The End of Man??

I just finished reading an article that was a real eye opener.
In it, the author talks about the Amazon Rain Forest and it's immenent death and what that will do to the earth and it's very fragile ecosystem.
And all of that could be happening in the very near future.

For our sake, I hope his predictions are wrong (as does he). But I also fear (as does he) that is might be too late and that in a matter of 10 years or less we (all humans) may just be living in a "living hell" and that alot of the population will die off as a result.
Maybe even our entire speicies will become exctinct.
I sure hope not.

I have included his missive in it's entirety below as I feel it is a very powerful statement and one worth reading....that is if one cares what one part of the earth can possibly do to the other.

In ending I say that as I always have....if we were to perish tomorrow because of a number of different things, I would be thankful for the life I have lived these past 40 years and I will be thankful for all the wonderful people I have met in that time and all the awsome things I have experienced.
I surly want this wonderful ride to continue so I can experience even more of this massive world I live in....but if I do succumb to death tomorrow I will know that I have tried living my life to the fullest while I was here.

And now to the article entitled "The End of Man?".....
____________________________________________________________________

As the summer of 2006 rages on, with heatwaves stretching from the American Pacific coast all the way across the North Atlantic to Europe and virtually around the world, we now discover that the great Amazonian rain forest has perhaps a year to live.
If there is no rain in the Amazon basin soon, and that forest is destroyed, mankind is likely to die with it. This is because the Amazonian forest is, in effect, the heart of the world's ecosystem. It is a vast, unimaginably important carbon dioxide sink and oxygen producer. Without it, the planet's climate will quickly become untenable for human life.
We are well on our way to another large-animal extinction, and we will be among the large animals who go.
Given the amazing magnitude of this catastrophe, I very much doubt that more than a remnant of mankind would still exist in 25 years. If it happens, most of us will be dead within 5 years, and those remaining at that time will curse God for not having taken them, also.
Unfortunately, it is not all that unlikely that this crucial ecosystem will die. It probably will, in fact. More terrifying, it is likely to die in the context of vast forest fires, that will come alight due to dry lightning and people used to relatively damp and non-combustible foliage accidentally setting fires.
So, what can we do about it? The short answer is nothing. It's too late. Overpopulation and political inaction will have done us in.
The next question, then, is how do we face it? My first thought is a simple enough one: we need to pray our hearts out for rain to fall in the Amazon between this coming December and next May. Because if it does not come, scientists from Woods Hole are warning that the forest ecosystem will completely collapse.
Climatological studies show conclusively that this will lead to profound drought across the whole of the northern hemisphere. Our world, as we know it now, will be in ruins by 2010, and something close to hell by 2012.
I know that it's almost impossible to imagine that it could be that bad, but, in fact, it's true. The life of the world depends on that rainy season working.
This gets to the reason that it has been so dry there for the past two years. It is because the Caribbean has overheated, and the hot water does not produce enough free vapor to form the moisture laden clouds that usually sweep across Brazil and push up against the Andes during that season.
Why has this happened? In great part, because the growth of human population has happened too fast for the environment to cope, and it's rebalancing itself by relieving itself of the burden that is us. In part, it's because we have not directed our intelligence or our scientific and engineering skills to solving the problem of global warming.
This has not been a matter for debate for twenty-five years, and yet lying politicans and greedy companies have kept the false debate going anyway. The United States, the one country with the power and the expertise to make changes has, instead, ended up with an exceptionally poor leadership that has promoted the shibboleth of denial until it is, in all probability, too late.
The largest question is, how do we engage in this process of dieback? How will it strike us first?
The first problem is one we already face: heat. There will come times soon, possibly in Europe in the next few weeks, in fact, where heat becomes untenable and thousands die. But that's only the beginning. There will be heatwaves, if the Amazon dies, that will kill millions.
The next problem will be water. We'll run out. The desert cities that have emerged in the US will experience catastrophic water emergencies and forced migrations that it will not be possible for the rest of the society to absorb.
Then will come the food problem. Already this year, excessive heat has disrupted production of food crops worldwide. The disruptions are not disastrous yet, and the world still grows a food surplus, but the day will come when that will not be true, and if the Amazon does indeed collapse next year, the first great food shortages will appear in 2010.
After that, social collapse will spread rapidly. The rest, you can imagine. There's no point in describing it.
In my 1985 book Nature's End, I predicted essentially the scenario that is unfolding now, and warned that the Amazonian rain forest might become too dry and burn.
The fires have not started yet, but they are not far off, I fear.
I understood very clearly in 1985 what runaway global warming would do to the planet--what it is doing now. I also saw that this catastrophe would not be recoverable for us.
Now, we are facing a stark reality indeed: the end of the Amazonian rain forest and the subsequent end of man. It is worth remembering that more than nine out of ten species that have ever existed on the earth are extinct at any given moment in geologic history.
Will we go entirely extinct? There is no way to be certain of that, but we will experience a massive dieback, that is certain...if the forest fails.
And for those of you who will scoff at this and say 'what does the Amazon have to do with us,' I suggest you look at the climate models. The peril is quite clear.
What will it be like to live in a dying world? We do now, actually, but nobody really admits it. However, when temperatures are still in the triple digits in Kansas in November, as they will be if we lose the Amazon, people will begin to face the reality that we waited too long to act, and have run out of time.
Who will they blame? What difference does it make?

