheep and lambs
113.6 million hogs
and 10 million deer
are killed every year for meat.

In Asia:
16 million dogs
4 million cats
are killed for meat every year.

In China:
8 million dogs
2 million cats

We are talking 300 million Americans eating 10 BILLION chickens, cows, pigs and deer versus 1400 million Chinese eating 10 million cats and dogs.

We are talking about each American eating on average 33 animals (chickens, cows, pigs, deer) per year versus each Chinese eating 0.008 cats/dogs per year. And the former is bashing the latter for being evil.

Of course the Chinese also eat beef, pork and chicken, though no venison, but even factoring this in, it is far far less per capita that in the U.S.A. or Canada.

So, bash on, but be ashamed, very ashamed, and mark the saying, "Every time you point one finger, you point 3 at yourself."

http://youtu.be/0Ma-Oi6cYJw



Anthony Marr, Founder and President
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Global Anti-Hunting Coalition (GAHC)
Anthony-Marr@HOPE-CARE.org
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.facebook.com/Anthony.Marr.001
www.facebook.com/Global_Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.myspace.com/AnthonyMarr
www.youtube.com/AnthonyMarr
www.HomoSapiensSaveYourEarth.blogspot.com
www.DearHomoSapiens.blogspot.com
www.HOPE-GEO.blogspot.com
www.ARConference.org

"Baby Harp Seals being drowned, crushed amid melting ice" Nat. Geo.



As global warming progresses, the Arctic sea ice diminishes from year to year, and Harp seal pups are dying in progressively larger and larger numbers, within days, hours, even minutes of birth. Yet, while AFP ran an article titled ['Dramatic' loss of harp seals amid warming: study], the Global and Mail ran one titled [Newfoundland calls on Ottawa to fight for sealing industry].


Is our species so undignified and weak that we prove incapable of quitting voluntarily while we still can, and have to keep exploiting until being forced by Mother Nature herself to quit, when there will be no more seals?

And shame on Ottawa for protecting the sealers rather than the seals, while pushing the tar sands to the hilt, worsening global warming and hastening the demise of the Arctic sea ice, thus the polar bears and the seals.


This applies also to our addiction to oil. It is not the seals, not the oil, but our own lack of conscience, discipline and moral character.


CBC, Jan. 4, 2012 - Thinning sea ice killing seal pups, study says - Cover declining by up to 6% per decade, satellite images show
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2012/01/04/sci-harp-seals.html

Duke University, Jan. 5, 2012 - Seals on Thin Ice After 32 Years of Warming
http://www.nicholas.duke.edu/news/harp-seals-on-thin-ice-after-33-years-of-warming

National Geographic, Jan. 6, 2012 - Baby Harp Seals Being Drowned, Crushed Amid Melting Ice - Global warming is melting sea ice the pups need for survival.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/01/120106-harp-seals-global-warming-sea-ice-science-environment/


http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/05/a-short-childhood-for-seal-pups-on-thin-ice/

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/dramatic-loss-harp-seals-amid-warming-study-223418375.html




Anthony Marr, Founder and President
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Global Anti-Hunting Coalition (GAHC)
Anthony-Marr@HOPE-CARE.org
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.facebook.com/Anthony.Marr.001
www.facebook.com/Global_Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.myspace.com/AnthonyMarr
www.youtube.com/AnthonyMarr
www.HomoSapiensSaveYourEarth.blogspot.com
www.DearHomoSapiens.blogspot.com
www.HOPE-GEO.blogspot.com
www.ARConference.org

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

I.T. - 2-04 - The "SUPERorganism"



In his box of books in the jeep were another two, titled [SOCIOBIOLOGY] and [INSECT SOCIETIES], both heavy-duty hard-covers by the great scientist Edward O. Wilson. Today, he brought them out to read about termite mounds.


