Special Opinion to the Mirror by Chas Cornweller
Gaia or Gaianism is the belief or philosophy that Earth is a superorganism. A living, breathing organism that changes slowly, deliberately over a period of millennia. Also, Earth can be seen as complex and multi-faceted within those deliberate evolutionary changes, moving and acting like a machine. And lastly, the Earth can be seen as a fragile, delicate spinning rock with a molten core, covered by a thin crust-like shell containing mountains, deserts, grasslands, forest, jungles and lakes while populated by literally millions of lifeforms and surrounded by oceans. Framing this sphere is a thin atmosphere, a mere 300 miles thick with most of its life sustaining attributes but a mere ten miles above the surface. Outside this protective layer lies the dimensions of space. Deep space being a hard vacuum both cold and hot (depending on your placement within or away from the sun’s rays) teeming with ultraviolet rays, radio waves, x-rays and radiation, all tearing constantly at the Earth. Protected by the Van Allen belt, which is produced by the rotating molten inner core acting much like a mechanical dynamo of the planet, much of life today persists and thrives under this same sun using its energies for a myriad of purposes. Without any of these factors in place, all life on this planet would desist immediately and permanently. Gaia is the belief that Earth is alive and not some random creation. It is as spiritual in a nature as man is spiritual in nature.
The factors that brought Earth to this current presence are both complex and extremely difficult to describe here, not to mention lengthy. Earth is over four point five billion years old. The earliest life acknowledged so far would take us back to several single cell species nearly four point two billion years ago. Life as we know it began to evolve nearly two point eight billion years ago as microbial life. From these simple life forms, multi-celled bacteria and protozoa grew and later evolved, beginning about four hundred million years ago, resulting in increasingly more and more complex lifeforms. Most, if not all of this life began in the oceans and tidal pools surrounding the emerging continents. Life, was beginning out of what once was nothing but molten rock and constantly bombarding asteroids and comets, bringing water from far flung areas of the newly forming solar system. Earth was becoming alive. Slowly, methodically…deliberately.
Fast forward to today. We have what we consider a modern mega-civilization. We have all of the accouterments for a thriving, socialized, well-planned modern and luxury driven civilization. One like no other before it. But one of many modern problems we have, is, our understanding of this rock we have built our wonderful society upon. In fact, we have become so successful at this, we have exploded our species to the point where it endangers our very existence. Hunger, pestilence, poisons, overcrowding, wars, migration, trash, spoilt oceans and lands all contribute to this crowding and harsh reality shining upon our accomplishments as a civilized society. The harm inflicted upon humanity upon this planet, is inflicted by our own shortsightedness’s. But, are we actually destroying this planet?
Re-wind with me a few thousand years. Back to 9,980 B.C. or nearly twelve thousand years ago. If you were standing upon the Great Plains of North America somewhere near (today’s) Topeka, Kansas and looked north by north-east you would have seen in the distance, a glacier wall as high as the Empire State building, perhaps higher. That is nearly three tenths of a mile high or one thousand and three hundred feet tall. Surrounding you would have been massive waves of Bison, Elk and Mastodon. Less likely to encounter, unless you were extremely unlucky, would be the Short-faced Bear, Smilodon, and Dire Wolf. In geological time, twelve thousand years is a very short period. So, fast forward again to today? Where is this massive ice sheet? Where is the Mastodon, the Dire Wolf? What happened and where did they go? There are many, many theories and speculations and the science are still being argued. But this much is known. During the period of twelve to eleven thousand years ago a huge uptick of ocean rise occurred. It has a name, Meltwater pulse 1B. The Mediterranean basin flooded and created the huge water body that is the Mediterranean Sea today. The water level in the Black sea rose over three hundred feet inundating villages and scores of peoples. The remains of these villages can be seen today lying over three hundred feet below the surface. The area between England and Europe known as Doggerland became fully submerged and lies at the bottom of the North Sea. The mega-fauna of the Mastodon, the Short-Faced Bear, the Dire Wolf and Smilodon disappeared, seemingly overnight. And an entire group of Native American, known today collectively as Clovis man by anthropologist and recognized as one of the older migrations of homo-sapien to the North American continent disappeared along with them. What would cause such a radical change of alteration of known landscape? What on earth had happened?