I have been working since about 1980 to avoid ever having to write an article like this. Unfortunately, neither my little effort nor the much greater efforts of far more influential people, have helped change the situation.
The Kyoto Treaty turned out to be a lot of talk built around a dubious premise. The United States has not shown any leadership at all in this area, at a time when the survival, if not of the species, then certainly of civilization, depended on bold and innovative action by the world's most powerful country.
So now we stand just this side of dying. We who live on this day may know the end of the world. There will be no rapture of the congenitally selfish, and the Moslems will not meet their sky virgins. What will happen will be hard, terrifying beyond words, and fatal in a million different ways, but always fatal.
How do we do a thing like this well, if it comes down to the dying? It's hard to imagine. But I will say this, that the peace that abides in my own heart will not be shaken even by this suffering.
I watched a little boy today, come down the street with his backpack on and his eyes twinkling with the joy of his boyhood. He walked on past me and I thought that we cannot count how much we owe our children.
If I could, I would lift them all into a better earth, but I have not the strength in my shoulders.
Now it's dark, the house is hot (we don't have air conditioning) and the hour is late and weary. Somewhere nearby, that little boy sleeps, and dreams perhaps of the peaks he will ascend in the future to which he feels entitled.
Now, the little baby who lives across the way cries and fusses a bit. Mother comes, I hear her voice, tired in the late hour, nevertheless cooing with the gentlest love.
Love. I don't see the world as a place of hate. I can hardly hear words spoken in hate. It's as if they're being shouted up from a deep well. I see the world as a land of love, because that's what it really is.
Subtract the politicians and the guns and the media, and think of your own life. You live in love. You love your children, your parents, your spouses--and you are multiplied by billions.
For uncountable eons, life on earth was governed by the brutalities of nature. Animals fought and slaughtered and died in abject terror here, for ages upon ages.
Then, just a short time ago, a man and a woman gazed into each other's eyes and spoke words of love, and the world changed. Now, in all this intricate vastness of billions, there is love. In fact, mankind is an ocean of love riding a little rock in the great dark of the sky.
An ocean of love. That's our reality. The guns and the wars and the hate, the betrayals and the cruelty--those are mere dimmings of the huge light of love that shines here.
A late hour, weary hour, and I am tired, too. I know well that this is the first place where this warning has actually been voiced. Hopefully, it will be proved wrong by circumstances, but I very much doubt that. Who is going to cool the Caribbean? The answer is, it's too late.
Even if the rains come this year and next year, there will soon be a series of years when they do not come.
On the plus side, the Amazon rain forest has been around for around two million years, and throughout that time has experienced significant climate fluctuations. Scientists consider it an extremely resistant ecosystem.
Earth, in other words, has a strong heart.
Have we broken it?
Pray.
If you wish to read more about this issue, click here.
___________________________________________________________________

A Pretty Good Viewpoint of the U.S. View on the Mid East...

The following article from Forbs.com says quite a bit in one little "nutshell" about what SEEMS to be the intentions of the U.S. as far as the latest round of diplomatic efforts concerning the fighting in Israel and Lebanon and in trying to help Israel (and the world for that matter) create longterm stability in that part of the world.

That is all I will say for now...
Read on by clicking the link below...

Analysis: U.S. Charts Own Mideast Course - Forbes.com

A good Thursday to all....

Secret Pentagon Plan to Attack Mideast revealed...

I came across this the other day that may shed some light on what is currently going on over in the mideast.

