Sunday, February 12, 2017

Mines are really lousy thing as well as the lack of quality of life it brings.

The Earth is a complex place. I realize men who see Earth and Earth's moon as a place of profit, that is not what Earth was designed for. People in power these days to believe Earth was designed by god, so let's follow that path a bit.

Earth is not a place to be taken lightly. It is a place of life unlike any other planet. 

Mining Earth should be based in necessity and not simply greed. Natural Resources are needed for day to day life, but, when they are scoffed up in a short period of Earth's history it leaves dearly little left for generations that will inherit this beautiful water planet.

The mining of natural resources, even today, is abusive of the land and the people. A good example of that is the "World's Largest Limestone Quarry." I doubt "Pure Michigan" is the expression that should be attached to this monster.

Oddly enough, the town next to the quarry is Rogers, Michigan. Any visitor to Rogers, Michigan has to pass the quarry to get to the town. I wouldn't call it a vacation spot.

...Limestone (click here) is a raw material formed when the area was covered with a shallow saltwater sea, and it’s used in a variety of chemicals, cement, and steel. In Michigan the limestone is used in refining sugar beets, a major agricultural product in the Thumb’s farmland.

Rogers City has an abundance of limestone and, located on Lake Huron, has the bonus of access to the Great Lakes and easy and cheap transportation by freighter.

In 1910 the Michigan Limestone and Chemical Company was founded in Rogers City, and limestone has been the lifeblood of the area since The Port of Calcite opened in 1912. It is now owned by Carmeuse Lime & Stone....


This is a "small scale mine" in Zimbabwe. It is necessary to know whether the land sincerely holds the mineral assessed.

The first step to mining is finding a source.

Record D575859 (click here)

Since 1880 the USA has been interested in knowing it's land better, hence, the USGS. (click here)

Today USGS is more than simple topographical maps, it defines the land types and names and also provides insight to the minerals in a region.

To the left is a USGS record of land and it's definition. The studies of USA land were always intense laced with pride to know and love this country. It wasn't about money and making Wall Street happy. Knowing the country is also a national security priority for a national defense should that be necessary within the sovereign USA.


Danger can be mitigated, too.

February 10, 2017

Gladstone — Michigan (click here) Department of Natural Resources Conservation Officer Patrick Hartsig on Sunday rescued a 10-year-old boy who had run away from his family near Gladstone in Delta County.

The incident was reported at about 4 p.m. The boy, whose name was not being released, had run away from the Log Cabin Grill and Bar, which is situated south of Gladstone, along Lake Michigan.

To reach the lake, the boy had to cross four busy lanes of traffic on U.S. 2. His mother last saw him heading east across the ice.

Hartsig had been working snowmobile patrol in adjacent Alger County.

“On my way home, I heard a call on Delta dispatch of a runaway special needs boy that was somewhere south of Gladstone, on the ice on Little Bay de Noc,” Hartsig said. “I checked in with dispatch as I was near Hunter’s Point and launched my sled.”

Hunter’s Point has a boating launch site on the Stonington Peninsula side of the bay.

“With Conservation Officer Hartsig being out there on a regular basis, he had up-to-date accurate knowledge of potential bad ice areas,” said Lt. Eugene “Skip” Hagy, a district law supervisor with the DNR Law Enforcement Division’s district 2, which covers the easternmost six counties in the Upper Peninsula. “Normally, there is a shipping channel open in this area, but he knew it hadn’t been used in a few weeks, which allowed a more direct response.”

It wasn’t long before Hartsig located the boy....           

Before I go much further with mining, Land Use Reclamation for a local economy is important.

Understanding mining will bring about an understanding of the damage to the land. So, let's keep the idea mining's damage can be mitigated.

Using Google Earth to Determine Land Use (click here)

To keep the focus of open minds to the direction to take mining, it is reclamation. Rock is finite, why should land use be wasted on one purpose of rock extraction?

This is Google's "Earth." There are settings that can be used to retrieve a picture of land use. City planners can use this tool to understand where land use is today. Where mines apply in current land use, that doesn't mean loss of the land is forever. There are methods in Conservation Restoration that can return land to the city, town or hovel. With 'safe use' in mind, the damage of mines can be ended and land use returned. 

Mines have a lot of toxins affiliated with them and that has to be the prime consideration when returning land to better use.

Straight out of Brainerd, Minnesota

February 12, 2017
By Brainard Dispatch

Conservation (click here) officer Randy Posner (Brainerd) worked on fishing enforcement this past week. The ice anglers that are out report a slow bite. Complaints of garbage and wood blocks left behind were reported and investigated. Some fishing violations observed were no license and unattended lines. Ice pressure ridges continue to be a problem and some snowmobiles were damaged because of them. He worked with a neighboring officer in the Orr area checking anglers and snowmobilers. Some of the violations they observed were no fishing license, speeding on a snowmobile, and expired registration.

