Gleanings: Saturday 7 Nov '20
So these are some of the topics that have occupied my thinking and reading time over the last couple of high-anxiety weeks. If any of these resonate, dig deeper.
If you find anything worth sharing in that deep dive, leave a comment.
๐ Danish Covid-19 mink variant could spark new pandemic, scientists warn | Environment | The Guardian
Just another reminder that we need to listen to our public-health science advice based recommendations, and keep in mind the BIG PICTURE view called OneHealth.
Yes Americans are living longer, but we are spending this extra time on Earth in unnecessarily poor health. It doesn't have to be that way. What can you do to extend your mental and physical health beyond the point where many begin the long decline towards perpetual illness and disability?
๐ง Brain study brings us closer to understanding why music moves us
And it does: music hath charms. But why? And do we all have the same capacity to being moved, and if not, can we blame nature or nurture for the tone-deafness of some?
๐ฝ UFOs
Thought experiment: what if tomorrow it was conclusively and unanimously agreed by experts from around the world that beings from beyond Earth had been and were continuing to visit the planet; AND that their technologies were vastly more sophisticated than ours. Case in point: the โtictacโ sightings that seem darned reliable. How to explain this?
What would your first reaction be? And how might it change what you have always thought and believed about humanity's place in the cosmos?
โ ๏ธ Ecocide: Should killing nature be a crime? - BBC Future
I like Aldo Leopold's Land Ethic that states, to paraphrase, that any law, regulation, policy or practice that diminishes the capacity of land spaces (habitats) to perpetuate the wellbeing of that space's air, soil, water, forests and the creatures they sustain--should be prohibited. To the extent that those laws etc promote those values and conditions of resilience and sustainability, they should be promoted. This could be the basis for the Ecological Civilization that must replace the EcoCidal epoch it would replace.
This article makes the case that harming our life support systems should be a crime. What do you think? Is the commons worth saving? Or should it be sold to the highest bidder?
๐ The Radical Power of Storytelling - Yes! Magazine
Relationships--the bonds that connect us with place, nature and each other. And Story: the celebration of those relationships. This brief view of these two elements of human connection is accompanied by spectacular artwork, alone with the time to visit.
๐ The END. Or NOT.
I've been following the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists and their "doomsday clock" for decades, thinking back during the height of the cold war that a half hour before midnight was terrifying. Now, we are at a minute and a half and change from the final tick before irreversible calamity--to the extent to which that can be predicted.
But the FINAL end is less likely than cataclysmic change that so many have experienced in the past decade or two from wildfires, hurricanes and financial collapse--disasters we can and should be prepared for.