Just one hundred years ago, most if not all geologist and biologist held the collected view that Uniformitarianism was the criteria of all evolutionary change, both on Earth and Earth itself. Uniformitarianism is defined as a geological doctrine that states the current geological processes, occurring at the same rates observed today, in the same manner, account for all of Earth’s geological features. Thus, it assumes that geological processes are essentially unchanged today from those of the unobservable past, and that there have been no cataclysmic events in earth’s history. As present processes are thought to explain all past events, the Uniformitarian slogan is, “the present is the key to the past.” Many people, today, believe the same. But, most scientists, geologist and biologist know, today, that this thinking is both outdated and incorrect. The fact is, the Earth has gone through tremendous upheavals in the past and will continue to do so in the future. Mega-eruptions of Super-Volcanoes like the eruption of Krakatoa of Eastern Java in 1883 is a good example. But that pales in comparison to the Lake Toba eruption in the Sunda Arc, Indonesia some seventy thousand years ago. That eruption disrupted life to the extent that the entire known human population was killed off but to a few thousand. Thus, creating a population bottleneck of the human species caused by a volcanic winter that lasted anywhere from six to ten years followed by a thousand-year cooling period. In other words, the human race barely survived that event.
So, what dangers does Earth offer modern civilization? Well, for one, the Yellowstone Caldera which erupts every six hundred to eight hundred thousand years sit right in our backyard. The last eruption being six hundred and forty thousand years ago. How dangerous? If it were to erupt today, it would rain ash as far east as the Atlantic Ocean for weeks if not months. Ash would be as deep as six feet or more upwards to the Mississippi River basin. The entire world would experience a volcanic winter for years. And lying in wait off of the coast of the Canary Islands is a volcanic section called La Palma. Should the eruption of Cumbre Vieja volcano, in this section, occur; a landslide would collapse into the Atlantic and would send a wall of water three hundred feet high toward the East Coast, inundating everything inland for hundreds of miles in a matter of hours. This is not science fiction. This is science fact.
I have only mentioned a few of the ways the Earth can change our lives. I haven’t even mentioned climate change. I think we all have seen the results in the past twenty years and know of its effects. They are but a small blip on the spectrum of Earth’s dangers. But, what about extraterrestrial dangers? And no, chuckle, I’m not speaking of Aliens. I am talking about those pretty shooting stars we gaze up in wonder and watch every summer in August and September. They are bits of dust and small pebble sized meteors that burn up in the upper atmosphere producing a string of light that quickly extinguishes once played out. They are coming from an area science has named the Taurid Stream. Nice name, huh? The Taurid Stream is actually a component of two separate yet connected streams known as Southern Taurids (Sept-Nov) and the Northern Taurids (Oct-Dec). It takes several weeks to pass through each field and the stream is considered the largest stream of matter in the inner solar system. Think asteroid belt that is formed between Mars and Jupiter, except Earth passes through it. You see, the Taurid Stream is composed of an ancient comet named Encke. Encke broke up some thirty to forty thousand years ago and has been spreading out ever since. Many of these remnants cannot be detected by astronomers as they are hiding within the stream between the Earth and the Sun. But some have been detected and range in size anywhere between 200 and 300 meters (654 and 984 feet) in diameter. It is believed that the Tunguska event of 1908 over Siberia Russia was one of these Taurid remnants exploding fifty miles above the Earth. It literally flattened over eight hundred square miles of forest. Had it occurred over London or New York, millions would have died instantly. The asteroid was estimated at being between one hundred and sixty to five hundred feet in diameter, depending on its trajectory.
Could that happen today? Could a massive volcanic eruption occur, disrupting the food chain and wreaking havoc on civilization? Could the sun eject massive amounts of corona flares, destroying both high level and low-level orbiting satellites? Could those same coronal ejections rip apart our upper atmosphere, destroying part if not all of the ozone layer or possibly damage the Van Allen belt? Could a massive meteor or comet or a remnant of Encke hit the surface of this planet and take mankind down the path of the dinosaur? These are all distinct possibilities. These are also, all world as we know it, earth changing events. Have these happened in the past?