Officer Sam Hunter (Park Rapids) checked fishermen and snowmobilers. Trails are rough but snowmobilers are making the best of it. Officer Hunter also received a complaint of possible litter on a lake.

Officer Patrick McGowan (Pine River) worked a busy weekend around the Crosslake area with winter fest activities going on. Numerous people were out angling and enjoying good snowmobile trail conditions. Enforcement action was taken for numerous snowmobile and angling violations. Officer McGowan also provided assistance to local law enforcement agencies....

An appreciation of mining begins with an appreciation of land use.

"Land use is characterised (click here) by the arrangements, activities and inputs people undertake in a certain land cover type to produce, change or maintain it" (FAO/UNEP, 1999) (Adopted during the course of development of the Land Cover Classification SystemLCCS). A more inclusive definition of land-use is often used in practice. 'Land use' actually includes near-surface water (see the definition of land). Any given area of land is usually used to satisfy multiple objectives or purposes....

What: the purpose of activities undertaken - e.g. the specific products and services, that are sought

Where: the geographic location and extent of the spatial unit under consideration 

When: the temporal aspects of various activities undertaken - e.g. the sequence of carried out operations like planting, weeding, etc..

How: the technologies employed - e.g. technological inputs/ materials such as fertilizer, irrigation, labor, etc.. 

How much: quantitative measures - e.g. areas, products 

Why: the reasons underlying the current land use – e.g. land tenure, labour costs, market conditions, etc.....

FAO (click here) was an inspiration of American agriculturist, David Lubin. FAO (Food and Agricultural Organization) had it's beginnings in 1905, but, was a political topic since the late 1800s. The beginning of the industrial revolution sparked worry about the natural world and agriculture no different than we worry today.

The FAO Country Profiles (click here)

Land Cover Classification System (LCCS) (click here)
Classification Concepts and User Manual


Abrupt climate change is not the way of Earth, it is the physics of human activity.

February 9, 2017
By Taylor Kubota

Fossils such as these in the collections of the University of California Museum of Paleontology, remnants of animals that roamed California near the end of the last ice age, help guide conservation efforts going forward.

Conservationists (click here) need to adopt a critical shift in thinking to keep the Earth’s ecosystems diverse and useful in an increasingly “unnatural” world.

That was among the conclusions of conservationists from every continent but Antarctica who gathered at the University of California, Berkeley in September 2015 to discuss the future of conservation. The meeting included a diverse mix of countries and of specialists, including ecologists, conservation biologists, paleobiologists, geologists, lawyers, policymakers and writers.

Their discussions, summarized and published in Science on Feb. 9, recommend a more vigorous application of information garnered from the fossil record to forward-thinking conservation efforts. Their thinking goes like this: If conservationists reach back in history far enough, the past will suggest not only how ecosystems were once composed, but how they could best function in the future....

Water is the vital link to life on Earth. Everyone should appreciate that.

Like all other industries, (click here) mining corporations need water to make bare rock give up its valuable minerals. Mining has played an important part in the development of this Nation. Even before the first European settlers set foot on this continent and mined coal to heat their homes, Native Americans were using coal to bake clay for vessels. The United States now produces a wide variety of mined commodities from gold to coal to "exotic" minerals used in everything from pharmaceuticals to jewelry to high-tech products. All these products would not be possible without the use of water in mining....

This map is from 2005, the year Cheney's energy plan removed all the environmental constraints on clear and abundant water. The number of states now pulling water away from citizens and into contamination of mining and fracking is far higher, ie: Pennsylvania is an interesting case in point. At one time mining was the mainstay of it's economy, so it's water tables actually recovered with the end of anthracite coal. Now, the demand is back and citizens need to ask if their water is not only abundant, but, clean AND HEALTHY. Water can look clean, but, the question is, IS IT HEALTHY?

...During 2005, an estimated 4,020 million gallons per day (Mgal/d) was withdrawn for mining purposes. (All 2010 water use information is from the report Estimated use of water in the United States in 2010.) Mining withdrawals were about 1 percent of total withdrawals and about 2 percent of total withdrawals for all categories excluding thermoelectric power. Groundwater was the source for 63 percent of total withdrawals for mining. Sixty percent of the groundwater withdrawals for mining were saline. Most of the surface-water withdrawals (87 percent) were freshwater. Saline groundwater withdrawals and fresh surface-water withdrawals together represented 70 percent of the total withdrawals for mining....

