An Open Letter to Mr. President-Elect Donald Trump

Dear Mr. Trump,

I congratulate you for winning the presidency last Tuesday night.  You ran a masterful campaign and, despite being the underdog, pulled off a huge upset.  Your strategy to focus “under the radar” in all the important swing states was masterful and I’m sure that campaign strategists will be studying your tactics for years to come.  For you took your gift of intelligence and management savvy that made you a multibillionaire in real estate and, without any political experience, just inherited one of the most difficult and underpaid position on the planet.  You caught many by surprise: the media, the Clinton campaign, and the world.  So now, barring an unprecedented action by the Electoral College, you will become the 45^th President of the United States.

I hope that you understand that, despite the fact that you won 306 out of 538 electoral votes, over half of the people in the country did not vote for you.  You are only the fifth president who has won despite the other candidate garnering more of the popular vote.  This has been perhaps the most divisive election we have had in history, with very strong views on both sides.  As a result, you will be inheriting an America that is more polarized than ever.  There are demonstrations against you in the cities.  There are strong views and charged discussions in public and on social media.  Many of the people I see at work, in restaurants, in airports, on the streets are quiet…sad…subdued…angry…many are worried about their future and the future of their children.   So you say you want to make America great again.  What is your plan?  What are you going to do to bring us all together working for a common cause, for a sustainable planet that will be here for our future generations, for a safer world for our children, and for inclusion of all Americans despite their gender, race, creed, ethnicity, and/or sexual orientation?

I am greatly worried about the future of our country.  In this campaign, I saw prejudice, bullying, impetuousness, ethnic and religious intolerance, threats of violence in rallies, threats of violence and war in the world arena, and the casual use of nuclear weapons.  I heard locker room talk, women being treating as sex symbols and women being insulted if they did not meet your perfect ideal.  I also observed alleged sexual misconduct, ignorance on major world issues such as global warming and clean sources of energy, lack of respect and empathy for disabled people, especially our service people who defended our country and suffer post-traumatic stress syndrome as a result.

Being bullied most of my childhood, I fear for those who are being bullied today.  Bullying will increase because you bullied your way first to the Republican nomination; then to the White House.  I have heard that your wife is going to address cyberbullying.  Is that just window dressing, or are you willing to change your behavior and apologize to those whom you have bullied.  How do I advise my friends who have children that are actively being bullied to cope with the new reality that hit us on Wednesday, November 9?  Do I advise them to sign up for marital arts defense courses so they can defend themselves and beat up the bullies?  I worry that our children in our schools will be at much greater risk for gun violence, as those who are being bullied may see no way out but to lash back with bullets.  What are you going to do to actively address bullying on all levels, from our school children and our places of employment to our political arena, where incivility and bullying has become perfectly acceptable; in fact, required to win any major office.

My daughter is 18 years old and a freshman in college with her whole life ahead of her.  She is adopted from China, an Asian American.  She has been raised her entire life to believe that she has the same opportunities as anyone else in this country.  She is a successful scholar, track athlete, and musician.  And she voted.  When she woke up Wednesday morning, she saw that her future is more dangerous.  She fears that your impetuousness will lead to a nuclear war.    Opportunities may be harder for her to come by because she is a woman minority.  She is worried about being bullied, about being sexually assaulted, about being judged based on her looks, not by her talents.  How do you plan on alleviating the fears of young women like her, their parents, and their families?

I worry about the future of our planet and the amazing, but fragile species Homo Sapiens.  Our politicians have lost contact with the scientific community, choosing instead to spout campaign rhetoric, and you are no exception.  You deny global warming and have proposed to burn more dirty coal at the exclusion of cleaner forms of energy.  This puts our future generations in jeopardy.  You plan on cutting the EPA’s budget dramatically.  Who is going to keep companies from polluting our environment?  I pray that the leadership in our major corporations will hold sustainability as part of their vision and mission and choose not to pollute.  I fear, however, that the intense pressure from Wall Street to perform will tempt them otherwise.  How do you plan on directing our national policy toward sustainability and ensuring our future generations have a clean planet to inherit from us?