Let’s revisit the Mastodon and the Clovis Indian. Twelve thousand five hundred years ago, the North American continent teemed with both. Ten thousand years ago, they were no where to be found and the Atlantic Ocean had risen over three-hundred feet. The ice sheet that once covered both Northern Europe and North America had receded hundreds of miles. The southwest of North America was a vast marsh land full of lakes and swollen rivers. Eight thousand years ago, Northern Europe was disconnected by the North Sea. England was cut off from the continent to its east. A nomadic people were erecting stone pillars in multiple circles in Turkey in an area known as Gobekli Tepe. Many of those same people where living in homes built into the ground or basically living underground. Five thousand years ago, the Sahara Desert spread until it reached a small thriving civilization on the Nile River. It was once a thriving grassland and home to thousands of species of animals, including humans. So, what happened? What caused the ice sheets to recede at such a rate where they had once stood for thousands if not tens of thousands of years? What caused the sudden rise of the oceans and the flooding of the Mediterranean basin, along with the Aegean and Black Seas? What catastrophic event occurred to make such sudden and extreme changes, seemingly overnight? It wasn’t climate, although climate was obviously affected. It wasn’t volcanic, because only parts of the world were adversely affected while other parts hardly changed at all. Besides, volcanoes normally have a cooling effect not warming. What happened? And more importantly, why don’t we know?
And I am going to leave it at that. So, next time you are busy arguing whether climate change is real or if mankind can change the face of the world to the degree that the damage is irreversible, remember this article. We are but a speck on this blue orb. We are acting as if we are some deadly virus or behaving as a cancer, with very little causation to the realities of this planet. But, this Earth, she knows us. She has known for billions of years what change is coming and she will continue to know for billions more, long after we are gone. No, we have no dominion here. We have no more sovereignty over these oceans, these mountains, these forests and these vast grasslands than we have over one another. We have been given the gift of this garden. We treat it as a cesspool. The Earth knows this. And one way or another, she will rid herself of this pestilence.
Well Chas, you offer some interesting info on the evolution of the planet, and then crash all our cars into an oncoming train. I see nothing wrong with the opinion or theory regarding Gaia. I simply dislike the way it upsets you and produces your last statement.
So do you think the world should stop so you can get off ?
Are you sure there is a secret to life ? Perhaps Faith Hill is right, and there isn’t.
There’s no surprise that the post hippie era in Co. would produce a corporation/organization that would continue to express a Mother Earth attitude and even hint that psychedelics open your mind.
Neil Young believes you shouldn’t let it bring you down, it’s only castles burning, just find someone who’s turning, and you will come around. Try that ?
Or maybe just land yourself on The Eastern Shore. Plant a garden. Start an aquaculture farm to cleanse as much of the planet as you can. Think globally and act locally. Buy a hybrid so you burn less fuel. Make a smaller carbon footprint.
Also consider the fact that each of us is just a tiny speck and no matter what one does, Mother Nature is in charge, and there is no proof we can affect a darn thing she has going on. You can only affect how you yourself feel about it. Flip to The Positive Side ?
Chas Cornweller, let me say how good it is to see you still taking time to share your thoughts with us here at the Cape Charles Mirror!
And truly, dear friend, Chas, think about, where else will you find discussions on topics of public and societal interest like those in here?
Not at the Washington Post nor the New York Times is that answer.
And yes, Chas, count me as a believer that the earth is sentient and could shuck us off any time it chose to, which is why I personally take care not to provoke it in the first place.
And yes, dear friend Chas – the earth is indeed a violent place to live, especially if you are stupid, but it beats the alternatives, does it not?
And in the meantime, since winter is coming, and the world is going to end pretty soon, I have decided that since time is running out, I really ought to apply myself to getting “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” down the way Earl played it, so that is what I am doing.
And have yourself a real great day, Chas Cornweller!
An interesting topic, indeed, Chas Cornweller.
Is earth alive and sentient?
Has earth ever been alive or sentient?
Or is it really just a random chunk of carbon spinning through space as a result of something that for some unknown reason all of a sudden went KA-POWIE, resulting in some of the best shopping opportunities on the face of the earth right here in America?
And as this GREAT DEBATE rages all around us as to when exactly the end of the earth is going to occur, along with Parousia as a result of too much CO2 now in earth’s air, it is interesting that carbon is the sixth most abundant element in the universe, and has been known since ancient times.
And life on Earth is based on carbon, likely because each carbon atom can form bonds with up to four other atoms simultaneously, which quality makes carbon well-suited to form the long chains of molecules that serve as the basis for life as we know it, such as proteins and DNA.
Intelligent design, Chas?
Or simply happenstance as a result of that bolus from space smacking down on top of Cape Charles all those years ago?
Carbon is a key component of all known life on Earth, Chas, representing approximately 45-50% of all dry biomass.
So should we go to war against carbon, do you think?
Should we outlaw it?
