thelerner

Feel free to edit this out, but I've reading about the Anthropocene and thought of you. An era we're at the birth of (maybe)-http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/did-the-anthropocene-begin-in-1950-or-50-000-years-ago/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ScientificAmerican-News+%28Content%3A+News%29 Did the Anthropocene Begin in 1950 or 50,000 Years Ago?Scientists debate whether hunting, farming, smallpox or the nuclear bomb define the start of irreversible human impacts on our planet April 2, 2015 |By David Biello Happy Earth Day! Welcome to the Anthropocene How Long Have Humans Dominated the Planet? The lethal pairing of hunting and burning is just one of the ways humans have been changing the world for millennia. Another is planting crops such as corn or wheat, which now cover most of the world's arable land. Chickens, cows and pigs have become the dominant megafauna, thanks to ranching and herding. Forests have been cleared to make room for agriculture and the mass expansion of the rice paddy may have led to enough greenhouse gas emissions to stave off a long cool-down into an ice age starting 5,000 years ago. Each of these world-changing actions should be considered when choosing a start date for the Anthropocene—a potential new geologic epoch that begins when humankind started significantly altering Earth—according to a new report published in Science on April 3. So should more recent human inventions, such as widespread burning of coal or detonation of the atomic bomb. Given the long spans of time separating each of these possibilities, "we suggest simply using the term 'anthropocene' informally," says William Ruddiman, a "semiretired" paleoclimatologist at the University of Virginia and lead author of the new report. That would "allow room to recognize the millennia-long, rich history of anthropogenic changes," he says. Courtesy of William Ruddiman But the scientists in the Working Group on the Anthropocene are currently considering which of a number of proposals might best define a more precise start date for a formal Anthropocene epoch. The ideas range from the nadir in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations caused by the regrowth of CO2-absorbing forests in Africa and the Americas following mass deaths from human-introduced smallpox around 1610 to when scientists exploded the first atomic bomb in the New Mexico desert on July 16, 1945. The latter time frame, around 1950, is perhaps the most popular choice. "Sometime around the mid-20th century seems on current evidence to be where the stratigraphic markers are clearest, most widespread and most nearly synchronous," explains Jan Zalasiewicz, a geologist at the University of Leicester in England and chairman of the working group that is evaluating whether or not to incorporate the Anthropocene into the geologic time scale. That includes new data showing that fly ash from coal burning spiked around 1950, accelerating a steep rise in atmospheric CO2 levels. The spike of ash is preserved in sediment cores pulled from lakes around the world, although mostly in Europe. Similarly, the 20th century’s two world wars introduced new geologic features to the landscape, shaped by bombardment and other military actions, that are likely to be preserved for millennia, along with all those mines, oil and gas wells and even the cracked rock, plutons and radioactivity that will mark where nuclear bombs exploded underground. Atmospheric CO2 concentrations surpassed 310 parts per million around 1950, too—roughly the highest levels that occurred during the entire duration of Homo sapiens’s existence on the planet. Concentrations have now reached 400 ppm, higher than any time in the last 800,000 years, at least. A more recent start date to a formal Anthropocene would omit perhaps the largest changes humanity has wrought on a global scale, however: cutting down forests and plowing grasslands for farms. University of Maryland Baltimore County ecologist Erle Ellis, a co-author on this new report, has found that humans have been impacting most land on the planet for at least 3,000 years, mostly by farming. As Ruddiman asks: Would historians tie the start date of the settling of the North American West to the building of the Sears Tower in Chicago in 1973? "Not likely—it would omit too much of the actual history," he says. Cutting down forests is reversible, however; witness the regrowth of trees in the eastern U.S. and Europe as well as the massive reforestation after Europeans invaded the Americas, precipitating massive loss of people from smallpox and other diseases. "The impact of farming could only be clearly seen as a global change to the Earth system when it stopped across a continent," argues Simon Lewis, an ecologist at the University of Leeds and co-proposer of a 1610 start date. A shift in geologic epoch is meant to signify an irreversible change. For example, the Pleistocene endured for more than 2.5 million years despite a cycle of general freezing and thawing that represents swings of 6 degrees Celsius in global average temperatures, 120 meters of sea level rise and fall and at least 80 ppm changes in CO2 concentrations, along with the repeated growth and retreat of glaciers. "We must treat human changes in exactly the same way as natural ones so we can really understand the extent and magnitude of our impacts," argues Mark Maslin, a professor of physical geography at University College London and co-author with Lewis of an earlier paper proposing 1610 as the best start date. "Defining the Anthropocene means officially recognizing that humans are a major geological superpower and that, at this moment in time, we are the most important force shaping and changing the global environment." In the end, whether the Anthropocene is formally designated as a new geologic epoch or not, the concept "helps us understand this rather remarkable interval of recent Earth history by putting it in a deep-time perspective," Zalasiewicz says. It shows "what is really novel in planetary evolution and what is déjà vu, and gives us some sense of scale and tempo." Humans may have been transforming parts of the planet for millennia but fossil fuels, nuclear weapons and other modern marvels helped us pick up the pace.

