The Ultimate in Recycling

I read the other day where a star exploded in space, The explosion was so tremendous that light could be seen with the naked eye here on earth. We would have had to look to the heavens at the exact moment as the light only lasted about an hour, but observatories saw it and record the demise. It was estimated the star was 700 times the mass of our sun, Wow!

I have been pondering the future of the earth and our role in its continuation. I am now leaning toward the idea that the nature of the universe is creation. Not a very original thought, but in my context it may be somewhat different.

It appears to me that time and the nature of the universe are inexorably linked. Nothing withstands time, our human bodies age and time tears us down. Water wears down rock, given enough time. Wind erodes mountains, given enough time. The earth grinds up the tectonic plates that comprise earth's surface, pulls them into the molten core, remelts the old and disgorges the new in the form of lava from volcanoes. I can't help but wonder if a Bud Lite can has made it to the bottom of the ocean where the recycling center seems to operate and has started its journey to some form of rebirth.

We shall all go through that recycling center, given enough time. It would be interesting to be able to view time in its infinite passage. The earth might appear as a churning cauldron, and the life span of man a flash that hardly registers on the cosmic radar. Yet, in the brief period of time we flash into existence and pass on into history we change the face of the earth faster than any erosion medium known. We dig holes in hours it takes nature years to perform, we carve holes through mountains in years when it takes nature millions of years. On the one hand we are the most destructive force on the face of this old earth. Yet on the other hand we are the most creative.

The real question is are we fulfilling a role, or are we just another force in the system. I believe we are just another force in the system. We do fulfill a role, that role is to be exactly what we are. Will it make any difference to the earth if we consume its oil to quickly, or pollute its oceans? Not in the end, the recycling center will handle all our attempts and continue to churn. It will do its thing and reform land, remake oil and gas, regenerate wind, purify water and provide the basis for existence, whether we are here or not. Man is no more than a spec of dust in the scheme of the system, and it will recycle our atoms and molecules repurifying itself until the engine that drives the recycling center finally ceases to work and then when all of this solar system is used up perhaps the sun will explode and simply add fodder to the larger recycling center.

Will man live on, that is only important to man. The system doesn't care. It creates new, offering opportunity, what use of the resources inhabitants make is their business because in the end it will not make any difference to the recycling center.

Gawd its hot!

I came home today about 5 PM. It was 102, my wife said when she came home at 2 PM the thermometer read 105. Cotton fields that are not irrigated are closing down, and bolls starting to open. The yield in those fields will be lower than in irrigated fields, but they will get some cotton. I've gone by some bean field, soy that is, and the ones that were planted after the wheat was harvested are in bad shape. Small plants, many did not make it, the fields look sparse and thin. One field I went by this afternoon the crew was combining Milo. Milo usually looks like 24 inch plants with the seed head stuck in the air above the plant. These plants didn't look much more than 6 to 8 inches. It is a tough summer here in Northeastern Arkansas. No sign of rain, we've not had rain at our house since July 9.

I drive by ramshackle homes in town. I wonder what it was like before air conditioning. It must've been tough trying to sleep at night with no breeze, heat so stifling that it chokes a person. I can't imagine it.

Is this a cycle, man made or God's punishment. I don't think it is God's punishment, but as to man made or earth cycle, I cannot answer. I know there are those who feel man is consuming resources without concern and effecting our long term outlook. I also understand there are scientists that say there is evidence of wide swings in global weather throughout time. The problem is there is one variable in the equation today that did not have the general global impact that variable has now. MAN! A few open fires warming small groups and furnishing protection from prowling predators certainly cannot be compared to the huge gulping of resources that takes place to day.

One of the most observable patterns in the world is the interaction between predator and food source. Wolves on Isle Royale in Lake Superior have long depended on the Moose population. Good browse, good conditions, more Moose, more wolves. Poorer conditions, Moose starve, Wolves don't bear young to compensate. Mother nature will take care of man, when our consumption of resources becomes so great mother nature will shake her booty and readjust the equation to something more in balance.

We may die off as a species, or suffer losses we can barely comprehend, but mother nature will adjust the equation. You can depend on it. What should we do, I don't give a shit! I probably won't be around when the earth makes its correction, and the suffering mankind will go through before that adjustment will be enormous, and I'll probably miss that too. My kids, kids, kids... may not and I feel sorry for them, but the time is not right for the environmental police to take over. Maybe what we should do is encourage wholesale consumption of resources to hasten the equation adjustment. Hmmm, there's a thought.