And while we are on the subject of the earth being a burned-out cinder floating through space, or perhaps hurtling through space with explosive force, what the heck are you making of the earth’s Miocene Epoch?
Why should that have even happened?
I’m talking when kelp forests appeared for the first time, along with sea otters and other critters unique to those environments, while such ocean-going mammals as the Desmostylia went extinct.
WTF did Desmostylia do to anyone that it had to go extinct?
Where is the fairness and equity and environmental justice in that?
Or do you think it was a case of overhunting by humans spurred on by gun-nuts from the NRA with assault rifles?
And how come it was then, Chas Cornweller, that grasslands first appeared, and mammals and birds in particular developed new forms, whether as fast-running herbivores, large predatory mammals and birds, or small quick birds and rodents?
How are you having any of that happening?
The Clockwork Model?
Two wonderful comments, so far, here. Thank you to both MJM and Paul for reading my work. Firstly, I’d like to address MJM and her anxiety over my being upset with possible Earth changing events. I would like to truly re-assure you, can I call you M, re-assure you M, I am not bothered in the least about any Earth changing scenarios. And I already have a beautiful garden growing at my home (two, in fact – one a rose garden, the other a Japanese garden with a Koa pond and waterfall) So, I truly get the beauty and harmony of good Ole Mom Earth. I, too, proscribe to the theory (belief system?) of Gaia. The secret to life (as I see it – not pushing my agenda here, folks) the secret to life is hidden in every waking moment as you live life. What you think, you are. Faith Hill just hasn’t looked hard enough, in my opinion. But truly there is no big secret, not something written in the dark somewhere, hidden away in the basement of the Vatican or something like that…for sure. What you think…you are. Pretty simple actually.
Your suggestion of moving to the Shore and planting a garden is not as far a stretch as you may think, M. And it’s a good one. And to conclude, I do feel good and you are correct, there is not a darn thing I can do to change Earth’s course. I think that was the point of my article. I do apologize for presenting the negative spin, however. But you do have to admit, as a species, we’ve been pretty damaging to the oceans and the forests as a whole. And that reflects on us. Thank you, again M, for reminding me that there are others, who daily, work to reverse that damage.
And Paul, you too, have a great day and an awesome week and a wonderful “Foggy Mountain Winter”. (no…the world will not end soon – re-read my article) And yes, to be able to publish in a blog post such as this article such as these…it is both refreshing and a great honor. Peace.
More damaging than a powder post beetle? More damaging than naturally occurring lightning lit fires? More damaging than naturally occurring oil seepage? More damaging than volcanoes pouring sulfuric lava into said oceans?
Well, I’ll give you this…………….you lefties have the market cornered on hyperbole.
Gaia giggles.
Pube, dude, what it is!
And the earth is indeed a violent place and always has been, so far as I can see, and I’ve looked back a ways to find out what the heck is going on.
As if all you already said wasn’t proof enough of that proposition, we need go no further than the wreck of the ‘Edmond’ at Kilkee, 1850.
OH, the humanity!
Here’s an account of it by a dude named Sean Marrinan, who I think is some kind of relationship to a fine old Irish lady who ran a pub in Kilkee called, appropriately enough, Mrs, Marrinen’s, and she was always looking out for your health, telling you to have the toddy before you came down with something, as opposed to after, and by golly, it worked for me, anyway.
Anyway, getting back to exactly how cruel a place the west coast of Ireland can be anyway, compared to Disneyland and Cape Charles, Va., the year 1850 had been a bleak one for Kilkee.
I was over there in the early 1980s, right near Kilkee, and a howling, screaming storm blew in off the Atlantic, howling like a banshee, I thought it was going to take off the roof, and a freighter disappeared from radar off the Shannon’s mouth when a rogue wave came down onto it and sunk it to the bottom.
Kind of like the poor Edmund Fitzgerald, so maybe Edmund is a poor name for a boat.
Anyway, talking about how cruel Mother Earth can be if she gets spiteful, or maybe just capricious, few parts of Ireland had been so severely stricken by the Famine as the area of the Kilrush Union, which included Kilkee, and the worst effects of that calamity were still all around.
And that little rich Swedish girl with the carbon-fiber racing boat to jaunt around the world in thinks she has it rough!
Getting back to reality:
To add to the terrible misery of the people a storm in February wreaked havoc all along the coast.
