Kanook – Tlingit Nation

August 28th, 2010

Before the next 40 years rolls around it is predicted, with conviction, that the population of the
world will bypass some nine-billion souls, a 31.1% increase over the present population of 6.865
billion now roaming around looking for work, housing, food and fresh water. In the United
States the predicted population will be approximately 406,535,722 citizens (plus or minus)
bumping around, still polarized with the rest of the world and more than likely a 1st rate 3rd world
country if it remains on its present course.
9 billion, an increase of 2.13 billion or the equivalent of two additional China’s, in this
prediction of Homo sapiens adding to the world’s problems we are again witnessing the
emergence, albeit casually, the subject of human caused global warming. The latest being a US
Federally published report a couple of agencies under the flag of NOAA, pointing the disjointed
finger of a variant of the periodic El Niño warming of the tropical Pacific Ocean, whereas the
report notes that the cycles of El Niño are becoming more frequent and the warming stronger.
They lightly touch on that this is an “expected” pattern that appears to fit the human-driven
warming of the global climate.
In the low-key report released jointly by NASA and NOAA, it is said that the Pacific in the
region of central-equatorial waters that El Niño in not only experiencing an increase in frequency
but that event is showing a sustained and stronger warming cycle. They tell us that the research
into the event(s) may improve our understanding of the relationship between El Niños and
climate change, with their expected results to potentially change our ability to project long-term
weather forecasting.
California’s JPL and the NOAA PMEL in Seattle has been diligently monitoring the changes in
El Niño since 1982 – whereby they have analyzed NOAA satellite observations of sea-surface
temperatures and double checked against and blended with actual surface reading of the Pacific.
Whereas they determined the strength of each El Niño by how much its sea-surface temperatures
deviated from the average – the average being calculated over all the numbers noted since 1982
(28 year average of a planet almost 5 billion year old ?). Their results show that the “intensity” of
the El Niños in the central Pacific have nearly doubled over the study period with the most
intense event occurring in 2009-2010 and in this finding say that the stronger El Niño helps
explain a “steady rise” in the temperature in the Central Pacific ocean.
 Very recently a news piece was splashed across the world about Ecuadorian fish kills, related to
the cold weather over South America, during their winter. One of the responders to the published
article pointed out that there had been noted a large ingress of “cold water” in the Humboldt
current along the “West Coast” of South America. He draws attention to the not yet published
fact that this cooler current is normally associated with triggering La Nina. He also mentions that
the cooler Humboldt Current runs the risk of not being linked to the influx of the much cooler
waters of the Andean Rivers and their impact of their final drainage, the South Pacific. He slowly
drags the reader back into the denial by the good people of Earth of Global Warming, noting that
Alaska and northern Russia when they experienced a “far warmer” winter than normal the last
season – smiling (with words) that he found it interesting that the deniers of Al Gore’s favorite
cash generator were only burying their head-in-the-sand being afraid to admit the Climate was
changing – there I drew the line, immediately switching over to another site finding an equally
astonishing site that referenced the fact that butterfly leavings (lightly scented poop) in East
Singapore were causing the inhabitants of NYC to protest the construction of an Islamic building
a couple of blocks from the now worshiped WTC location. I love the Internet!
The butterflies it seems were the product of the same group of “right-wing” radicals that
showed up at their local PTA meeting demanding that members of their society, that were in
charge of educating their young, to cease and desist dragging their children’s minds through the
process of explaining were rain came from and that Al Gore was not slated to sit on either side of
their Puritan God no matter what the grant writers claimed.
As these select few individuals made their way out of the PTA meeting it was noted they left
the area in large black limo’s with a bumper sticker or two with Sarah P’s smiling face in one
corner and the words “Drill, Baby Drill” written in bold blue letters – no one paid a whole lot of
attention with the exception of one google-eyed 19-year-old female teacher’s aid who had
recently dated a fellow by the name of Levi.