On p. 317 of [INSECT SOCIETIES], titled [The Superorganism Concept and Beyond], he read:

[The idea of homeostasis leads easily to the visualization of the entire insect colony as a kind of superorganism. In fact, the story of the superorganism concept, from its origin as a philosophical idea sixty years ago to its present sharp decline in contemporary thinking, should prove instructive to historians of science as well as to biologists with a more immediate interest in the subject. During some forty years, from 1911 to about 1950, this concept was a dominant theme in the literature on social insects. Then, at the seeming peak of its maturity it faded, and today it is seldom explicitly discussed...

[... the current generation of students of social insects... saw its future in stepwise experimental work in narrowly conceived problems, and it has chosen to ignore the superorganism concept... Seldom has so ambitious a scientific concept been so quickly and almost totally discarded.

[The superorganism concept faded not because it was wrong but because it no longer seemed relevant. It is not necessary to invoke the concept in order to commence work on animal societies. The concept offers no techniques, measurements, or even definitions by which the intricate phenomena in genetics, behaviour, and physiology can be unraveled. It is even difficult to cite examples where the conscious use of the idea led to a new discovery in animal sociology...

[... But it would be wrong to overlook the significant, albeit semiconscious, role this idea had played in the history of the subject...

[Finally, it might be asked what vision, if any, has replaced the superorganism concept… there is no new holistic conception...]


“So, what does this leave us?” I asked Raminothna. “It seems that the door has been slammed shut on the concept decades ago.”

“It is about to open again.”

“It slammed shut for a reason. Is the reason gone?”

“Yes it is.”

“And what is this reason?”

“There are several reasons.”

"Such as?"

"Tell me. Have they ever considered a human-based society as a superorganism?"

"Not in these books."


"And have they considered if the insect societies have the ability to form higher societies of their own?"

"No, and I've never thought of it myself either."

"Did the Superorganism concept considered the sociality of the superorganisms at all?"

"Not at all."

"Finally, a big problem resides right there in its very name."

“What? 'Superorganism'? Why? I thought it sounded fascinating, and should have raised widespread interest."

"It did, but only for 4 decades, then lost it. To raise interest is one thing, to keep it raised is another."

"So, what's wrong with its name?"

"Tell me. If you call a society of organisms a superorganism, what would you call a society of superorganisms?"

"Assuming that superorganisms can form societies of their own, of course?"

"Of course."

"If a society of organisms is a superorganism, then a society of superorganisms can only be called a 'Supersuperorganism'."

"And what do you call a society of supersuperorganism?"

"A supersupersuperorganism. Um, I think I'm beginning to see what you mean. It is cumbersome, to say the least."

"'To say the least' is right. More so, it is unsystematic."


"So what’s your solution?”

“What’s yours?”

“Well, first, we have established that the termite cell, termite and the termite mound are all organisms.”

“Yes, we have.”

“Wait. No, we haven’t. The termite cell is not an organism, is it? It is only a body cell of a termite which is an organism.”

“Why?”

“Because… it has lost its independence, for one thing.”

“Is this the only reason?”

“Isn’t it enough?”

“Not really.”

“Why not?”

“You did say that a termite an organism, didn’t you?”

“Yes I did.”

“Just like a grasshopper or a dragonfly is an organism?”

“Right.”

“Can a grasshopper. Live on its own?”

“Yes, it can.”

“Can a dragonfly live on its own?”

“Yes, it can.”

“Can a termite or a bee live on its own?”


“No.”

“Has it lost its independence?”

“Yes it has."

"But your still consider the termite an organism."


"Yes, I do. I see what you mean. A body-cell of a termite, or dragonfly, in spite of its sociality, is nonetheless a bona fide organism, albeit a social one."

“So how do you solve the problem of the superorganism now?” I asked him what he asked me.

"It is very clear to me now," he said with light in his eyes. "Get rid of the prefix 'Super'. All are organisms, but on 3 different levels of organization - at least three: the Cellular, the Metazoan, and the Tribal. No more 'super super'!"

"Good"

“And on each level of organization, there are nonsocial and social organisms.”

“Very good.”

“I can even write a simple equation to describe these levels: Society (X) = Organism (X+1), or Organism (X) = Society (X-1).”

“Excellent.”