Sorry if this is non OP fwiw Drew, I did some research on chocolate and slavery and from what I gathered your 70% statistic is way off. Which is a good thing. The slavery exists, but its much much smaller then 70% and has been shrinking for years. (Hershey <the elephant in the room> hasn't signed onto various nonslavery agreement but that doesn't mean all its chocolate is slave grown) Its also damnably complicated. You've got parents and the law looking the other way because they don't want kids to starve. You have small farmers who aren't making much money saying they need it and are at least feeding kids in a very poor country. You have big companies that don't want to buy tainted chocolate but purchase in mass market places. A large efficient farmer can set a lower price on his crop and that becomes a baseline that buyers use. The smaller farmer is squeezed and goes to extremes to save money. Obviously it should be stopped. Chocolate producers should be pressured to invest in poor areas and farmers using slave labor should be closed down, just beware there will be unintended consequences, ie some kids who now live a very hard life might have it ended through starvation. I applaud fair trade deals but when you stop making them volunteery you inevitably introduce corruptions and imbalances.

If the dinosaurs and godzilloids became oil I wonder what we'll become (yeah I know it was grass trees other carbon stuf) perhaps some sort of drug, that'd be cool. & thats the worst Godzilla song I ever heard. Whats she trying to do, date him??

Or are We the gods.. Collectively?.. not the brightest ones, but powerful creatures nontheless. We knock down mighty mountains and extinctify whole species with a fork. Yet, I'm still optimistic or at least open minded that future while not utopian could well be brighter then it is now.

Its not just about extinctions but the arrogance of naming a new epoch for man's influence on our planet. The realization that instead of celestial or geological phenomena, We are the prime movers and changers of our planet's evolution. Cue Godzilla theme. Anthropcene- the period during which human activity has been been the dominant influence on climate and the environment.

Ask the big questions superficially and you'll get superficial answers. Maybe we need to put ourselves in the right place, right mindset and with plenty of time before we can truly answer the big ones. Only then do we have enough clarity and force of mind to find the answers powerful enough to change our lives.

Good marketing and role models are whats needed. Strangely I think only the government can provide them. What'll save us is simplicity. A return to simpler life. Eat simpler, live simpler but to be effective it can't be forced. Imo that would only cause back lash. The world wants More and Better because the world has ads and TV. We see the models, shiny things and dishes are held out as prizes. We need insidious but truthful push back in the form of advertising and shows that push the simpler life. Not much money in it, but much better for the environment and in truth better for us, body and soul. A couple 10's of million spent on marketing and role models and you might be some voluntary reversals. A few hit TV shows, a bill boards, catchy phrases, celebrity commercials. Hit'em both emotionally and factually. Smart people are doing it right now, simplifying. What the world needs is take away the alure of big city lights and replace it with smaller, simpler living, communities with the human touch. It can be done, but best accomplished with the tools of the enemy- marketing and role models.

1> What time is it? 2> Where did I put my keys? might not be the most important questions but they're the ones I ask most often.