I worry that the anger fueling this year’s election will persist.  Locally there will be more riots, more violence, more crimes of passion.  Families and friendships will be broken as society continues to polarize.  In world matters, you have stressed the need to rebuild our military.  One can certainly argue that is necessary.  However, you have stated your willingness to use nuclear weapons.  A year ago you said that you would “bomb the shit out of ISIS.”  And later you said “If somebody hits us within ISIS, you wouldn’t fight back with a nuke?”  And as soon as one nuke is launched, a chain reaction likely will ensue that will cripple, if not destroy mankind.  Even if Russia does not retaliate, what about North Korea, Iran, China?  Who knows where all those old weapons from the Cold War wound up?  One wrong move and Humanity is wiped out.  And with your consistent display of impetuousness, can we trust that you will not make that wrong move?

In your recent speeches, you talk about reunifying this fractured country.  Quite frankly, Mr. Trump, you have a lot of apologizing to do and statement retractions to make to even begin bringing us all together.  Even then the road will be long and tortuous.  You will need to establish policies that bring ALL people in this country together as one.  Even with the resounding Republican performance in the house and senate races, you still need to form a bipartisan coalition as the Democrats still hold enough seats in the senate to block new bills and without them, you will not be able to accomplish much, if anything.

I remember Ronald Reagan, perhaps the last great president we have had, and how he charismatically and masterfully formed a bipartisan coalition to push through an agenda that brought this country out of a deep inflationary recession into a long era of prosperity.  Even more remarkable, through his diplomacy, policies, and leadership, the United States won the Cold War leading to the break-up of the Soviet Bloc.  I hope and pray that you will be more like him and less like the man I have witnessed over the previous years.  I hope and pray that your behavior was only part of your strategy to win votes, not what we will actually witness over the next 4 years.  Although I did not vote for you, I am willing to go by “the will of the People of the United States of America” and give you a chance to fulfill your campaign promise to “Make America Great Again.”  Please don’t disappoint us.

Sincerely,

A deeply concerned American

November 8, 2016: Could We Be Making an Existential Decision?

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”  ~George Santayana
“Fear leads to anger.  Anger leads to hate.  Hate leads to suffering.”  ~Yoda

On June 23, 2016, I woke to the news that the residents of the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union.  This came to me as a surprise as most of the polls and stories were indicating that the vote would be to “remain.”  As I watched the financial markets react negatively to the event, I started to wonder if I should start buying gold, believing that there would be great future uncertainty in the world economy.  However, everything settled down here in the United States, the dollar strengthened at the expense of the Euro and the Pound, and the stock market has marched to new highs.  So this was essentially a non-event.   Or was it?

Brexit was passed by an angry electorate: angry at the EU and British politicians, angry about low wages and lack of jobs, angry about the rich getting richer, angry about immigrants pouring over the border and taking their jobs.  The majority was represented by the poor, the elderly, and the less educated.  They had had enough and sent a message.  Yet, in sending that message, they tipped the first domino that may fracture the European Union.  Is the world a safer place without the EU?  Is the world a safer place with individual European countries bickering with one another while Putin in Russia flexes his muscles and ISIS launches one terrorist attack after another at Europe?

Let’s turn the attention to our own country.  It is an election year like we have never had before.  An upstart billionaire, Donald Trump, has bullied his way onto the Republican stage and has won the Republican nomination running as “the un-politician.”  He has an excellent chance of winning the presidency.  Tobias Stone writes that Trump uses his charisma, passion, anger, and rhetoric to fuel the masses and build a cult following.   It is clear to me that his followers will follow him regardless of what he says, what he does, whom he insults, and what the rest of the world thinks.  There are some eerie parallels in world history – Hitler, Stalin, and Mussolini. [1]  As a result, Tobias Stone is worried that we may be on our way to World War III…I have to admit that I am, too. 

Who are Trump’s followers?  They are less educated, disenfranchised, lower income, nationalistic, anti-immigration voters angry at the career politicians on both sides of the aisle.  Same as the Brexit voters.  Now what does Trump stand for?  U.S. isolation from the rest of the world.  Build a wall between us and Mexico.  Install trade barriers.  Strengthen Second Amendment rights, which means more guns.  Deport Muslems, who represent the second largest religion on this planet.  None of these actions unite the world.  All they do is breed hate, which starts wars.  And with all the situations brewing in the world today and all the nuclear weapons left over from the Cold War days, all it takes is one angry person or group with possession of one bomb to spark a major nuclear conflict.

