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Portrait of Alan Watts by Randal Roberts, Threyda.com

"If you awake from this illusion, and you understand that black implies white, self implies other, life implies death - or shall I say, death implies life - you can conceive yourself. Not conceive but feel yourself, not as a stranger in the world, not as someone here on sufferance, on probation, not as something that has arrived here by fluke, but you can really begin to feel your own existence as absolutely fundamental. What you are basically, deep, deep down, far, far in, is simply the fabric and structure of existence itself. So, say in Hindu mythology, they say the world is the drama of God. God is not something in Hindu mythology with a white beard that sits on a throne, that has royal perogatives. God in Indian mythology is the self, Satchitananda. Which means sat, that which IS, chit, that which is consciousness; that which is ananda is bliss. In other words, that which exists, reality itself is gorgeous, it is the fullness of total joy."

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6 posts tagged adaptation

Climate Change Throws Nature's Timing Out of Whack

climateadaptation:

“Evidence going back decades and sometimes even longer shows the timing of some biological events is shifting around the world. Studies document the progressively earlier arrival of spring, by about 2.3 to 5.2 days per decade in the last 30 years, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 2007 report. That report lists studies showing changes in seasonal timing, or phenology, of the first and last leaves on gingko trees in Japan, butterfly emergence in the United Kingdom, bird migrations in Australia, the first leaves and flowers of lilacs in North America, among many others.

But not everything is changing together, leading to complex results.

During his years in the Colorado mountains, Inouye has seen the winter snow melt earlier, the result of warmer springs, less snowfall during the winter and more dust carried in by storms, which accelerates melting. The last frost, however, continues to happen at about the same time.”

via Live Science

Reblogged from Climate Adaptation

Warming climate reveals links to infectious disease

climateadaptation:

“An analysis of pathogens in Europe that pose a serious threat to humans or animals, such as anthrax and cholera, found that climate change could influence 60 percent of these diseases. That’s “a remarkably high number,” said Matthew Baylis, an epidemiologist at the University of Liverpool in the UK, who presented his work this week at a symposium on infectious diseases and climate change at the University of Georgia.

He predicts temperatures and rainfall will have an “overwhelming” effect on tick-borne disease. Strong winds could spread anthrax. West Nile virus is susceptible to changes in temperature and rainfall.

Baylis noted that outbreaks of these diseases have not been common. In a 2008 study of 335 human disease outbreaks between 1940 and 2004, only 10 were identified as climate-related: One fungal, three via mosquitoes and six from non-cholera vibrio, a bacterium that can cause food-borne infections.”

Via Daily Climate

Reblogged from Climate Adaptation

climateadaptation:

Whoa. This is a huge shift in mapping.

This is the world’s most authoritative atlas. It’s published every four years. This edition is full of changes that the editors were forced to make because of climate change — shrinking lakes, changing coastlines, and whole new islands exposed by melting glaciers. Find out more.

Source onearth

Reblogged from OnEarth magazine

Flooding threatens fracking industry as maps need to be redrawn

climateadaptation:

“…floodplains maps should first be updated to take into account the recent extreme weather events and point out that such flooding makes hydrofracking an even bigger environmental risk.

“The floodplain is a different place than it was,” said New York State Assemblyman Kevin A. Cahill, a Democrat, who chairs the energy committee.

He said places that used to flood sporadically or not at all now experience three or four floods a year. “We need to remap,” he said.”

Source: NYTimes Green

Reblogged from Climate Adaptation

Climate change and population migration

climateadaptation:

When human populations can no longer live on their land, they move, migrating to better places. Sea level rise, higher temperatures, disruption of water cycles, and increasing severity of storms are climate change impacts that will force millions of people to move from their homes.

Most populations will migrate slowly, but in the case of catastrophic events coupled with the inability to adapt, mass migration will occur. Think, New Orleans vs Somalia, where New Orleans is arguably more able to adapt to catastophic weather events than Somalia, which is dealing with millions of people migrating north and west due to climate drought. This shows there are two general types of migration - very slow, and very fast. It’s not a smooth gradient pattern where people slowly and eventually move from place to place, like Americans or Europeans do. No, rather this slow/fast pace is lumpy and jagged, and occurs in unexpected spurts at the extremes.

But what of their destinations? Are countries prepared for these sporadic influxes? In other words, what about the countries that receive these migrants? Are they prepared? A new white paper, Climate Change and Migration Dynamics, funded by the European Union and published by Migration Policy, concludes that international cooperation is needed in order to respond to mass displacements that could occur from climate changes, even in the short-term.

The paper looks at it from the point of view of countries, not from the point of view of the people. From that point of view, the authors take a look at policies that would or would not allow mass migrations within the above context of extremes. The authors split countries policies into two general categories, an obstructive approach and a constructive approach.

Obstructive policies are just that - they purposefully obstruct massive amounts of people from immigrating into their political boundaries. The United States, though relatively generous, would be in this category.

Constructive countries help people maintain their livelihoods in the face of climate change. These countries accommodate climate migrants movements as necessary. New Zealand has a limited climate migration policy, allowing up to 12,000 people from the island nation of Tuvalu to migrate in case complete inundation of the islands by sea level rise. (Note: I didn’t find a country that has very accommodating migration policies, if you know of one, please contact me).

The paper is a short read - just about 10 pages. I recommend it to my adaptation readers as an excellent source of information for international issues of immigration and human responses to climate impacts.

Source: “Climate Change and Migration Dynamics” via Migration Policy

Reblogged from Climate Adaptation

climateadaptation:

Nice find by plantedcity:

“If physicians want evidence of climate change, they may well find it in their own offices. Patients are presenting with illnesses that once happened only in warmer areas. Chronic conditions are becoming aggravated by more frequent and extended heat waves. Allergy and asthma seasons are getting longer. Spates of injuries are resulting from more intense ice storms and snowstorms.”

This quote is from the opening paragraph of an American Medical News editorial looking at the already apparent health impacts of climate change and what doctors can and are doing to address them.

To get a sense of specific state-by-state health effects in the USA check out the National Resources Defense Council’s new series of web-based climate impact maps.

(Graphic credit: ‘Hot spots in climate change and human health’)

Source plantedcity

Reblogged from planted city