General Wesley Clark, who has been talked about as being a potential presidential contender a few times in the past year, supossedly had a "chat" with some other pentagon officials back on 2001.

An excerpt from the article and a quote from Clark, and a link to the article below the quote:

"As I went back through the Pentagon in November 2001, one of the senior military staff officers had time for a chat. Yes, we were still on track for going against Iraq, he said. But there was more. This was being discussed as part of a five-year campaign plan, he said, and there were a total of seven countries, beginning with Iraq, then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iran, Somalia and Sudan.

Secret 2001 Pentagon Plan to Attack Lebanon

Makes one wonder what is next and what our government has planned for that area of the world.
Hmmm........

Our Minds controlling our PC's

The Matrix and Neuromancer are coming closer to reality.
At least according to this article.

Imagine being able to control all you do with your computer by thought alone. Eliminating the need for the mouse, keyboard and even your voice.

While the implications of such technology are immense in a positive sense such as the point being made about the "quadriplegic" man in the article below, there are also various things about all this that frankly scare me. Imagine if someone devises a way for "two way thought interpetation" and or the ability to create subliminal thought processes coursing through our minds (oh wait...the movie industry supossedly does this already by way of subliminal milisecond advertising in between the many lines of moving pictures....or so I have heard) to make us do things and in the case of our dreams.....I wont even venture into that.

But still all in all it is all very interesting and totally amazing as to where we are headed in the early 21st century.
Future Boy: This is your brain on Google - Jul. 21, 2006

Hezbollah Threatens "No Place Safe for Israelie's"

Someone once told me that the tounge can be sharper than the sword.

And if the statement above made by Hezbollah's representitive in Iran is any indication....then the escalating crisis in the mideast is just the beginning of a newly revived campaign of terror and death for the world at large.

It is being said that our U.S. Secretary of State is currently planning to travel to that part of the world to try and negotiate some sort of ceasefire possibly....I do not think she or anyone else will be able to do anything at this point and I feel that the crisis will only deepen in the days and months to come.

I pray for all the poor lives that are going to be lost because of this developing war. I just hope it doesn't escalate into what some are thinking could turn into the next true "World War".
Hezbollah Envoy: War on Israel to Widen

The latest conflict in the Mid-East-Is this the start of World War Three??

What is going on with Israel and Lebanon?

As I was ending my work day on Wed., my bartender who was coming back from the front desk mentioned that the TV in the lobby had the news on and the newscaster was talking about the possibility that the conflict over in that part of the world could possibly develop into World War Three. She said they were talking about how the U.S. is completely backing Israel in it's offensive in trying to stop "Hezbollah", which is considered a terrorist organization by the U.S., from wreaking more "mayhem" over in the southern part of Lebanon and in Northern Israel.
The roots of this conflict goes very deep and very far back in recent history and the U.S. has been involved in trying to stop the "on again-off again" violence many times in the past 30 years.

The bombing that is currently going on between the two is affecting a lot of people and as I was talking with some of my staff at work yesterday, I mentioned the fact that so much of what is happening over there in the world has been talked about since the days of the bible and that some of the things seem to coincide with what the bible calls "The End Times" and "Armageddon"....the end of the world as we know it.

Well for the time being, the conflict over there is affecting quite a few people back here in Wisconsin and in Milwaukee in particular. The story below that I have linked to tells of a few people who must surly be going through pure terror right now in trying to get out of "harms way".

JS Online:Far-off conflict hits home for families

I for one will live each day to the fullest and share my love and affection and my positive nature with all of those that mean something to me. None of really knows when the end will come for our species but if the human population keeps this crap up I have no doubt it will be sooner than later.

I say "Live like there is no tomorrow...because there may not be one if things like this keep on going on".

But...if things do end unexpectedly, I will have to say at least for myself that it has been an interesting "ride"....

A good Friday to all.

Censorship of the Blogs....

It seems that India (which by the way is one of the biggest technology based countries in the world right now) is blocking access to a number of blogging websites including the one here that my blog is hosted on.

Why are they doing this?
To try and stop extremists from talking about their views after the deadly bombings in India a few weeks ago.

I really don't think this is the way to go about making sure the extremists have a way of communicatong with one another.
If all other countries had the same view of things, the internet might as well be shut down. One of the great things about the web and the net is for people to have the ability to practice their freedoms.....the ones that we have left that is.