Some in the study (sorry to leave SP waving about but this is a serious paper) note this trend is
attributed by some effects of global warming? Two scientists/researchers working the project
were asked how a connection to greenhouse-driven warming could be made, whereas the
possibility that the Pacific shift could be the result of long-term oscillations (28 to 5,000,000,000)
in the ocean un-related to the buildup of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
It is not the first incidence where man affected a change in the environment, recent studies
show that Ice Age bears began a steady decline around 50,000 years ago, a relative of the modern
Brown bear who normally tipped the scales at 1,100 lbs. It seems that “man” took up residence
in the cave the bears hibernated in during the winter – leaving a few unfortunate fearsome
creatures out in the cold. Learned scholars tell us that over the next 26,000 years the bears
disappeared from the face of the earth, now why Brown bears did not is a good question, for they
survived during the same era – might be they didn’t mind sharing a cave or two with the local
Homo sapiens. Some, tongue in cheek say that Brown bears are not partial to caves.
There are still a great number of scientific minds preaching the doom and gloom of the rising
levels of the oceans, whereas they are screaming at the skies asking what can man do to prevent
the 11.8 inch to 27.6 inch rise over the next 90 years, a little over a tenth of inch per year at the
30cm cycle and bit over ¼ of an inch per year at 70cm in 90-years cycle, this is predicted to affect
over 150 million people. Not only will the oceans rise, but normal oceanic currents will shift
along with the ice in Greenland and large portions of Antarctica melting and the great mountains
of the world losing their glaciers with ensuing floods that make Pakistan as a Sunday rainstorm in
Seattle. In their predictions of these calamities, if one has half-a-brain, can see the preliminary
efforts to obtain grants and huge blocks of cash to continue their studies, no up-to-today solutions
are provided in stopping the climate change, whereas more and more of their “kind” are admitting
that composing stack and stacks of reports and data affirming their predictions is not only a waste
of time, but a huge waste of taxpayer funds around the globe. In other words as I used to say to
fellow engineers, “don’t come to me with your problems, unless you have a least one solution,
right or wrong at least it is an indication you’re just not crying the blues.” You want “blues” go
to a Jazz festival/concert pay your due and enjoy.
It has also come to light that during the time that the world was divided on whether or not man-
made gases were causing the planet to inch up a few degrees, there was another “cooking the
books” ploy being hoisted on mankind. Where an idea has being drummed into society, where
we now believe that we need to “double” the food production by 2050 to feed our growing
population.
Over the last couple of years, scientists, politicians and agricultural industry representatives (all
honest and God-fearing to the letter) have been using two statistics: the need to increase global
food production by 50% by 2030; and for food production to double by 2050. Two well published
values that mean a drastic change in the current international policy concerning the future
direction of global agriculture – these statistics pulled from the minds (commonly know as rectal
reach) of the learned have morphed into numbers dominating the policy and the media rants about
food and farming. Many publications and “white papers” pointing to the fact that we need “vast’
increases in agricultural production, this to feed the 9-billion expected population base. While
there is no doubt that a equitable and sufficient food supply is critical, many bully-pulpit laymen
are using these statistics to justify the need for more intensive agricultural practices and a rush to
the expansion of genetically modified crops (“GM”) – a huge future business that can and will be
controlled by governments and some private enterprises. Remember that over 75% of the GM
seeds are a one-time shot, in other words the resultant crop from GM seeds do not generate a seed
that can be used the following season, translation, the farmer, country and local industry has to go
back to the seller of the GM seed and purchase another seed for the next year. It is all about
control my friend, if we assume Lebanon twists the shorts of the USA or another supplier of their
seeds, the ruling elite simply does not provide the seeds next year and food becomes a problem.
Well guess what, and this should be not surprise to you and yours, when scholars outside of the
industrial concerns of food production looked into the stated claims, the reports cited as reference
actually did not say what is claimed, what they did say was that in “certain sectors’ of the world
the agricultural production “may” have to increase food production by “significant” amounts.
For example for cereals there is a projected increase of one billion tons annually “beyond” the
two tons produced in 2005, and in all countries with the exception of China the reports tell us that
some of the growth potential for meat (per capita consumption) will materialize as effective
demand (the per capita consumption) will double by 2050. In other words, the report does not
say a doubling of global food production, but a doubling of meat consumption in “some”
developing countries – so this is a projected doubling of “meat” consumption not a doubling of
food production. There you go, again the scholars and members of our society associated with
food production are cooking the books to assure they have a job doing; one-getting copious
amounts of money from this source; or that to compose voluminous reports telling us we’re all
going to starve unless we following their suggestions, which in the end is to purchase this product
or that one, providing the money for the report.
More accurate reports released during the past decade show that food production between 2006
and 2050 would need to increase by some 70%, not the 100% creating a difference in food
production equal to the entire food production of the continental United States – what a difference
30% now becomes.
