Very informative, Jason. Especially with the addition of the Thermohaline Circulation video. The ’Pale Blue Dot‘ photo, and Carl Sagan’s quote, with the addition of your own;
“We must proceed with wisdom and with caution, because the entire community of life…”
“Wisdom and with caution…” are only words without meaning for the next four years of America’s leadership. I can only hope other countries will be temporarily taking ‘our’ place and doing the work that this administration will most certainly ignore.
After I read your post, I did a quick search to see if DT actually signed one of his giant executive orders yet to demolish or privatize NOAA, as I am sure you already are well aware, the answer is not yet, but on 2/11,
“NOAA staff members have been told to search their existing grants for terms that include “climate science,” “climate crisis,” “clean energy,” “environmental quality” and “pollution.”
Soon .
( After I abbreviated DT’s name, I thought of this;
“DT stands for Delirium Tremens, a severe and life-threatening condition that occurs when a person who is heavily dependent on alcohol suddenly stops drinking”
I know the guy doesn’t drink, but I like linking the word delirium to ‘his royal sir-ness’)
Thank you, Lor. It is fun and astonishing to watch even that simplified version of the great circulation around the oceans. Amazing that scientists have mapped it, amazing that we still know so little, and amazing that we would even for a moment think that safeguarding it wouldn't be a highest priority for all life.
As for wisdom and caution, let's try to ensure that they emerge stronger from the dark shadow now cast over them.
Agree. I could see all of it coming, on the political front as well as on the environmental’s. I wrote a dystopian novel, Mona, in 2020. The story starts in 2030, and now in 2025 we are getting quite close to this world. We shouldn’t give in to despair, but we certainly should keep our eyes open. There should exist, at least, one book, one story telling the most significant event of our time.
Exerpt: “In times long gone that I could remember, in all the time I’d known him as a child and was not attentive to typical grown-up matters, my father was not a believer; he was just not committed. Trusting the system—no questions asked—a system that was going to roll as bulletproof as it had always been. Sporadically critical, in the dampening way, with the conviction, necessity, or convenience that one had to be positive, optimistic, united behind the flag (which implied supporting the regime), that things were to turn out well by themselves, and any proof to the contrary he dismissed.
It was different now, I felt. He conducted himself as if there weren’t this choice of disregard any longer, as if neutrality had become dangerous. Indifference and self-reassurance had paralyzed reason and action, while something else was rising: the slow tide of fear in the occiput. And one day, within one beat of the heart, fear became commander of his conscience, prompting thoughts more efficiently than willful blindness.”
Your essays keep getting finer just like that ascending violin passage in Brahms violin concerto. The picture of the swing was so evocative and apropos of our situation. The AMOC will definitely collapse or at the minimum significantly fray at its northern extension. Hotter than expected sooner than expected is the mantra of the times. So unfortunate that our own country's current leadership is blind to the dangers. But Jason, we are already past the tipping point. The chair is already falling and it may take centuries to reach the floor, but it is beyond our power to set it back upright- we can only mitigate the damage for the sake of our distant grandchildren. We owe them that and your newsletter plays a role in the effort
Thank you, Michael. We'll see how things play out. All the prospective tipping points are complex things within complex systems, and their interactions will add to the complexity. But yes, do what we can while we can.
Very informative, Jason. Especially with the addition of the Thermohaline Circulation video. The ’Pale Blue Dot‘ photo, and Carl Sagan’s quote, with the addition of your own;
“We must proceed with wisdom and with caution, because the entire community of life…”
“Wisdom and with caution…” are only words without meaning for the next four years of America’s leadership. I can only hope other countries will be temporarily taking ‘our’ place and doing the work that this administration will most certainly ignore.
After I read your post, I did a quick search to see if DT actually signed one of his giant executive orders yet to demolish or privatize NOAA, as I am sure you already are well aware, the answer is not yet, but on 2/11,
“NOAA staff members have been told to search their existing grants for terms that include “climate science,” “climate crisis,” “clean energy,” “environmental quality” and “pollution.”
Soon .
( After I abbreviated DT’s name, I thought of this;
“DT stands for Delirium Tremens, a severe and life-threatening condition that occurs when a person who is heavily dependent on alcohol suddenly stops drinking”
I know the guy doesn’t drink, but I like linking the word delirium to ‘his royal sir-ness’)
Thank you, Lor. It is fun and astonishing to watch even that simplified version of the great circulation around the oceans. Amazing that scientists have mapped it, amazing that we still know so little, and amazing that we would even for a moment think that safeguarding it wouldn't be a highest priority for all life.
As for wisdom and caution, let's try to ensure that they emerge stronger from the dark shadow now cast over them.
Agree. I could see all of it coming, on the political front as well as on the environmental’s. I wrote a dystopian novel, Mona, in 2020. The story starts in 2030, and now in 2025 we are getting quite close to this world. We shouldn’t give in to despair, but we certainly should keep our eyes open. There should exist, at least, one book, one story telling the most significant event of our time.
Exerpt: “In times long gone that I could remember, in all the time I’d known him as a child and was not attentive to typical grown-up matters, my father was not a believer; he was just not committed. Trusting the system—no questions asked—a system that was going to roll as bulletproof as it had always been. Sporadically critical, in the dampening way, with the conviction, necessity, or convenience that one had to be positive, optimistic, united behind the flag (which implied supporting the regime), that things were to turn out well by themselves, and any proof to the contrary he dismissed.
It was different now, I felt. He conducted himself as if there weren’t this choice of disregard any longer, as if neutrality had become dangerous. Indifference and self-reassurance had paralyzed reason and action, while something else was rising: the slow tide of fear in the occiput. And one day, within one beat of the heart, fear became commander of his conscience, prompting thoughts more efficiently than willful blindness.”
https://www.amazon.com/MONA-Dictatorship-dystopian-apocalypse-inequality/dp/B0B8R936XW/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3LDTQJISQ64OL&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.V4juTZJ_b0D2eSuTw_7F5fYTQa8cN5JeHKyBnd8GSnM.L_j5PXKnuisCkxDg7QiPYPRktLWI2yXHQq_hgN0P4gA&dib_tag=se&keywords=Mona+Adam+Flint&qid=1740330830&s=books&sprefix=mona+adam+flint%2Cstripbooks%2C185&sr=1-1
You stole my title!😉https://blotreport.com/2022/11/19/running-amoc/
Great minds...
👍
Your essays keep getting finer just like that ascending violin passage in Brahms violin concerto. The picture of the swing was so evocative and apropos of our situation. The AMOC will definitely collapse or at the minimum significantly fray at its northern extension. Hotter than expected sooner than expected is the mantra of the times. So unfortunate that our own country's current leadership is blind to the dangers. But Jason, we are already past the tipping point. The chair is already falling and it may take centuries to reach the floor, but it is beyond our power to set it back upright- we can only mitigate the damage for the sake of our distant grandchildren. We owe them that and your newsletter plays a role in the effort
Thank you, Michael. We'll see how things play out. All the prospective tipping points are complex things within complex systems, and their interactions will add to the complexity. But yes, do what we can while we can.