There is nothing like being a local hero.

February 10, 2016
By Diane M. Robinson

Chipley – The loss (click here) of local nature advocate Wayne Watkins is being felt deeply in Washington County, especially in the nature conservation community. Watkins, along with his wife Cynthia, founded the Seacrest Wolf Preserve in Chipley in 1999, Florida's only wolf preserve and rescue sanctuary.
Watkins, 78, passed away Sunday, Feb. 5, after a battle with Burkitt Lymphoma, a result of exposure to Agent Orange during his military service in Vietnam. He leaves behind a legacy of wolf conservation and will be honored through the establishment of The Preserve, a foundation being set up in Watkins' honor....

Remember a while ago I posted a picture of Antarctica and stated there was out-gassing of water vapor.

December 2, 2016
By NASA

Data from NASA’s Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere, (click here) or AIM, spacecraft shows the sky over Antarctica is glowing electric blue due to the start of noctilucent, or night-shining, cloud season in the Southern Hemisphere – and an early one at that. Noctilucent clouds are Earth’s highest clouds, sandwiched between Earth and space 50 miles above the ground in a layer of the atmosphere called the mesosphere. Seeded by fine debris from disintegrating meteors, these clouds of ice crystals glow a bright, shocking blue when they reflect sunlight.

animation of AIM data illustrating noctilucent clouds over Antarctica
April 10, 2014
..."Noctilucent clouds (click here) occur at altitudes of 50 miles above the surface -- so high that they can reflect light from the sun back down to Earth," said James Russell, an atmospheric and planetary scientist at Hampton University in Hampton, Va., and first author on the paper. "AIM and other research has shown that in order for the clouds to form, three things are needed:  very cold temperatures, water vapor and meteoric dust. The meteoric dust provides sites that the water vapor can cling to until the cold temperatures cause water ice to form."
To study long-term changes in noctilucent clouds, Russell and his colleagues used historical temperature and water vapor records and a validated model to translate this data into information on the presence of the clouds. They used temperature data from 2002 to 2011 from NASA's Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics, or TIMED, mission and water vapor data from NASA's Aura mission from 2005 to 2011. They used a model previously developed by Mark Hervig, a co-author on the paper at GATS, Inc., in Driggs, Idaho.
The team tested the model by comparing its output to observations from the Osiris instrument on the Swedish Odin satellite, which launched in 2001, and the SHIMMER instrument on the U.S. Department of Defense STPSat-1 mission, both of which observed low level noctilucent clouds over various time periods during their flights. The output correlated extremely well to the actual observations, giving the team confidence in their model.

The model showed that the occurrence of noctilucent clouds had indeed increased from 2002 to 2011. These changes correlate to a decrease in temperature at the peak height where noctilucent clouds exist in the atmosphere. Temperatures at this height do not match temperatures at lower levels – indeed, the coldest place in the atmosphere is at this height during summertime over the poles – but a change there certainly does raise questions about change in the overall climate system....
So, we know water vapor is leaving Earth and has for some time which manifests as noctilucent clouds. We know there are more clouds of this water vapor being seen. We also know there are temperature changes in the atmosphere where the water is found as noctilucent clouds.
We also know there are scientists measuring the effects of the sun on that region of Earth. However, the sun has had minimums and maximums all it's existence and the measurements being pursued are interesting and important, but, for such a phenomena to be caused by the sun is a bit bizarre considering the sun, Sol, hasn't lost it's punch all these years either.
There is a better chance that the colder temperatures at the place of the noctilucent clouds is actually caused by an increase in the amount of ice crystals appearing there.
The point is Earth is losing it's water. That water normally shows up as noctilucent clouds at the altitude of 50 miles up. There are more of these clouds in the recent past since WE HAVE BEEN EXPERIENCING THE HIGHEST TEMPERATURES of Earth those same years. The possibility of this being caused by Sol is not realistic. 
January 18, 2017
By Justin Gillis
Marking another milestone (click here) for a changing planet, scientists reported on Wednesday that the Earth reached its highest temperature on record in 2016, trouncing a record set only a year earlier, which beat one set in 2014. It is the first time in the modern era of global warming data that temperatures have blown past the previous record three years in a row....
Remember the out-gassing doesn't stop 50 miles up. We know now that Earth loses those molecules in the way of hydrogen molecules at higher altitudes and what remains? Oxygen. What oxygen? O3, ozone.
The out-gassing is related to a hot planet and not static electricity from the sun. We need to take our understanding AND appreciate of Earth seriously.

These entries are about appreciating "Our Common Home."