“This is so obvious, why didn’t they think of it?”

“What did Thomas Huxley say after reading Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species?”

“I believe he said these very same words: 'This is so obvious why didn’t I think of it?'”

“A common question for the cerebral silver medalists.”


I am Raminothna,
the Fortunate and Called Upon,
at your service.



Anthony Marr, Founder and President
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Global Anti-Hunting Coalition (GAHC)
Anthony-Marr@HOPE-CARE.org
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.facebook.com/Anthony.Marr.001
www.facebook.com/Global_Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.myspace.com/AnthonyMarr
www.youtube.com/AnthonyMarr
www.HomoSapiensSaveYourEarth.blogspot.com
www.DearHomoSapiens.blogspot.com
www.HOPE-GEO.blogspot.com
www.ARConference.org

Monday, January 9, 2012

I.T. - 2-03 - Organism as Society, Society as Organism


2-03 – Organism as Society, Society as Organism

There was a large mixed herd of Zebra and wildebeest grazing in the meadow, among the widely dispersed acacia trees and what looked like sandstone spires up to 20' tall. The landscape was so bright it was brilliant. The air was so silent it hissed. On the African savannah he was automatically silent, and whatever he said to anyone, principally himself, was done in a whisper.

And he whispered, "This is truly the holy of holies. It's no St. Peter’s Cathedral, only infinitely greater. The least of God's creation, so to speak, is greater than greatest production of man."

And I whispered back within him, "Ultimately, the Universe Itself is the supreme cathedral, the Earth is one of Its innumerable chambers of worship, and life is the act of worship itself."

He fell down on his knees in whatever humility a human being was capable, and in this attitude, he received a glimpse of perceptual pliancy in the 4th dimension.

"Take a mental time-lapse movie of this meadow covering a hundred years, then play it back in a hundred seconds. Tell me what you see after you have seen it," I instructed him.


He looked intensely at the meadow for what seemed like a hundred years, then said, “Yes, I saw what I think you wanted me to see. But I don’t see what point you’re trying to make.”

“What did you see?”

“Well, first, I saw the grass covering the meadow. It was like a shimmering carpet alternating green and brown once every second, that is, once every year in real time.”

“Good start.”

“Next, the trees. They sprouted from the ground, mushroomed to full stature, then suddenly collapsed, and eventually crumbled to nothing, all within a few dozen seconds, decades that is, each in its own time of course."

"Go on."

"And while they live, they give off once-per-second flowering flashes.”

“Good.”

“And the animals. They're individually invisible, because they move too fast. Instead, they formed a ground-hugging probability cloud, with a thin aerial probability haze for the birds.”

“Excellent. Now that the stage is set, let's bring on the living spires.”


“The living spires, yes. They behaved just like the trees. They sprout from the ground just like the trees, mushroom to full size just like the trees, then suddenly dying and eventually crumbling to nothing, just like the trees, all within several dozen seconds just like the trees, each in its own time of course, just like the trees. And while they live, just like the trees, they also give off once-per-second flashes, which in their case comprises the release and swarming of reproductive units from all the spires simultaneously. This is what you want me to see, isn’t it?”

“And what do you make of it?”

“On the understanding that these spires are in fact termite mounds, I surmise that your point is that a termite mound is as alive as a tree."

“Yes, but not far enough.”

“I would have thought that to call a termite mound alive is already going a little too far, since only the termites are alive, but not the shell of the mound.”

“Is this like saying that calling a crab alive is going a little too far, since only its cells are alive, but not its shell?”

“But a crab is a bona fide organism – a certified living thing.”

“Aha, now we’re getting somewhere.”

“You’re not actually saying that a termite mound is a bona fide organism, are you?”

“Isn’t it?”

“Well, there is one test I learned in high school that can answer this for certain. I can run it through the gauntlet of classical biology’s Seven Vital Functions. A candidate entity must possess all seven vital functions to qualify as a bona fide organism.”

“Sure. Do it.”