From a different tack, humans aren't that alien from other life forms here. We're not 'Pandora'(the movie) unless you look real close then we share so much dna; our evolution, our link to everything alive on earth is written in our genes. We're amazingly close to all the life on the planet. As far as I know there's no crazy alien/hybridness in our code. Our gestation is like fast forward evolution. The point I'm getting at is we're not an alien thing brought to the earth, at least no more then any other living thing here. So if they're aliens, they started early, created everything. In that case they're so close to God they may as well be; or it just pushes the God dominoe to some other planet. Frankly the story above seems as mythically based as anything else, especially with the names.. may as well be Xenu . Still, we want an origin story; to find out who's Mom. The question digs deep, and we're willing to believe some whoppers in order to get closure. Does the answer we come up with color our perception of the world? I don't know, probably a little. Sometimes cold truth is too cold.

I was thinking of that <I actually typed in picqued, but that didn't look right). Firefox spell check has gone awol for me on the Dao Bums. It's slowed me down and made me look less goodly.

I took a beginners class with him and have the Fundamentals I and II on video cassette; yeah it was a while ago. I like him. I think his teaching is authentic and/but Westernized. Like most qi gong teachers his advertising tends to over promise, not because its not true, its just most people don't go all the way, a few do. I don't, but its still worthwhile. Go to youtube and watch some of his clips. If they peak frickin pique your interest get the videos.

How do you define The Good Life? I've always thought Americans tend to be too focused on Things, thrills, other things that begin with T'.. I admire the European ideal of slowing life down, the importance of sharing a simple meal with friends and family. Which to me epitomizes the good life. Sitting down enjoying good food, good conversation; with the conversation being the most important part. Course we can't do that all the time, but its a shame we don't make the time and effort to do it more often. Another part of the good life would be a creative outlet. Preferably what you do for a living, otherwise a hobby, something you do and grow with; something that stretches your mind a bit, turns you into a creator, not just a user.

Reminds me of a recent article about a woman who was 104 who credits her longevity to 3 cans of Pepsi a day. No mention of liquified asparagus though . Strange world. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/19/elizabeth-sullivan-dr-pepper_n_6907106.html

I've got a lot of respect for KAP and its teachers Santiago and Tao Semko. For an idea of what the teachings are like, here's a free one they are giving out: by Tao Semko:

Why assume anything. Just do it. There are lots of apps that let you set breath rates. You can do it yourself just looking at a clock with a second hand. I have tones for 8-8 and 10-10, going up to 36-36. If you have a mp3 player with repeat you can listen and breath to them yourself.

Someone touched in this in another thread. Glenn Morris, author, esoteric martial artist and teacher is gone at age 62. I was very impressed w/ his first book, "Pathnotes of an American Ninja Grandmaster". Despite a hoky tittle, it was very well written and had indepth information on meditation, enlightenment, fighting arts and dreamwork, from someone who had been there. Despite the lofty position of Soke(founder) of a martial art, Morris was very friendly and open in his teachings. He will be missed. Here is someone who I consider to be 'enlightened' and certainly considered himself to be enlightened, having gone through Kundalini and decades of practice, dead at a relatively young age. It seems like a great many high level practitioners are dying the last few years. Maybe its due to the explosion of esoteric literature in the 70's and 80's. The people who were influenced by Chia(Morris was) and Carlos Castaneda (himself, dead relatively young). I think these arts can make you a better life, but if you're looking for much of an extension, I don't think so. Michael

What is the soul? Is that the most important question there is? Not what's out there, but what's inside us? Are we big brained apes creating rationalizations to soothe our fear of impending death and what is in truth a meaningless life? Or do we hold sparks of greater divinity within us? What theories do we hold? What proofs are there of them? Personally, as with most things, I sit on the fence. Simply not knowing, perhaps hoping, seeking some answers in silence, but I really don't know.