The Limerick Chronicle of the 9th February noted: “There is not a cabin between Kilrush and Kilkee which is not levelled to the ground or unroofed by last Wednesday’s tempest and the coast from Kilkee to Farahey is strewn with portions of wreck.”
Huge rocks were torn from the cliffs and the Puffing Hole was covered over.
At the beginning of the holiday season a visitor wrote: “There is in and about that village melancholy trace of wretchedness and starvation”.
In May the people were warned at Mass that there was fever in the village.
Later notices appeared in the Limerick Newspapers announcing that Kilkee was free of fever and sickness.
But in spite of efforts to put on a brave face to assure the citizens of Limerick that Kilkee was flourishing the Limerick Chronicle reported on the 20th July that there were 100 lodges vacant in the resort.
Many Limerick people were little disposed to visiting the seaside that year.
For those who did come it must have been difficult to dispel the feeling of gloom which prevailed.
Some of the gentry tried to brighten up the season and Mr. Dickson of Vermont, County Limerick, owner of Merton Lodge, brought his yacht into the bay.
It was gaily lit up at night and brought an appearance of good cheer to the place.
A fire-works display was arranged and Mr. Joseph Fogerty of Limerick cleared the Puffing Hole with blasting powder.
But in spite of all this the sense of impending disaster seemed to increase as the holiday season drew to a close.
In August a young man was drowned while bathing at the West End.
When I was there, in just a few weeks, the ocean took I think it was some 18 people in that same area.
It got 8 Germans in one snatch at one place, just sent in a big rogue wave over the top of them, and poof, they were gone.
Another wave reached out and snatched a man and his wife off a pier, and right after people managed to get them out, not to be foiled, the ocean sent in another wave and got the man for good that time.
And I was driving down the road which is near the shore, which is blow a cliff, and all of a sudden, up ahead of me, it was like a long arm came reaching up out of the ocean maybe 30 feet, a great column of water of water which then crashed down across both lanes of the road, and went back to the ocean like an arm with a hand on the end of it trying to sweep whatever it might have managed to catch back in.
Glad it wasn’t me.
Getting back to Kilkee, in September it was reported that a sea monster had been sighted near Bishop’s Island, and this was regarded by the superstitious as a certain ill omen.
When I saw that arm rising up out of the ocean, I would swear it looked just like what you would think the arm of a massive sea monster would look like.
Getting back again to Kilkee, in the following week a Miss Evans, a visitor, disappeared after having been seen walking towards the cliffs.
Maybe she fell while taking a selfie of herself hanging off the cliff by a small bush of heather and it let loose.
Anyway, during all that year the emigrant ships were bringing thousands from Limerick and Clare to America.
Week after week pages of advertisements appeared in the Limerick papers offering passage from that port to the United States and Canada.
Among the ships which plied to and fro across the Atlantic was the brig, ‘Edmond’, a three-masted sailing vessel, registered in London, but this year chartered by John McDonnell, a Limerick merchant and member of the Corporation who owned a timber yard in Clare Street.
As the year wore on and the weather worsened the passage by sea became more dangerous but the ships continued to cross, carrying full lists of passengers to the New World and returning with cargoes of timber for the Limerick timberyards.
Already, on the 4th August, the ‘Edmond’ had landed 227 passengers safely at Quebec.
In fact the ‘Edmond’ did not leave Limerick Docks until Friday the 15th November.
By this time there had been a change of captain, the new commander being John Wilson, an Englishman while the first mate was William Thompson.
On board were 195 passengers and a crew of 19 in addition to the two officers already mentioned.
After sailing down the Shannon she lay to near Scattery Island and then, on Sunday the 17th she sailed to Carrigaholt where she spent the night.
That is where I was when that howling gale came though in the early 80s.
On Monday morning, the 18th of November the weather seemed favourable, and the captain weighed anchor and the ‘Edmond’ passed Loop Head and sailed out into the Atlantic.
After sailing all that day and having gone some thirty miles out to sea the storm struck.
The ship was blown back towards the Clare coast, which is exactly what happened to the Spanish Armada off that same coast, which is why you find a town named Spanish Point, which is where some shipwrecked Spaniards washed ashore, only to be beaten to death by the Irish, who wanted nothing to do with them.
Getting back to the Edmond, the captain tried to direct her towards the Mouth of the Shannon but the gale became so fierce that every bit of canvas was blown away and two of the masts were lost.
By Tuesday evening the ‘Edmond’ was being driven helplessly before the wind.