“Okay. The First Vital Function is Nutrition. A bona fide organism needs to ingest materials of some kind, be it solar energy, water, oxygen, carbon dioxide and certain minerals in the case of plants, and plants and other animals in the case of animals. The termite mound does need to ingest materials, which includes grass, leaves and dead wood.”

“Do the termites themselves ingest the grass, leaves and dead wood?”

“Actually, they do not.”

“What do they ingest?”

“They ingest a specific species of fungus that grows on a substrate composed of mulched grass, leaves and wood.”

“So, what exactly is the food for the termite mound?”

“Grass, leaves and wood.”

“And the fungus?”

“An intermediate product of the mound’s physiology.”

"Move on.”

“The Second Vital Function is Excretion. An organism needs to remove waste material from itself. The mound does discharge waste material, such as exhausted fungal substrate, uneaten fungal parts, miscellaneous debris and dead termites.”

“And the termite’s own excreta?”

“It is used as a cement for the shell and internal partitions of the mound."

"So the termites’ own excretion is not the termite mound’s excretion?"

"Looks not. The termites' own excreta is the internal secretion of the mound for building the shell of the mound, equivalent to the secretions of those crab cells which builds the shell of the crab.”

“Go on.”

“The Third Vital Function is Reactivity. The mound does react to external stimuli. If attacked, e.g. by ants, ant-eaters, etc., it defends itself - by means of its soldiers. If damaged, it heals itself - by means of the major workers.”

“Go on.”

“The Fourth Vital Function is Movement. Movements of the termites within the mound notwithstanding, the mound itself can send out a stream of termites, like a tentacle, to procure food. So, in fact, a termite mound as a whole has more power of movement than a tree.”

"Go on."

“The Fifth Vital Function is Growth. The termite mound does grow, as our virtual video demonstrated, in physical size as well as its internal termite population."

"Go on."

“The Sixth Vital Function is Homeostasis. The termite mound can maintain its own core temperature to within one degree year round regardless of external air temperature. If heated, it cools itself by having the minor workers to go down to the water table via tunnels dug by the major workers, sometimes meters down, each bringing back a droplet of water in its jaws, which they would then stick onto a partition wall, thus cooling the mound. If chilled, the mound warms itself by the termites clustering at the core, thus maintaining its core temperature. Another aspect of Homeostasis is that if disturbed, the mound has a tendency to return to its 'default' order."

"Go on."

“The Seventh Vital Function is Reproduction. The termite mounds do reproduce.”

“Are you referring to the termites themselves reproducing?”

“No. As pointed out before, termite reproduction is actually the growth of the mound. Mound reproduction is old mounds begetting new mounds. And the new mounds, and their termite constituents, are genetically and memetically the same as the old mounds.”


“And so?”

“So, now, I conclude that a termite mound is a bona fide organism, a certified living thing, according to classical biology.”

“There is even an Eighth Vital Function, if you’re interested.”

“Really? Do tell."

“Evolution."

"I see."

"Not only do the termite cells evolve, and the termites evolve, the mounds evolve as well - in size, shape, internal structure, and the societal termite species within.”

“Okay, consider me convinced. A termite cell, a termite and a termite mound are all fide societies organisms, just on different levels of organization."

"How many levels of organizations have you seen so far?"

"Three: the Cellular, the Metabion, and the, let's say, Tribal levels of organization. And on each level, there seems to be nonsocial and social units.”

"You have it right and straight."

"So, what is the significance of all this?

“’Society as organism’ is an extremely important concept in its own right, an a central founding principle of the Omniscientific Cosmology.”



I am Raminothna,
the Fortunate and Called Upon,
at your service.




Anthony Marr, Founder and President
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Global Anti-Hunting Coalition (GAHC)
Anthony-Marr@HOPE-CARE.org
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.facebook.com/Anthony.Marr.001
www.facebook.com/Global_Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.myspace.com/AnthonyMarr
www.youtube.com/AnthonyMarr
www.HomoSapiensSaveYourEarth.blogspot.com
www.DearHomoSapiens.blogspot.com
www.HOPE-GEO.blogspot.com
www.ARConference.org