Sorry you're in pain. Beyond sitting there is zhan zhang standing practice. Matter of fact you can stand and 'do' gi gong routines in your head; seeing them there and not actually moving. I actually feel the energetics working, though it is different. and here's an old post on pain; Dealing w/ Pain, Great Take from Otis Otis: Hi Bluefront, I have a lot of experience with healing muscle and connective tissue in myself. What I would do, is to make the injury into my moving meditation. Find a good, non-stressful posture (even lying down), relax, and then slowly, lovingly, activate the areas that hurt, through movement. Get the pain to be just hot enough to be intense, but not enough that my system shouts "no!" at me. Basically, I listen for the "no!" and back off, just a smidge, and make that my arena of play. And I emphasize "play", because it is better, IME, to be guided not by technique or concepts, but by the actual parameters of the injury. Every injury is unique, and the body's signals are there, precisely to guide me toward self-healing. Also, because that level of intense (but not freak-out) pain, can actually be a very joyful experience. If it is not, then I'd recommend slowing down, paying still more attention. If I'm tripping over my body's "no!" signals, then I'm not listening enough. The more I can utterly and joyfully "fall into" the sheer sensation of the pain with my awareness, the faster the injury heals.

When you have time, I'd love to hear about what the monastery was like.

Any good books or blogs on Young Seekers abroad in China? I think 'The Gods Drink Whiskey' is a great adventure travel book to the orient for someone looking for spirituality, but it was done by a (n out there) professor who had a job lined up, not a wanderer per se.

Reading this article http://www.bbc.com/news/business-32082968 made me think of this thread. excerpt: "Later this year, the UN is expected to adopt the World Bank's ambitious target of ending extreme poverty by 2030. It would mean that for the first time, everyone in the world would able to afford a refrigerator and other goods that would make life a bit easier. But, what would it take? Could we really see the end of poverty within a generation? First, there's been a great deal of progress already. The poverty rate in the developing world has more than halved since 1981. Back then, 52% of people in developing countries lived on less than $1.25 (84p) per day. That's now dropped to 15%. In terms of the UN's Millennium Development Goals, it meant that the target of halving poverty by 2015 from 1990 levels was achieved five years early. In 1990, more than one-third (36%) of the world's population lived in abject poverty. That was halved to 18% in 2010. For China, which has accounted for the bulk of the poverty reduction in the past few decades, the answer is economic growth. But, it was due largely to China. So, there are still about a billion people who live in extreme poverty. Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region where the number of poor people has increased during the past three decades. Even though the percentage of the African population living in extreme poverty is slightly lower than in 1981 - population growth means that the number of people has actually doubled. They account for more than one-third of the poor in the world, despite Africa making up just 11% of the global population. By contrast, in East Asia, progress has been remarkable. four out of five people, or 80%, lived in poverty in 1981, and that rate has now dropped to 8%. On current trends, the fastest-growing region in the world could see the end of poverty within a generation.. " Good article.

I had friends from some very religious households, Jewish as well as Christian fundamentalist. Come adulthood, college, exposure to the wider world and they left much of the dogma behind. I think its possible to let go of it. Helps to escape the environment though. Maybe it was ever thus. We, the U.S always had a back stream of religious zealotry of different shapes and sizes. So its nothing new, just focusing the camera on long time phenomena. <>You know what else, camp is camp. I went to YMCA Christian camp, didn't mean I became Christian. A kid goes to Space camp doesn't mean he'll become an astronaut. Kids screaming at a rock concert aren't so crazy in real life. Hmnn, Ted Cruz is basing much of his presidential campaign on being the 'godly' campaigner. Frankly, it might win a few primaries but in the States in general its a losing hand.

I wonder if this is too bold? Look around the bums, especially the Chinese section and send a PM to those who seem to be living there now and ask for advice. See if you can get a conversation started. <> Are there any monasteries that welcome (w/ $) beginners? Any group/traveler centers where one can stay with like minded people looking for a spiritually good time (in my town we call them brothels) ? For yogic spirituality there are ashrams, is there anything like that in China? Sometimes the best travel begins by staying in one place. Finding out the lay of the land and making connections before over commiting.

There are times in our life when we're simply too busy for the spiritual stuff. It happens. Hopefully you're being well rewarded by either money or experience (if not look around for another job). I'd say accept it, don't worry to much, but plan for a future when you will have the time to do it, if its important to you. Get your ducks and books in a row now. Also see what you can sneak in now. Even if its just audios you listen to on the way to work, or a short dharma speech or yoga nidra (my current favorite super easy practice) before bed.

I use ighome.com. It allows great personalization, like the old igoogle used to. Thus you can make a page or several pages linking to favorite sites.