The Natural Patriot

On this, the shortest day of the year here on the northern half of the planet, I offer the shortest blog post of the year in recognition of the rebirth of the year. 

“Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light;
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.”

          Alfred Lord Tennyson

Peace on earth, good will to all!

I refer to the Catholic Church.  Admittedly, “most conservative organization on earth” could be considered an exaggeration in comparison with freaks like Ann Coulter, who could make even Atilla the Hun look reasonable.

On the other hand, this is the organization that waited until 1992 – yes, nineteen-ninety-two – to admit officially that Galileo’s heliocentric theory of the solar system (which earned him a death sentence for heresy three hundred and fifty-nine years earlier in 1633) was in fact correct.  Like a giant ocean liner, The Church doesn’t turn on a dime. 

So it’s a significant event that Pope Benedict has publicly got on board the green Christian bandwagon, recently fronting an eco-friendly youth rally, a “Day for Safeguarding Creation“. According to Reuters:

“Italy’s Catholic Church, which organized the event, said it was the first environmentally friendly youth rally, a break from past gatherings that left tonnes of garbage and scars on the earth.  A participants’ kit included backpacks made of recyclable material, a flashlight operated by a crank instead of batteries, and color-coded trash bags so their personal garbage could be easily recycled. Meals were served on biodegradable plates.  Tens of thousands of prayerbooks for Sunday’s mass were printed on recycled paper and an adequate number of trees would be planted to compensate for the carbon produced at the event, many in areas of southern Italy devastated by recent brushfires . . . The Vatican has become progressively ‘green.’  It has installed photovoltaic cells on buildings to produce electricity and hosted a scientific conference on climate change.  Last month Benedict said the human race must listen to “the voice of the Earth” or risk destroying its very existence.”

The Pontiff was even wearing green vestments.  Really. Now, a skeptic might argue that this is mainly window-dressing and that distributing biodegradable backpacks and prayer books is not going to save the world (particularly while fighting against condom use and AIDS education – but let’s not go there yet).  But, to paraphrase an old adage, “let he among you who is completely green cast the first stone”.  I would argue that the broader significance of this event is that even the Catholic Church, which would never be accused of moving without due deliberation, has evidently got religion, so to speak, on the conclusion that the non-human part of Creation is important, that it is in trouble, and that we are responsible for fixing it. 

“A decisive ‘yes’ is needed in decisions to safeguard creation as well as a strong commitment to reverse tendencies that risk leading to irreversible situations of degradation,” the 80-year-old Pope said.

Why is this important?  For starters, because there are over one billion Roman Catholics on earth — roughly one in six humans currently alive — and many consider the Pope’s word to be the ultimate earthly authority on ethical matters. So what the Pope says arguably has a larger multiplier effect on human behavior than that of any other single human being.  Bill Gates maybe excepted. 

Now there are a few other issues about which I would argue with the Pope.  But let’s give some credit where credit’s due.  So now that we’re on the same wavelength about that, can we talk about overpopulation . . .

The BBC reports that a new list of British species in need of protection includes . . . house sparrows. 

The news comes from the UK’s new Biodiversity Action Plan (BAP), the result of more than two years of research by more than 500 wildlife experts and a large number of volunteers. 

“The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) said that as well as the house sparrow, the starling was another familiar garden bird to feature on the BAP list of 59 bird species.

‘The fact that the bird list now includes more than a fifth of all the UK’s regularly occurring birds is a cause for alarm, ’ said Mark Avery, the RSPB’s conservation director.”

Huh?!  House sparrows and starlings?  What’s next — pigeons? Hard to believe, especially if you have been in any major city in the world lately, and seen the seemingly vigorous populations of these archetypal invasive species, in grizzled downtown plumage, picking at stale french fries and other flotsam among the urban detritus. 

Perhaps for exactly that reason, this is sobering news.  It reminds me of the status of the blue crab here in the Chesapeake Bay region.  The blue crab is the closest thing the non-primate branches of the animal kingdom have come to producing the sort of freaks found in the World Wrestling Federation — mean, nasty, pumped up, and constitutionally belligerent.  Blue crabs, somewhat like house sparrows and starlings, can make do in a wide range of environmental conditions, can eat almost literally anything, and have astonishing reproductive output.  You’d think it would be impossible to kill them.  Yet in the face of relentless fishing pressure even these consummate survivors have declined to the point where many experts are worried about their long-term prospects.  Which doesn’t bode well for the more delicate wild creatures among us.

Not many people in my neck o’ the woods would think of these scrappy urban birds as wildlife.  Yet house sparrows (aka English sparrows) and starlings are ancient and reassuringly familiar citizens of town life in the UK.  One wonders what people could have done, after all these centuries, to create an environment that is inhospitable even to them.  Although admittedly plain, the humble house sparrow has its charms — like most any organism that one takes the time to know.  And noone captured it better than the great William Carlos Williams, whose tribute I feel compelled to quote (alas, in abridged form) here:

     At that,

          his small size,

keen eyes,

     servicable beak

          and general truculence

assure his survival –

     to say nothing

          of his innumerable

brood.

     Even the Japanese

          know him

and have painted him

     sympathetically,

          with profound insight

into his minor

     characteristics.

          . . .

Practical to the end

     it is the poem

          of his existence

that triumphed

     finally;

          a wisp of feathers

flattened to the pavement

     wings spread symetrically

          as if in flight,

the head gone,

     the black escutcheon of the breast

          undecipherable,

the effigy of  sparrow

     a dried wafer only,

          left to say

and it says it

     without offense,

          beautifully;

This was I,

     a sparrow.