A unified Europe has helped protect the world from major conflict and up to now has been able to control Putin through economic sanctions.  A fractured Europe would provide Putin the opportunity to expand his influence in Europe and even start invading neighboring countries in the hopes of recreating the old Soviet Union.  The Eastern European countries will most likely fight back.  ISIS may take advantage of a weakened Europe to launch more and larger terrorist attacks, further fracturing the continent.    There are numerous issues in the Middle East and there’s North Korea just looking for an excuse to start or jump into a war.  Where would China stand in an escalation?  Or for that matter, Trump?  He may stay isolationist for a while, but as in WWII, there would be some trigger event or a direct attack on the United States that would put us in the war.  How long would it take for his impetuosity to launch the first nuclear weapon?

The renowned physicist Stephen Hawking states that envy and isolationism led to Brexit and “if those forces grow stronger, the human race is at risk…”  He further adds that the major challenges facing our planet and humanity, for instance global warming, epidemics, and overpopulation require us to collaborate to address these problems and ensure our survival. [2]  The forces behind Brexit and the rise of Trump pull us in the opposite direction; even if war does not break out, failure to solve these global issues may have catastrophic implications for the human race.  And if World War III begins, it will very likely be nuclear and potentially be the end of the human race.

On November 8, 2016, the people of the United States face a decision that may determine whether or not humanity will survive.  It is already clear that fear and anger are making an impact on our decision-making.  And the path we are on is a dangerous one.  Everyone needs to take into careful consideration the world picture, not just national and local issues or their own opinions, beliefs, and wants.  We can rise above the fear and anger.  We can join together, work out our differences, and work toward solving the major issues affecting our planet.  Understanding, patience, giving, gratitude, and love will go a long way to ensuring our survival and allow us to evolve into something even greater than we are today.

References:

[1] Tobias Stone, “History tells us what may happen next with Brexit & Trump,” https://medium.com/@theonlytoby/history-tells-us-what-will-happen-next-with-brexit-trump-a3fefd154714#.y22b4ygz3

[2] Holy Elyatt (CNBC), http://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/29/why-stephen-hawking-thinks-the-brexit-vote-could-threaten-humanity.html

Setting One's Intentions with the Universe…to Win the Powerball

Set your intentions with the universe and the universe will provide.  Or, set your intentions in the form of prayer and God will provide.  There are many variations of this sentiment and each faith has its own name for it.  There are prayers for healing, for peace, for wisdom, for the faithful departed, for better times.  There is spiritual channeling in the form of Reiki healing.  There are numerous documented cases where setting intentions or petitioning for healing has led to spontaneous recovery from terminal illness.  So as I walk to the supermarket counter to buy a Powerball ticket, I ask a simple question: can I set my intention with the universe so that my six numbers will perfectly align with the six numbered balls that bounce out of the machine tonight?

I’m sure if you talk to anyone knowledgeable about prayer that they would suggest that God considers that a frivolous prayer.  Well, is it really that frivolous?  When the Mega Millions drawing hit over $400 million a couple of weeks ago and I bought two tickets, it came to mind that $400 million is much more than I would ever need in order to live comfortably.  Let’s say that when that check hits the bank, I take $20,000,000 and invest it carefully, allowing my family and me to live comfortably for the rest of our lives and allow my daughter to go to the university of her choice.  That leaves $380,000,000, which is serious money.  That would do a considerable amount of good in the world.  I would donate it to charities that improve the education and well-being of our children, especially those who through financial hardship do not have access to a good education, or for that matter, to food and shelter.  The money could also be used to promote sustainability of our resources and to support technologies that allow industry to manufacture their products without damaging the planet.  It would help rebuild areas that have been ravaged by a natural disaster.  It would help find cures for cancer and other terrible diseases.  There are so many good causes in which to invest the money.  It would be a rewarding vocation.

Then the rational scientist in me takes over.  The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are one in 175 million.  I’m more likely to be struck by lightning; the odds for that are about one in a million.  And the average payback on two dollar invested in Powerball is $1.00, or 50%.  I’m better off putting the two dollars in a piggy bank.  By doing that, I will have twice as much money on average as I would if I buy lottery tickets.  And it gets worse – if I win the big jackpot, I have to pay taxes on it!  Subtract another 40% or so depending on what state you live in.  Long story short: a Powerball ticket is a terrible investment - do not buy one!