Read more about India's quest to censor it's citizen's freedoms:

CNN.com - India blocks blogging Web sites - Jul 19, 2006

Space: An "Inflatable Spaceship"

I thought this was interesting. Plans for it's use range from a space hotel to a orbiting college or science lab.

I am so lucky to be living in this day and age.
Hopefully we will begin to see some of the things that were put fourth in episoded of "Startrek" and other science fiction shows and movies in my lifetime.
That is if we don't extinct ourselves first....what with the things going on between Israel and Lebonon right now....

Read on for the full story about this newest space based venture:
Blow me up, Scotty: new space age - World - theage.com.au

Israel and Lebanon at the Crusp of Full Scal War?

The middle east seems to be heating up again.
This time things are getting so "hot" that the "going ons" over there make it seem imminent (at least to me) that these two nations are in the initial stages of a full scale war.

The holy land doesn't seem very holy these days.
I feel sorry for all the innocent people who will be killed if this stuff goes beyond what has happened in the last few days.

I wanted to always visit that area of the middle east...but I think I may wait until their civilizations are eventually rebuilt after all the destruction and carnage that is taking place right now runs it's course.

More on the latest below:
CNN.com - Hezbollah rockets strike Israeli port - Jul 13, 2006

A response to my blog entry about the 911 site and the Dutche Bank Building

I was looking through the comments on my posts earlier today and came across this earlier today...a response from a 911 family member. I havn't read too much on the ensuing clean up in the last few months.

But as I said in that post a few months ago, the feeling that I got when I was standing up against the side of that building was one that will stay with me forever.

A link to that post and the comment from the reader that follows:
http://jrepinski.blogspot.com/2006/04/more-remains-discovered-near-wtc-site.html

New York Times Article on my Home Town

A friend told me that the city of Racine had gotten a nice little write up in the New York Times Newspaper a few weeks ago.

I was interested to see what the Times had to say about our little city on the lake.

I have been busy with work and all this last week so I didnt get a chance to dig very much but as I was checking out a few different local blogs this morning, I came across a post from "Realdebate" that was kind of rude to say the least while talking about the Times write up (which I have included here in it's entirety) and then by digging in to the Times site on the 1st of July, I found the slideshow which I have also linked to below.

For the record, I think the mayor and the officials of this city are doing a fine job and that while Racine may have it's problems, there is a lot of good going on here.

There may be a full article somewhere on the Times site and if I find it I will post it, but I did find a nicely put together slide show that the Times did. Photos with captions....very well done.

Click on the link below to view the piece that the Times put together:
Business and Financial News - New York Times:
"Slide Show: A Community Coming to Grips With Change
The story of Racine, Wis., like that of the nation as a whole, is also the story of how a community comes to grips with the larger forces of globalization and technological change."

And "Realdebate's post about the story:
____________________________________________
Racine is going to be featured in the New York Times

This Sunday a smiling Mayor Gary Becker will be on the front of the business section of the New York Times.

The story is keyed on how Racine is adapting to the economy.
Seeing as unemployment is horrid and there is zero new industry in town, I'm really confused as to what exactly they are going to talk about, unless of course they talk about interpersonal relationships between city officials.
More likely Gary will blame unemployment issues on Paul Ryan while taking no personal responsibility himself.It should be an interesting read.
I wonder if there is a classified story they could leak out of Racine?
posted by realdebate 2:45 PM 3 comments links to this post
____________________________________________
A good Tuesday to all

I was an "Extra" in a B-Horror Movie Flick tonight...

A close friend called me this evening and asked if I wanted to be part of a cast of "extras" making up a crowd in a bar during part of the filming of a "B-movie" called "October Moon 2-November Son", that his friend just started filming in Racine.

I of course said yes. So we traveled to a bar just south of Racine and took part in what is to be the sequel to a movie that this friend of a friend is filming.

It was a blast. We danced to some cool techno music and we sat at a lounge table enjoying "fake" conversation while watching some dialouge being filmed at the bar.
I do not know if either of us got on film but we did have to sign a "release form" which all extras do. I look forward to buying this movie when it eventually comes out on DVD for sure.

What a way to spend a monday evening.
I am going to have to go out and rent the 1st movie which is called "October Moon" and is available on DVD through various outlets here and there.

A direct link to that movie and what it is all about can be had by clicking on the 2nd link below. The first link talks about some of the "players" in this latest flick that this talented wisconsin native is undertaking....
octobermoongroup : Message: Popular Horror Star added to OM 2 cast

http://www.octobermoonthefilm.com/official.htm

Wisconsin Explorers reach North Pole

What an adventure this must have been for these two guys. An expedition to the North Pole!