          I did my best;

farewell.

In this age of hyperbole (where, as Bill Maher has noted, every random coincidence of two things happening at the same time is breathlessly referred to as a “perfect storm”), we hear a lot about “rock stars” of science.  Big charismatic personalities who have had important impacts in and outside of their fields, etc, etc.  Yeah, some of these guys and gals are great.  But they are rock stars only figuratively speaking.

This guy is the Real McCoy:

Brian May, pathbreaking guitarist for Queen (and, in my humble opinion, among the most underappreciated of the great creative rock guitarists in history), is now (well, OK, not quite yet) Dr. Brian May.  And, yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, this is rocket science. 

You couldn’t make this story up (from the BBC):

“Queen guitarist Brian May has handed in his astronomy PhD thesis - 36 years after abandoning it to join the band.  May recently carried out observational work in Tenerife, where he studied the formation of ‘zodiacal dust clouds’.  The subject forms the basis of a 48,000-word thesis for Imperial College, London, where 60-year-old May studied before becoming a rock star. ‘It’s been the longest gap year ever,’ May said. ‘It was a tough decision back then to leave my studies for music.’  But the star said that at the time, his ‘passion for music was stronger’. ‘I’m so proud to be here today,’ he told BBC London. ‘Astronomy has always interested me. I used to love sitting at home and watching Sir Patrick Moore on The Sky at Night.‘

May handed in the thesis, called ‘Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud’, to Imperial’s head of astrophysics Professor Paul Nandra.  The guitarist is scheduled to discuss his thesis with the examining board on 23 August, his spokesman said. The results should be known some time shortly after that date.  May recently co-authored a book with Sir Patrick Moore.  ‘I have no doubt that Brian May would have had a brilliant career in science had he completed his PhD in 1971,’ said astrophysicist Dr Garik Israelian, who worked with May in La Palma.  ‘Nevertheless, as a fan of Queen, I am glad that he left science temporarily,’ he added.

May made his first astronomical observations for his thesis at the Observatorio del Teide in Tenerife in 1971, before his rock career took off. He recently published a book on astronomy with The Sky at Night presenter Sir Patrick Moore.”

Now this is a guy I could lift a pint or two with after a scientific meeting.  And so, hats off to Dr. Brian May (or is it Dr. Sir Brian May — isn’t he also a Peer of the Realm by now?).  The Natural Patriot salutes you as a true Renaissance Man, and for your perseverence through the decades.  We wish you all the best for your dissertation defense on the 23rd.  Don’t be nervous — remember: you’re the expert on your material.  Take in a glass of water in case you need a moment to stall for time in answering a question . . .

And a final note to students: Don’t try this at home!  Dr. May’s experience notwithstanding, it’s usually a better idea to finish your thesis first . . .

Returned two nights ago from two glorious weeks in the French Alps (about which more later) sans internet access, and plunged into the cold waters of reality to find 2348 spam comments clogging the Natural Patriot.  The weight of this crap was so overwhelming that I couldn’t access the “comments in moderation” to get rid of them.  Long story short – in the process of laboriously slashing bogus comments, I managed accidentally to erase ALL comments posted after about 1 March.  So for those (all four or five of you) who have posted comments, which are now missing, I apologize — it certainly wasn’t intentional.  Read the rest of this entry »

Not sure if I got that right.  My French is quite rudimentary.

Whew, it’s been a hectic summer — hence the irregular pace of posts recently to the Natural Patriot.  This is just a note to alert my legions of eager readers that the NP will be off the air (to use the now hopelessly archaic terminology) for the next two weeks, apart from a few posts in the hopper that will drip out in the coming week or so.  We will be enjoying family vacation in Annecy, France (see idyllic photo).  Sorry, I don’t mean to rub it in.

Back to reality on 29 July (at which point I will begin dealing with the mountain of comment spam that will undoubtedly have accumulated over that time period — how about a law extending capital punishment to spammers?). 

So don’t cancel your subscription! As the Guvernator said in a previous lifetime, “I’ll be back.” In the meantime, carry on and chin up.

Summertime and the livin’ is easy. Not any more.

A NASA study published last month suggests that summers in my neck o’ the woods here in the eastern USA are going to be pretty brutal in the coming century.

The maps shows results of a computer model projection of average daily maximum temperatures over the eastern United States for July 2085 (left) and July 1993 (right). Areas in violet shading show temperatures of 26°C (79°F); green 30°C (86°F); yellow 34°C (93°F); red 38°C (100°F); dark purple 42°C (108°F). Credit: NASA/GISS.

The researchers used one of the global models from the recently issued climate report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to predict future changes in atmospheric circulation patterns resulting from greenhouse gas accumulation. This information was then fed into the weather prediction model to forecast summer-to-summer temperature variability in the eastern United States during the 2080s. They found that extreme summer temperatures developed when CO2 emissions were assumed to continue increasing at about 2% a year, the “business as usual” scenario. According to NASA:

“The research found that eastern U.S. summer daily high temperatures that currently average in the low-to-mid-80s (degrees Fahrenheit) will most likely soar into the low-to-mid-90s during typical summers by the 2080s. In extreme seasons – when precipitation falls infrequently – July and August daily high temperatures could average between 100 and 110 degrees Fahrenheit in cities such as Chicago, Washington, and Atlanta.” 

Ouch.