And what happens to the money that is not paid out in prizes?  Many states advertise that the lottery proceeds go to good causes, for instance, to education or to the elderly.  However, a substantial amount of the lottery revenue comes from people who can ill afford to buy lottery tickets.  As reported by NBC, three Cornell economists found a strong correlation between lottery revenue and poverty rates.  [1]  Sadly, many people have a gambling addiction and spend money uncontrollably on lottery tickets that they need for food and shelter

Then why would I buy a lottery ticket?  “If I had a million dollars…...”   When I have my ticket, I buy that dream and anticipate eagerly the drawing of those very numbers that will make me a millionaire.  So now I have a better idea.  Certainly I can channel luck my way.  What if I set my intentions with the universe to win the jackpot and proceed to use the money for doing as much good as I can in the world?  Can’t I tilt the odds into my favor?  Sounds good in practice; however, what if everyone else sets their intentions with the universe to win the jackpot?  How does the universe deal with that?  Everyone can’t win – there is only one jackpot to split – and only $0.50 per dollar paid in.

Now I have completely talked myself out of the possibility of winning the jackpot.  In doing so, I have set my intentions with the universe.  So I will skip buying the ticket and put the two dollars in my piggybank.  And sleep soundly tonight.

[1] http://www.nbcnews.com/business/economy/powerball-profits-dont-all-go-where-you-think-they-do-f1C7324290

Balancing

Today I reached out to a friend whom I have not seen or heard from in two years.  Unfortunately, I allowed distance and time to work their negative magic, and there is truth to the saying “out of sight, out of mind.”  Yet, several times in recent days, I suddenly had thoughts of my friend and finally I took the effort to write a letter.

Why do we fall out of touch with people we were once close to?  They simply get lost in the hustle and bustle of life.  Work all of a sudden gets crazy and stressful, extra hours are worked, and what’s left over is filled with family and numerous other obligations.  I go to bed exhausted, only to repeat the drill the next day.  Perhaps it isn’t work, but a family member becomes ill and requires extra care.  There are many other reasons, excuses. 

It is important to balance all the important aspects of our busy lies: career, family, finances, friends, leisure, spirituality, and personal health.  If I am healthy and mentally sharp, I will perform better in my job, be a better friend, act in ways to make family stronger, be closer to my Higher Power, and be more relaxed.  Yet, all of this is easier said and done, and balance can often be a struggle.  I’m responding by shifting some priorities, putting work in its proper perspective, and making sure I get plenty of rest, exercise, and quality time with family and friends.  In the balancing, I have found more time to do some things I enjoy doing but have not taken the time to do.  Like write…..and reach out to old friends.

 

 

Photo: Ridley Creek, taken by author

We are Human; We Help Each Other

“‘Up in our country we are human!' said the hunter.” “‘And since we are human we help each other.  We don't like to hear anybody say thanks for that.  What I get today you may get tomorrow.  Up here we say that by gifts one makes slaves and by whips one makes dogs.’” ~Peter Freuchen

As we approach a critical national election, every time I turn on a media device and every time I empty the mailbox, I am bombarded with political advertisements.  Some tell me what the prospective candidate is going to do, but most tell me what the other candidate did or what they will do in the most negative light.  It has gotten to the point where I just blank it all out and hope that it does not bias my decision-making.  It seems to get worse every election cycle – the hatred, anger, scorn, and ridicule; the polarization that marks this country.  It seems over the last 30 years that we have lost our way, that we have forgotten that we are one people.

In past years, when faced with crisis, people would set aside their differences and band together to overcome it.  Today, we face a financial crisis in the United States.  The United States is adding enormous amounts of debt that will have profound effects on the livelihoods of our future generations.  We are printing currency at rates never seen before to keep the interest rates on government debt near 0%, threatening inflation as well as the means of those living on a fixed income.  As the country goes more deeply into debt and the dollar loses value, we run the risk of a large country like China calling in our debt, potentially damaging our economy or even our freedom.  Today, jobs are scarce and millions of people are out of work.  This squeezes the middle class - those who used to have professional or skilled manufacturing jobs that were lost in the latest recession have joined the ranks of the new poor.  They as a result are forced to compete with numerous others for low-paying jobs in the service industry, and often become chronically unemployed.

In response to this crisis, the average person in this country has entrenched in their polarized camps.  In one view, the Republican Party represents the top 1% who want to hoard what is theirs whereas the Democratic Party wants the rich to pay their fair share to continue to fund the necessary social programs to ensure our old, poor, sick, and young disadvantaged have food, clothing, shelter, a good education, and a chance for gainful employment.  In the other view, the Democrats squander money on pork-barrel projects and support deadbeats who feel entitled to have what others have without working for it, whereas the Republicans support low taxes and job growth by keeping government out of the way of growing businesses and allowing hard work to pave the way to The American Dream.  And that is just the economic question.  There are many other questions on social issues that add to the polarization.  What scares me the most is the fact that both parties and most of the candidates running for office have forgotten that in order to successfully face a crisis, everyone must make the sacrifices necessary and work together to face the crisis head-on.