And the first adventures to make it to the pole in the summer time.

The reason for this trek?
To call attention to Global Warming and the fact that if things continue the way they are right now, all ice could be gone from the pole within the next 50 years...and thus the polar bears that call this area of the world home could be facing extinction.
This was the pair's second try, having started the same trek last year only to find grueling conditions that stopped their adventure back then....

What things they must have witnessed already.
According to the story below, they encountered one of those great beasts (the polar bear) already, along with numerous other cool sights.

Sadly the trek for these two is now over as the one part of the adventerous pair has hurt his back due to all the "sloshing" through the "very thin" ice pack in "Santa's homeland".

These guys should be proud of what they accomplished. They have just had an adventure that doesnt not happen to very many people in a million lifetimes much less one.
I applaud them for their courage and adventurous spirit.


A link to their online blog detailing their adventures below:
http://www.projectthinice.org/blog/

...and the story as the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal Online reports it on the end of their trek to the northern most region of our planet:

JS Online:Explorers reach North Pole

Happy Birthday Mr. President

Holy Strawberries Batman!!
George Bush has turned 60.

The "Babyboomer of babyboomers" is starting into his "twighlight years".
He spent a day of this last week in Chicago trying to bolster his sagging ratings in the polls.
During his visit he talked about the situation in N. Korea and how he feels that the communist country will answer for their little test of their "missiles" over their sea.
But he also took some time to visit a Chicago firehouse and they responded by giving him a birthday cake.

What is the deal with the huge strawberries on the cake??
(Photo above)

A good Friday to all.

A New High Tech Device to search for other "Earth like" planets...

A starshade followed by a telescope that will be able look for other planets that our earth like....harboring life!

This is cool.
They say if this works, we could possibly find other "earth like" planets in the next decade!
I wonder if we will find (or in the case that we already have...which some think we have) admit the existence of other beings in our universe in my lifetime??

Read on for this interesting way of discovering other planets:
CNN.com - 'Starshade' may aid space exploration - Jul 5, 2006

N. Korea threatens U.S. with 'nuclear war'

Could one of the last communist countries on earth threaten "mankind's" survival as a species???

I am getting a little scared over all this....

CNN.com - N. Korea threatens U.S. with 'nuclear war' - Jul 3, 2006

I hope to god that someone over there has the sense to not go forward with this stuff,
Mankind is really at the brink here.....

Younger people more vulnerable to bird flu

Ages 10 to 19!
That is what this article says.
I was talking with a friend last night and we were talking about those with resp. problems aslo being vunerable.
It seems that these days that could account for a sizable chunck of the population of the world.

Read on for an interesting article....
Younger people more vulnerable to bird flu

Milwaukee beaches go to the Gulls (and Baby Diapers)

I spent the entire day at the beach here in Racine just this last week.

It was a wonderful day with sun, sand and the nice calming sound of the lake. And it was clean and there were many people and there were lifeguards on duty and there were people grilling out in the distance up on the grassy hills above the beach.
There were also people playing "beach vollyball" and music coming from the "Oasis", which is a concession stand and beach house that sits in front of what people are saying is one of the nicest beach fronts in the midwest.....
Ahh, North Beach.
The pride of our little city here on one of the Great Lakes.

Ok, so go a few miles north of me here in Racine and the picture starts looking a little different. As far back as I can remember, I have heard of "Bradford Beach" in Milwaukee. The name conjured up images of tanning and swimming.

When I was a kid, I used to come down to Milwaukee in the summer to spend time with my mother's cousin (who seemed more like a very cool aunt) Anita and as part of my many childhood adventures, she would always take us down to the "Beach" for the day, among other things to keep us busy and make sure we were having fun.
My memories of buying a hot dog from the concession stand, seeing all the many people on the beach tanning and swimming and playing beach vollyball and just walking or running along the busy shoreline are memories that have stuck in my head and make me think of what a nice beach means....

But that is not the case for "Bradford Beach" (or any other in the Milwaukee area) these days. The beaches are full of garbage, the lifeguards are basicly non existent and the seagulls are so numerous that one may be afraid that Alfred Hithcock is in town doing a remake of "The Birds".

How sad that those once pristine beaches have taken such an awful turn for the worse. Hopefully the city of Milwaukee can do something before it is too late....

This would probably not

JS Online:Bum beaches