At about 11p.m. on Tuesday night, the 19th of November she was blown into Kilkee Bay.
At first she came aground on the reef at the mouth of the bay called the Duggerna Rocks, but as the tide rose she loosened and very quickly drifted further into the bay.
Eventually she struck the rocks just under Sykes House at that point which is still called Edmond Point, near what was at that time called the “Churn Hole”.
That night, Sykes House was occupied by the family of Richard Russell, a son of John Norris Russell, a prominent Limerick businessman.
Richard Russell has left us a vivid account of what happened next.
The windows of his bedroom had been rattling, shaken by the storm,and he was trying to fasten them when looking out, he saw, just below him, the stricken ship drifting towards the rocks.
Dressing quickly, he called his manservant, Henry Likely, and they both hurried down to the rocks.
Before they appeared there had been a frightful silence.
As soon as their lights were seen, a despairing cry rose from the helpless emigrants.
The anchor had been lowered and the ship was being beaten broadside against the rocks by the huge waves.
The plight of those on board was now desperate.
The waves were rolling off the spars and rigging and the screams of the women and children could be heard above the noise of the sea and the roaring of the storm.
The captain ordered the rigging of the foremast, the only one remaining, to be cut so that it fell across the rock, thus making a kind of gangway for the passengers.
Russell had sent word of the ship’s danger to the Coast Guard and soon he and his servant were joined on the rock by three Coast Guard men, James McCarthy, Timothy Hannigan and Patrick Shannon.
All accounts agree that but for the efforts and courage of these five, very few would have been saved.
At great personal risk they began to assist the passengers to land.
The captain began to guide the passengers across the fallen mast-head.
The men on the rock had to lead them, one by one, first to the rock itself and from there to the land under Sykes House.
All the time the sea drove mercilessly over them so that it was a miracle that anyone was rescued.
Several times the rescuers were knocked down by the force of the waves but they continued their efforts until one hundred of the passengers and crew were brought safely to land.
But now the tide was rising swiftly and it became impossible to land more on the rock.
The captain hoped that they could wait, either until the tide receded or the storm abated.
But this was not to be.
As the spring tide rose higher the power of the waves and the force of the storm grew stronger and the ship began to break up and part amidships.
It was at this time that the ship’s carpenter, John Finn of Limerick, was drowned.
He had been helping the passengers to cross to safety and had been personally responsible for guiding 15 of them to the rock.
He had just gone below to secure his working chest when the ship broke up and he was lost.
It was now about three o’clock on Wednesday morning.
The agony was drawing to a close.
Several others tried to land on the rock but were quickly washed into the sea.
As the ship broke in two those remaining on board clung to the afterpart of the vessel which was carried by the tide in towards the strand.
As it drifted into the beach it was turned over on its side and all those left in it perished.
Their bodies were found in the wreck later that morning when the tide went out.
The captain and mate were on the poop deck in the stern part when it was driven shorewards.
They had remained with the ship till the end.
They were flung into the sea and with two or three others miraculously reached the beach in safety.
One of the others was a woman whom the captain lashed to a plank which carried her safely into the strand.
The prow half of the vessel, held by the anchor, continued to be dashed against the rock until it was ground to fragments which the waves and the storm hurled into the air.
With daylight the appalling extent of the tragedy became apparent.
The entire beach, from Sykes House in the West End, to Atlantic House in the East End, was stewn with fragments of the wreck, planks, bolts, staves, canvas, boxes and trunks interspersed with the bodies of the victims which were being washed ashore every hour.
And thanks for trying to comfort me, Chas Cornweller, but of course the world is going to end soon.
I’m an adult, and I can handle it.
And how many times has it done so already?
Quite a few now, isn’t it?
What about the Late Pleistocene Extinctions, Chas?
Wasn’t that the end of the world for a lot of creatures?
Seems so to me, anyway, when approximately 11,000 years ago a variety of animals went extinct across North America.
Talk about mass extinctions, alright, Chas, there we have some to consider right there.
And these were mostly mammals larger than approximately 44 kg (about 100 pounds).
Some of the animals that went extinct are well known like saber-toothed cats, mammoths, and mastodons, and others were less well known animals like the short-faced skunk and the giant beaver.
Before this extinction the diversity of large mammals in North America was similar to that of modern Africa.
As a result of the extinction, relatively few large mammals are now found in North America.
Now, as this relates to today, Chas, when climate change is now all the rage, as if this were the first time it ever happened, between about 18,000 and 11,500 years ago the climate and environments of North America were changing rapidly.