Some cultures, for instance the Innuits and Eskimos, have not forgotten the essence of our humanity, which is to help each other unconditionally, raise each other up, and become collectively something much more powerful than a group of individuals.  Quoting David Graeber:

“Rather than seeing himself as human because he could make economic calculations, the hunter insisted that being truly human meant refusing to make such calculations, refusing to measure or remember who had given what to whom, for the precise reason that doing so would inevitably create a world where we began comparing power with power, measuring, calculating and reducing each other to slaves or dogs through debt.” [1]

I hope that as a people, we can all remember our basic humanity and when we enter the voting booth, we make our decision based on humanitarian reasons, not power, greed, and hate.  And once our decision is made, those whom we elect make their decisions in the same fashion.  More importantly, we need to remember our humanity on a daily basis, give without expectation of receiving, uplift those around us, and make the world a little better.  This will be one little step in the direction to dealing with the current crisis of confidence in this country.

[1]        David Graeber, Debt: The First 5,000 Years,  Melville House Publishing (2011)

A Lesson Learned?

 

In the fall of 2010, things looked great with respect to my career.  I was running a project that would lead to a major new product line for our company.  Although there was a momentary curtailment of external marketing efforts while a regulatory issue was being checked into, I was riding the wave of two technical breakthroughs that would make the new product a huge success.  I thought everything was ok and as a result, became complacent.  Somewhere along the way, I lost the drive.  I did not embrace some other tasks that were given to me that would have allowed me to broaden my experience.  When I look back at that fall, there were numerous warning signs that should have motivated me to action, but I was blind to them.  I allowed myself to be deluded into thinking everything was fine.

That winter, I had a project review meeting go terribly wrong.  I was under the impression that the meeting went well until I started receiving negative feedback from others that attended the meeting.  After the shock wore off, I snapped fully awake.  I realized I was “a deer in the headlights” - at minimum in trouble if not in danger of losing my job.  Based on an assessment of the career risks as well as the project risks, I made the decision to look aggressively for a new job, drew up a plan of action, and executed it.  Fortunately for me, I found several opportunities.  It was not a minute too soon, for I learned toward the end that two internal opportunities I thought I had a good chance at did not materialize.  Seven weeks later senior management deemphasized the project and, on the eve of the second interview for the job I now hold, I was laid off.

Although the story had a happy ending, I wonder what would have happened if I had maintained my drive and embraced what was given to me.  Instead, I easily could have joined the ranks of the chronically unemployed given my age and narrow skill-set.  Today, facing a change in business conditions and a challenging reassignment, I reflect on this lesson and use it to reenergize myself.

 

Photo courtesy morguefile.com

Scientific Knowledge and the Nature of God

This week I read an article on Livescience.com [1] that suggests that scientists would eventually understand everything and, by that fact, there would be no room for God.  To put this into a historical perspective, supernatural powers have been invoked as the cause for anything that could not be answered.  Two thousand years ago, God was responsible for just about everything: for the weather, the quality of the harvests, for plagues, good health, and for winning or losing battles.  Even into modern times, a common perception was that God was a grandfatherly figure living in Heaven who meted out rewards and punishment.  As human knowledge increased and science proceeded to explain many of the mysteries of existence, God’s role in everyday life diminished.

Today, scientists are making new discoveries that continue to diminish the mystery.  Astronomers with the power of the Hubbell Telescope and other modern tools probe to within a few hundred million years of the Big Bang and continue to add to the understanding of the workings of the universe.  Physicists recently discovered the Higgs Boson, the final missing particle in the Standard Model, the model which describes the building blocks for matter and the fabric of the universe.  Yet, as Natalie Wolchover reports in the referenced article, physicists can describe the universe going all the way back to an infinitesimal fraction of a second after the Big Bang, but can’t describe the state of the Universe at the zero point or, for that matter, what existed before the zero point.  Physicists are attempting to create models in the hopes of answering that very question, and current physical theories already allow for an infinite number of universes, together which comprise the multiverse.