Mining is macroscopic, but, much of the appreciation and warning signs of Earth are microscopic.

March 13, 2012
By Sybille Hildebrandt

Although water covers 70 percent (click here) of the Earth's surface, water is actually a rare substance that represents just 0.05 percent of the Earth's total mass.

Water has nevertheless played a crucial role in the emergence of life on Earth. Without water, the Earth would in all likelihood be a dead planet.

The amount of water on the planet has not always been the same, however. A research group at the Natural History Museum of Denmark has discovered this by measuring how hydrogen isotope ratios in the oceans have changed over time.

"The water that covered the Earth at the dawn of time contained more of the lighter hydrogen isotope than the heavier hydrogen isotope, known as deuterium, than it does today,” says Emily Pope, a post doc, who has played a central role in the study.

“By examining how the ratio of these isotopes has changed, we have been able to determine that over the course of around four billion years, the Earth's oceans have lost about a quarter of their original mass."...

Here we are now with the knowledge Earth loses mass over time. It loses mass in the way of helium molecules and hydrogen molecules and that hydrogen is linked to water.

Besides the Earth out-gassing helium and hydrogen there is also a universe comprised of the same molecules 


05 October 2011

This graph displays (click here) the different values of the deuterium-to-hydrogen ratio (D/H) in water observed in various bodies in the Solar System.

The horizontal blue line shows the value of the ratio in Earth's oceans, which has been determined to be 1.56 ×10-4. The green square shows the value of the ratio measured in CI carbonaceous chrondrites, a class of meteorites found on Earth, which are believed to originate in the outer asteroid belt....

Pretty cool stuff, isn't it? The point is mass is finite in the 'average' universe. There are scientists that measure an expanding universe, but, the real question is does an expanding universe me there is additional molecules added to it's mass or is it simply moving outward and making the 'universe as a bubble' larger.

For now, Earth's molecules are finite and we lose some of the over time.

Mining has issues all along it's development.

Mining is an artificial process. Rock doesn't jump out of the ground and present itself to be gathered like nuts and berries. Rock is not alive. 

Rock is finite. There are very few processes Earth still carries out that increases land mass. Volcanoes add some land to Earth's surface, but, in comparison to the land lost it is small.

Mass is not the same as rock. Rock is mass, but, not all mass is rock. Mining takes on an interesting capacity when Earth is thought about as a planet and not simply a natural resource gold mine. Earth is not an ATM for the mining industry.

Before introducing the concept of mining as a loss of land, one has to think of Earth as a whole sphere and not simply segments. 


February 5, 2012

According to some calculations, (click here) the Earth is losing 50,000 tonnes of mass every single year, even though an extra 40,000 tonnes of space dust converge onto the Earth’s gravity well, it’s still losing weight.
Chris Smith, a microbiologist, and Dave Ansel, a Cambridge University physicist provided the answer in BBC Radio 4’s More or Less program. The 40,000 tonnes of mass that accumulates comes from space dust, remnants of the formation of the solar system.

When people build structures on Earth, it doesn’t add any mass since they are using baryonic matter that’s already present on the planet. It just changes shape. Launched satellites and rockets that end up in orbit will eventually fall towards Earth’s gravity well....

...The biggest mass loss comes from escaped hydrogen and helium, which escape with 95,000 tonnes of mass and 1,600 tonnes respectively....
It's Sunday Night
The blank pages of my diary,
That I haven't touched since you left me,
The closed blinds in my home
See no light of day.
Dust gathers on my stereo
Cause I can't bare to hear the radio
The piano sits in a shaded space
With a picture of your face.
I'm scared to face another day
Cause the fear in me just won't go away.
In an instant, you were gone and I'm scared.
Coffee stains on your favorite book
Remind me of you so I can't even look.
The magazines you left on the floor,
You won't need them anymore.
A towel left hangin' on the wall,
No sign of wet footsteps in the hall
There's no smell of your sweet cologne.
I'm lying here alone.
I'm scared to face another day
Cause the fear in me just won't go away.
In an instant, you were gone and I'm scared.
I'm scared to face another day
Cause the fear in me just won't go away.
In an instant, you were gone and I'm scared.
In an instant you were gone and I'm scared.

What Governor Christi is saying is that people matter.

February 12, 2017

Washington - New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (click here) said Sunday he stands by his calls for the repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act -- but wants President Donald Trump and Republicans to ensure those covered by its Medicaid expansion aren't harmed.

"I want them to continue to be able to have coverage. Now, there can be lots of ways to make sure that doesn't happen," Christie told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union."

Still, he said Obamacare's Medicaid expansion has helped people.