Along for the ride with doom and gloom of the food industry a new scholastic industry has
been born, this one waving the banner of what “wars” and other such conflicts are doing to the
planets surface, whereas over the years it is noted that from “Agent Orange” to “deliberate oil
spill”, bomb craters and mass graves are all producing massive environmental “costs”, albeit from
a few noted high-profile incidents such as the diminishing Rwanda mountain gorillas, the effect
of conflict has not be thoroughly examined and naturally “underfunded”, which in reality is the
crux of the matter. Translation – we need more grant money!
 During the past 50 or so years I often thought about the job market around me, whereas in my
lifetime have watched the demise of the local fishing industry in my hometown, the demise of the
critical navigator on an airplane or ship, and the reduction in too many to mention manufacturing
facilities as robotics assumed more and more the role of man. I have noticed the shift away from
basic functions such as keeping our infrastructure up-dated and the slow reemergence of some
parts of our past utilizing the iron-rail, and the explosive growth of the service industry and the
production of machines and software that have almost eliminated libraries and the teaching of
such things as basic math, reading, street directions, etc. – so the addition of another industry, one
that will basically inform us on how much damage we have hoisted on our planet is not
surprising, when you look at it, it is just another job! Seems to me the more jobs created will be
to our benefit, one has to remember that in 1900 there were approximately 1.8 billion humans
strolling about, and in 1950 our starship through the cosmos had a burden of 2.5 billion whereas
our prolific society added approximately 700 million humans in 50 years, today with 6.8 billion
humans we have added some 4.3 billion in 60 years. Read it again, between 1900 and 1950 our
society added somewhere around 14 million per year, between 1950 and 2010 we’ve managed to
add over 72 million stomachs per year – and we tell ourselves that rabbits are busy.
In other words, the most advanced IPod or fastest processing units in existence cannot provide
the food this expanding mass of humanity is going to require, by now you must be realizing
somewhere in your grey matter that the climate is indeed changing, and whether or not you
believe it is man-made or a cycle of our planet really makes no-never-mind, it is changing! In
fact, the only part of our society that really uses the Climate Change/AGW formula are the
politicians and their lackey’s, who ride the rail on either one-side or the other, waving their
banners on how much or how little money is being appropriated to study the effects of the
change, keep in mind that for every dollar appropriated in either direction one or more politicians
will dip their greedy slimy fingers into the bowl withdrawing enough to make their life a bit more
adjustable to the change.
When one considers that recently our scholars have determined that our Solar System is a bit
older than we previously believed, somewhere around 4.568 billion years old, it gives pause to
why we’re so upset about the Climate Changing – which in effect will bring change to picture we
now have of our civilization, such as it can be labeled.
Consider that over 400,000 years ago the female of the species got up one morning and began
nagging her mate, and thereby the evolution of humans changed to where the sounds that enabled
the Homo sapiens to rise above the other animals eventually morphed into the dangerous tool that
a great majority of our politicians and religious leaders have raised far past the art of Van Gogh
or any of his fellow associates. Note that there has been no definitive date on when Homo
sapiens began to think, some debate this unto the wee hours of the night maintaining that part of
evolution has passed us by, I’m inclined to agree at times – but being a simple engineer the
process is fleeting from time-to-time. Unfortunately there is a larger share of our society running
about who do not associate their ability to speak with the quieter function of thinking, most
believing that moving their vocal cords are as far apart from thinking as we are from the center of
our Milky Way Galaxy – in case you’re wondering we a long way from the center, some 28,000
light years (a light year is 5.878 trillion miles) – a little bit more than a Sunday drive, unless
you’re smokin or snortin some good stuff!
Change which we all agree, as the only constant in our Universe, is just not limited to the
physical characteristics of our material system, consider the ant – since we can’t effectively
publish meaning full studies on the species of man – well, ants really don’t construct huge labor
intensive places of worship and spend a great deal of their time on the appendages asking this
God or that one for the death and destruction of their fellow ants, whereas finding a human
perform the necessary functions of survival spent a great deal of their time working toward a
heavenly existence while destroying their neighbor. The ant has its own society where they have
nomadic warriors, the world’s most prolific farmers, and albeit they still employ slavery and child
labor – they overall have survived in some sort of peace with each other, except when you tell
them you’re going to run roughshod of their food supply or tax them. Studies over the years have
revealed that the Camponotus floridanus (carpenter ant) is the superior of the ant species having a
complex social structure and that within their society they employ a strict caste system, this
system is brought about by almost invisible changes in their DNA, invisible changes known in
scientific circles as “epi-genetic” changes that affect the ants’ characteristics.