Temperatures were warming, just like they are again.
Rainfall patterns were changing, just as they are again.
The glaciers were melting, just as they are again.
These climate changes were causing fundamental changes in the ecosystems of North America then, just as is the case again today.
Plants and animals were moving out of areas they had lived in and into new areas.
Communities were coming apart and reorganizing.
Many scientists think that these climatic and ecosystem changes caused the extinctions at the end of the Pleistocene.
The environmental changes might have caused extinction by eliminating food sources, disrupting birth schedules, or exposing animals to climatic conditions to which they were not adapted.
And so the earth turns, Chas.
It seems every now and then, it just feels like wiping the slate clean like you do with an Etch-a-Sketch and starting all over again with something completely new.
Are humans exempt from being made extinct?
I don’t think so, myself.
Just think, dear friend Chas, in 1510, a tidal wave devoured 109 mosques and 1070 houses in Constantinople.
Another wave, again, invaded Kamaishi, in Japan, on June 15, 1896, swept away 7600 houses and killed 27,000 people.
So why are people so upset today by the fact that the earth is a quite violent place with a low tolerance for fools?
How come they think it is going to be like the benign climate of Disneyland?
Dear friend Chas, let me say that I personally am glad that you have a beautiful garden growing at your home, two, in fact – one a rose garden, the other a Japanese garden with a Koa pond and waterfall, which reminds me of something either Yogi Berra or maybe it was Billy Martin said to the effect of “if you aren’t content in your own skin, it ain’t happening anywhere else, dude,” and Chas, it sounds like you have clued right into that, for which I salute you.
And I am glad as well that you posted that the fact is, the Earth has gone through tremendous upheavals in the past and will continue to do so in the future.
Why do people today think that we live in Disneyland where the climate is the same every day, and everything is safe and wrapped in foam rubber so you can take a selfie of yourself as you get swept over a waterfall and when you reach the bottom, you’ll simply bounce back up on your feet instead of going splat on the rocks below.
Where have the young people of today gotten such weird ideas from?
And talk about upheavals, Chas, reminds me of the great Charleston, South Carolina earthquake of 1886, or aren’t we supposed to talk about that for fear of scaring the children of America?
The Charleston earthquake of 1886 occurred about 9:50 p.m. local time August 31 with an estimated moment magnitude of 6.9–7.3 and a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (Extreme).
The intraplate earthquake caused 60 deaths and $5–6 million ($153.37 million in 2018) in damage to 2,000 buildings in the Southeastern United States.
It is one of the most powerful and damaging earthquakes to hit the East Coast of the United States, to the point that the shock was felt as far away as Boston, Massachusetts, to the north, Chicago, Illinois, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to the northwest, as far as New Orleans, Louisiana, to the west, as far as Cuba to the south, and as far as Bermuda to the east.
In fact, it was so severe that outside the immediate area, there was speculation that the Florida peninsula had broken away from North America.
And it is a heavily studied example of an intraplate earthquake and is believed to have occurred on faults formed during the break-up of Pangaea, which was a supercontinent that existed during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras.
It assembled from earlier continental units approximately 335 million years ago, and it began to break apart about 175 million years ago.
In contrast to the present Earth and its distribution of continental mass, much of Pangaea was in the Southern Hemisphere and surrounded by a superocean, Panthalassa.
And similar faults are found all along the east coast of North America.
It is thought that such ancient faults remain active from forces exerted on them by present-day motions of the North American Plate.
Getting back to the Charleston earthquake, sand boils were common throughout the affected area due to soil liquefaction and aftershocks continued to be felt for weeks after the event, and the minor earthquake activity that still continues in the area today may be a continuation of aftershocks.
Within the city of Charleston, almost all of the buildings sustained damage and most had to be torn down and rebuilt.
Wires were cut and the railroad tracks were torn apart, cutting residents off from the outside world and vice versa.
The damage was assessed to be between $5 million and $6 million.
Major damage occurred as far away as Tybee Island, Georgia, (more than 60 miles away) and structural damage was reported several hundred miles from Charleston, (including central Alabama, central Ohio, eastern Kentucky, southern Virginia and western West Virginia).
The Old White Meeting House near Summerville, Dorchester County, South Carolina was reduced to ruins.
So, what dangers does Earth offer modern civilization?
A bunch because the earth does not suffer fools gladly!