"Five times the number of people are now getting drug abuse treatment," Christie said, adding he hopes to play a role in making sure people don't lose coverage....

All too often with Republicans it is the profits that come first. Getting out of the way of profits by deregulating, etc. is the average mantra. It is refreshing to hear a Republican Governor state people matter, too.

The American people are getting good services under the ACA. Their outcomes are important and need to be the focus of maintaining insurance coverage that matters.


A great discovery near the Great Barrier Reef.

8 February 2017

The Gloria Knolls Slide (click here) is at least 300,000 years old and 32 cubic km in volume, or 30 times the size of Uluru, a rock landmark in central Australia.

The landslide could also have triggered a tsunami, the international team says.

The scientists said debris from the landslide, found as deep as 1,350m (4,430ft) below the sea, also provided clues about hidden marine life.

The team made the discovery while conducting three-dimensional mapping of ancient reefs in the Queensland Trough, a vast basin adjoining the Great Barrier Reef....

...The researchers found deep marine life including cold-water corals, molluscs and barnacles were thriving on the knolls.

The corals, unlike their shallow reef counterparts, could survive in 4C temperatures with no sunlight, Dr Beaman said.

He said possibilities for future research were exciting.

"That really is the next frontier," he said.

"We probably have a bit of an idea of what's living up to 200m or 300m [deep], but beyond that, very few people have done much work in this area."

The research was a collaboration between James Cook University, University of Sydney, University of Granada, University of Edinburgh and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation.            

Is anyone surprised there is still another civil rights issue trampled?

Now there is nothing about children that cannot be imposed upon with false standards of Ultra White Christianity. Don't be surprised if Special Education includes conversion therapy.

September 2014
by Alexandra Scott

...The head of school (click here) responded by asking the student/faculty gay and lesbian support group to put on its anti-homophobia presentation for the parent community. The performance began at 7:00 p.m. on a school night. As parents filed in, I could see rigidity and a readiness to argue in the eyes of many. When the group finished its presentation, the school head slowly stood up. Everyone anticipated that he would open the floor to comments or questions. Instead, he boomed in his deepest baritone: “I could not have said it better myself.” The anger and discord in the room completely deflated. Contentious parents filed out silently. Supportive parents and students celebrated. In this pivotal moment, the school culture experienced an important seismic shift. Of the 40-plus parents who signed the petition, three withdrew their children and sent them to a very traditional boarding school. The rest of us went back to class.

I know that other schools experienced a similar cultural shift around the same time. But sadly, the shift has never felt complete. To this day, there is a level of resistance in the independent school community to fully embracing and supporting LGBT students and faculty. A few weeks ago, I met a school head who, in response to a question about whether his school has an LGBT alliance, told me the following story. “I was at a Southern school head’s conference. At the morning cracker-barrel session, three headmasters lamented turning down students who wanted gay alliances at their schools. The heads professed to believe that LGBT students are entitled to a school-sponsored club, but were unable to approve the club because of the potential parental uproar. They seemed sad about not giving approval, but were unwilling to fight the battle.”

As a former head of school and current consultant, I have fought those battles. They quickly become mean-spirited and divisive and sometimes negatively impact the school’s pocketbook. They also can put the head in professional jeopardy because most boards prize institutional peace. Getting along with neighbors tends to trump acting in the best interest of children when acting in the best interest of students challenges some parents’ beliefs....


I would hope by now there is a private and/or charter school for transgender students in the USA. There should be at least one in every major city.

The local community is still the answer to these issues. While Ultra White Christians have no desire to be educated to the reality of LGBTQ children, that does not mean the rest of the country has to do the same for the sake of political peace. Communities need to stand up for their principles and welcome all children to their public schools while providing support for students and parents are themselves confused about issues of sexual and gender identity in children and young Americans.

February 11, 2017
By Sandhya Somashekhar and Moriah Balingit

The Trump administration (click here) signaled Friday that it was changing course on the previous administration’s efforts to expand transgender rights, submitting a legal brief withdrawing the government’s objections to an injunction that had blocked guidance requiring that transgender students be allowed to use restrooms that match their gender identity.

The move by the Justice Department does not immediately change the situation for the nation’s public schools, as a federal judge had already put a temporary hold on the guidance as a lawsuit by a dozen states moved through the courts.

But it suggests that the Trump administration will take a different approach on the hotly contested issue of transgender rights, which many conservatives thought went too far under the Obama administration.

And how the Trump administration decides to proceed on the particular issue of transgender students and bathroom use would affect several other cases in which students are challenging their school districts’ policies, including one involving Virginia student Gavin Grimm, which is scheduled to be heard by the Supreme Court later this spring....