The phenomenon of life continues to be a great mystery.  Despite their modern understanding, no one has been able to create life in a test tube from inanimate matter.  Likewise, there is no universally accepted theory for the emergence of the very first life forms from non-living matter.  That by no means suggests that biologists won’t unlock that mystery in the future.  Even if biologists determine how life emerged and, for that matter, learn how to create life in the laboratory, there will still be deeper mysteries to investigate.  Even if physicists come up with a universally accepted theory for how the Big Bang happened and what the state of affairs was before the birthing event of the Universe, there will still be unanswerable questions, two major ones being “where did the multiverse come from?” and “why are we here?”

I have no doubt that scientists will continue to unravel these mysteries.  And every time a major discovery is made in science, new mysteries are encountered.  I do not believe that their journey of discovery will rule out the existence of God.  To put this into perspective: before Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton, the world was believed to be flat, the Sun, Moon, and Stars revolved around the earth, and God in Heaven was “up there” in the sky.  Learning that the world was round and was no longer the center of the Universe did not disprove the existence of a Higher Power.  As scientists continue to learn how amazing the Universe is and how amazing the phenomenon of life is, it speaks of how immense reality is.  It makes the answers to the existential questions grander.  Even one who doubts the existence of a Higher Power can look at the Universe, the order of natural law, our remarkable planet, and the spark of life on that planet, grasping the true miracle of our existence.

Reference: http://news.yahoo.com/science-someday-rule-possibility-god-115945479.html

 

Photo credit: Hershel Observatory via Wikimedia Commons

The Fall of the Mayans – a Lesson for Today

The Mayan civilization thrived for over six centuries before collapsing in the Tenth Century.  There were several factors in the collapse; however, most experts agreed that a drought was the key factor in their demise.  As it turns out, recent studies indicate that the actions of the Mayans themselves may have helped matters.  According to LiveScience, they believe the drought was aggravated by the fact that the Mayans cut down the surrounding forests in order to make room for growing crops and building their settlements.   [1]

This story is especially relevant given the rapid rate that we are deforesting our planet.    According to National Geographic, forest covers about 30% of the earth’s land area, yet annually, forestland the size of Panama is lost to clear-cutting.  At that rate, in 100 years all the rain forests will be gone.  The loss of forest land comes at a high price.  Trees absorb carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, and their loss may have an impact on global warming.  Without the shade that trees provide, direct sunlight would quickly dry the moist forest soil and potentially turn it into desert land.  Trees moderate temperature swings by not only blocking sunlight but holding in the heat at night.  The temperature extremes resulting from deforestation would have a negative effect on the resident plants and animals.  Millions of plant and animal species depend on the forests for habitat and would be threatened by the loss of forestland.  [2]  Profound and catastrophic changes to the climate would occur, both locally and globally.

The logical solution to this problem is to stop deforestation entirely and attempt to replenish the lost trees wherever possible.  Where trees are harvested for wood and paper products, companies need to replace felled trees with new plantings.  Land development needs to take into account the loss of forestland.  Encouraging the recycling of paper and wood products will help reduce the need for cut trees.  [3,4]  Although this all sounds easy, the likelihood that a global forest management policy being implemented is slim given the fact that only the weak United Nations looks at global interests and the fact that each nation generally looks only at national interests.  Countries are pressured to fill the needs of their citizens for higher affluence, which requires more resources.  The world population continues to grow, requiring more food and habitat.  These factors increase the strain on forests as well as other resources.  Yet, acting according to “think globally, act locally” will make a measurable impact if enough people recycle wherever possible and plant new trees wherever they can.  Also, putting pressure on governments to act in the long-term interests of the planet and future generations by protecting forestland will make a difference.

900 years ago, the Mayans showed us what can happen as the result of deforestation, paying the ultimate price of their extinction.  Today we are following in their footsteps, except on a global rather than regional level.  Can we learn from the Mayans and prevent further deforestation before we risk the extinction of millions of species of life, including Homo sapiens?   