Reminds one of the epi-genetic changes in Homo sapiens, changes that down over the centuries
and centuries have led to the human race over time to commit war (killing and maiming each
other) for material gain, war that is supported by the different religions who in the end benefit in
ways that cannot be measure – each and everyone of us call it survival, a catch phrase that simply
means I want what you have and you want what I have – so, let’s mix it up a bit and reduce the
population while we’re at it. We each march into battle knowing full well that God, who stays up
at night worrying about us, is on each other’s side and we know in our pure hearts that we are in
the right and the guy in the next door surly worships some other God or even the devil himself.
Ants’ seldom change their enemy, while Homo sapiens change foes on a daily basis, and are
not to particular whom they chose – all depends on what they’re going to do battle about – oil,
land, race and/or religion. We establish weapons that are outlawed in deep space and other
planets, whip up a few devices that will eliminate copious amounts of our fellow man, scratching
for money to develop these weapons, from the people whose sons and daughters we will have
wounded or killed – our demands based on the defense and honor of our country. Which at times
is about as honorable as a pimp in Atlantic City – didn’t mean to downgrade the pimp, his honor
23 hours and 59 minutes of the day is above 99.99% of the politicians who grace the halls of
local, state and federal government, - even in the 1 minute he slips is not as low as our holy-than-
thou politicians.
I read the other day that some of the famous “Chinook” salmon has been genetically enhanced,
producing very large, but sterile salmon that not only are larger but grows from egg to maturity in
a flash – USFDA is said to begin the approval process of this first engineered animal for
consumption by humans anywhere. This extra-large salmon matures twice-as-fast as a normal
salmon, but, keep in mind like the GM seeds of the new world order, the salmon is sterile
translating into I guess that a new job opening has been created whereas low-paying jobs will
materialize where an individual pokes a needle full of some enhancement ingredient into a
salmon egg, consisting of DNA sequenced fluid derived from a eel-like species called the “ocean
pout” that will produce the goliath of salmon. And in one-year this new genetically produced fish
ends up on your backyard barbeque weighting in the neighborhood of some 40-60 pounds, stuffed
with sour cream, onions, and other GM produced spices. The claim for the sterility of the
saltwater poker is that we can’t have these giants swimming about having their way with the wild
salmon, for whatever reason – all I can see is that the fish farms don’t want to be loved out of
business.
Seeing how some scholars in their finding see that the doubling of food production is a bit
sideways, telling their followers it will be only a 70% increase rather than 100%, really doesn’t
translate into “business as usual” when it comes to 9-billion people shuffling up to the dinner
table. The minds of the learned in their projections of doom and gloom seem to believe that
man’s consumption patterns of food will remain the same as they do today, whereas there will be
a uncontrolled increase of livestock products as their primary source of calories, this assumption
they applied to their predictive models – albeit even in my lifespan we have learned that this
dietary route leads to health problems such as increased cardiovascular disease, some cancers,
Type 2 diabetes, and really fat people. In addition their models fail to consider the focus of
access to food, its distribution or affordability – which in the layman’s view are pretty damn
important when it comes to ensuring people do not go hungry. Coupled with their models is the
fact that developing countries will continue to import a growing amount of staple foods,
foregoing the fact that in order to survive the locals will need to increase the local production of
necessary subsistence ensuring their food stability. In the end, all their graphs, words and
educated computer generated models will still not solve the problem (as exists today) that there
will still be a certain percentage of our society that will continue to starve and waste away. Down
through the centuries there have been and will continue to be countless have’s and have not’s
when it comes to food, and as our numbers increase there will increasingly be a much larger
number and no-matter who presents the facts and at what time in our existence the factors change
little, albeit as we multiply the competition for our survival increases on a logarithmic scale…in
other words I seriously doubt that we will ever reach the day when mankind pops a green pill
once every day and walks merrily on his way toward the future.
The scale of life remains pretty constant – the only item that changes is the number of our
society – and their isn’t a politician, lawyer or engineer that will matter when it comes to what
side of the scale one is on when the lights go out!
It is simply called “change”.