References:

 

1.      http://www.livescience.com/22581-mayan-empire-collapse-explained.html

2.      http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/deforestation-overview/

3.      Ibid.

4.      http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/campaigns/forests/solutions-to-deforestation/

Photo credit: Morguefile.com (puravida)

Thoughts on the Sikh Temple Shooting

On the morning of August 5, 2012, a lone gunman stormed into a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, killing six and critically injuring three before being killed by police.  It is a heartbreaking to tragedy, especially so close in timing to the Colorado Massacre.  That being said, I would like to bring to light some interesting observations.  Although major newspapers did have the story on their front pages, our local newspaper’s web site had the story subordinated to the landing of the rover Curiosity on Mars.  When discussing the incident with a friend, we noticed how little it was being mentioned on Facebook.  In contrast to the hundreds of posts I observed on the Colorado shooting, when scanning through my various Facebook news feeds, I found only two comments made in the three days following the incident.  Admittedly the tragedy was not of the same magnitude as the Colorado massacre, where there were over 80 casualties.  Still, given the fact that such a tragedy befell a group of people in their sacred place of worship and whose core values are peace and harmony, I would have expected more public outrage.

Although we will never know his motives, the gunman, identified as Wade Michael Page, was alleged to be a white supremist and the tragedy is being investigated as an act of domestic terrorism. Sikhism is a monotheistic faith based in south Asia which has about 27,000,000 followers, 500,000 of whom are in the United States.  The males are often mistaken for Muslems as they wear turbans and do not cut or shave their hair.  Although the vast majority of Muslems are also peaceful, loving individuals, they are often branded as terrorists due to the actions of a very few highly visible extremists who profess that faith.  I find it a shame to see a whole major religion held in contempt based on a few extremists.  What this incident reiterates is that there are extremists right here in this country, and U.S. citizens at that.

I would like to leave us with one question: if a bearded, turban wearing man barged into a small-town Christian church here in the U.S., killing six people, would we have reacted with more outrage?  I hope we can all open our hearts to recognize that everyone on our planet is our equal, a member of Humanity and part of a Greater Whole despite their outward appearances and professed creeds.

The Amazing Talents of Plants

Recently, I wrote an article on the amazing level of intelligence and advanced organization exhibited by other life forms.  [1]  In thinking about this, I realized that the article concentrated on the animal kingdom, which represents only a fraction of the life on earth.  So what about plants?  We assume that plants are insentient, yet, in perusing the question more deeply, it turns out plants have their own amazing abilities.  In fact, these abilities include sensing, communications, memory, and perhaps even thought.  This article explores these abilities, especially the ones typically thought only to be enjoyed by the more advanced animal species.

By virtue of the fact that plants use light for manufacturing food, they have a well-developed sense of light detection, including the ability to sense color and quality.  This ability, not dissimilar from sight, is used for a variety of functions.  There are photoreceptors in plants sensitive toward blue light that are used to guide the plant to bending its leaves, harvesting the maximum amount of light.  They are also responsible for controlling flowering and growth.  The same receptors happen to be found in animals and are responsible for the circadian rhythm.  Red light stimulates the germination of seeds and the synthesis of chlorophyll.  Darker red light, found predominantly under dense plant cover, encourages stems to grow longer to find brighter light.  [2, 3]

Plants are able to detect chemicals in the air and the ground, analogous to our senses of smell and taste.  Plants synchronize the ripening of their own fruit as well as fruit on neighboring plants by having the ripe fruit emit ethylene.  The dodder, a parasitic plant, finds food by detecting chemicals released into the air by nearby plants and then selects the plants that it finds tastiest.  When plants sense nitrates in the soil, they develop lateral roots to capture this nutrient.  They also sense chemicals from life forms attacking the plant, allowing them to defend against the threat.  For instance, when corn is attacked by Spodoptera caterpillars, it detects a chemical in their saliva.  In response, the corn releases chemicals that attract the caterpillars’ predator wasps.  [4, 5]

Plants also have a sense of touch, the most obvious example being the Venus Flytrap, where its sensing hairs trigger the quick closing of the trap.  There are about 1000 species of other plants which have instant reaction to slight touch; however, all species of plants have some reaction to touch.  For example, when certain types of cucumber plants are rubbed, they reduce their stem length, widen the diameter, and stiffen within a two day period.  Plants in fact can be more sensitive to touch than humans; a Sicyos tendril responds to a weight 1/8 that of what a human can detect.  [6, 7]  Unlike animals, plants are rooted and therefore can’t flee when they hear a threatening sound.  So it does not seem necessary for plants to hear.  Yet, stories abound of plants growing faster in response to music and Scientific American reports that recent research indicates that plants may respond to vibration, which is the essence of sound.  [8] 

Plants are also capable of communicating with one another.  Plants are able to signal to each other via their root systems when there is a water shortage.  A maple tree under attack by bugs releases a pheromone which, when received by nearby trees, triggers them to produce chemicals to fight off the invaders.  As previously mentioned, the corn attacked by caterpillars attracts the wasps that eat these caterpillars.  Finally, besides coordinating the ripening of fruit, trees also are able to coordinate amongst themselves the blooming of their flowers, possibly as a defense mechanism against pests.  Trees, according to Brian Ford, space themselves to prevent competition for food, light, and water.  [9, 10, 11]

These types of behaviors seem quite advanced for plants, which do not have complex nervous systems as do animals.  Yet, plants have other ways of communicating within the organism.  Plants have “bundled sheath cells, which, like nerves, send electricity from cell to cell and enable communication with other parts of the plant.  Plants use hormones to transmit messages to other parts of the plant.  For instance, leaves send a message to the tip of a shoot in order to initiate flowering.  Glutamate receptors, found in the human brain and which are responsible for memory formation and learning, are also found in plants and are believed to mediate cell-to-cell communications.  Stomata in plants, besides regulating water evaporation, air, and carbon dioxide absorption in leaves, sense and react to light and the chemical nature of the atmosphere.  They also sense and respond to touch and chemicals released by organisms on the leaf surface.  They respond to chemical messages from the root to assist the plant in conserving water when the roots experience dry conditions.  In the Parthenocissus, a creeper, stimulating a single touch cell transmits to all other cells in the tendril to initiate coiling.  Plants, like animals, can be immobilized by anesthesia.  [12, 13, 14]

Despite not having an obvious brain, plants still exhibit memory with the Venus Fly Trap providing a dramatic example.  In order to close, the plant needs to have two of the hairs on its leaves touched by a bug.  When one is touched, it remembers that contact for about 20 seconds.  If a second hair is touched in that time frame, it snaps shut.  There are certain plants that when stressed will pass stress resistance to the next generation.  This is not accomplished by mutation but by changes in gene activity, a form of transgenerational memory.  Some flowers that are unpollinated by insects will spring their own anthers, which infers that the plant remembers this is necessary for pollination.  Plants seem to remember trauma and will compensate for it – a dandelion in a mown lawn will often flower close to the ground, apparently to avoid being cut by the lawnmower.   The tendrils of pea plants will curl when physically stimulated while under the effects of light.  This will not occur, however, when the plant is in the dark, but it will remember the stimulation for up to 1 ½ hours.  If within this time the plant senses light, it will curl.  [15, 16] 

When looking at these capabilities of plants, is it possible that they can think, too?  Shoot growth in plants partially depends on a hormone generated in the roots.  Darwin proposed that the tip of the root acted like the brain in plants; his proposal is the subject of current research into plant thought.  Daniel Chamovitz writes: “…the entire plant is analogous to the brain.” [17]  A recent study showed that plants differentiate between types of light in order to make seasonal adjustments to their disease immunity and against environmental factors such as drought and cold.  Quoting Professor Christine Foyer of the University of Leeds in an interview with BBC News “Plants have to survive stresses, such as drought or cold, and live through it and keep growing…this requires an appraisal of the situation and an appropriate response - that's a form of intelligence.”  [18]  Given the complex set of senses, communications, and memory that plants exhibit, despite their lack of an obvious brain it is not hard to come to the realization that plants may well think, albeit in a very different way from animals.

Plants have their own array of complex talents that in many cases mimic more sophisticated animals.  Daniel Chamovitz: “People have to realize that plants are complex organisms that live rich, sensual lives.”  [19]  Because plants have evolved in a very different fashion from animals, their array of skills are not obvious to us, yet they contribute to the amazing hardiness of plants in our ecosystem.  In many regards, plants are our close cousins, not distant relatives.  Therefore, the mechanisms plants use for their existence and survival can teach us a lot about the sustainability of our ecosystem as well as what it takes to thrive and perpetuate our own species.

References:

1.   http://exploringtheamazing.blogspot.com/2012/02/intelligence-and-organization-in-lower.html

2.   http://news.softpedia.com/news/The-Sense-of-the-Plants-84523.shtml

3.   http://www.brianjford.com/soulsa.htm

4.   http://news.yahoo.com/plants-think-110000318.html

5.   See 2.

6.   See 2.

7.   See 3.

8.   See 4.

9.   See 4.

10. See 2.

11. See 3.

12. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10598926

13. See 4.

14. See 3.

15. See 4.

16. See 3.

17. See 4.

18. See 12.

19. See 4.

Photo credit: Cousin Dawn