Earth Gifts 1

This is the first of two essays on the wonderful

bonuses we have received from the earth.

EARTH GIFTS

All life lives off the gifts of the earth.  Processes of the earth have given us the chemicals on which life lives and breathes.  Life shares in a wonderfully complex interaction that has been here from the beginning.

The world of humans has used these gifts of the earth for sustenance and for materials from our beginning a few hundred thousand years ago.  Since the advent of agriculture some 10,000 years ago, our use of our co-travelers and the material resources has grown and accelerated.

THE GIFTS FROM THE LIVING

Fossil fuels are the legacies of ancient life, across time combined with earth pressure and earth heat.  Concentrations of the earth materials we use are also contributions of geologic forces – water, volcanoes, continental plates, pressure, time and heat. 

These many gifts allow us to play and live.

THE PATHS TO FOSSIL FUELS

PETROLEUM, NATURAL GAS AND COAL

We use fossil fuels in many ways.  Look around you. Almost every thing you touch has a history of fossil fuels.  From the computer, to the truck that transported it, to the road the truck drove on, to the chair you are sitting on.  Fossil fuels infuse our life.  They provide our food from farm to process to store.  They provide our clothes.  They are the life “blood” of our world at present.

In 2015 we used

11,306,400,000

million tonnes of oil

and oil equivalent

An energy servant is a hypothetical replacement of human energy by fossil fuels.  One barrel of oil is the equivalent of 8.6 years of human labor.

131,493,432,000,000

- this is the approximate number of energy slaves used globally in 2015 using fossil fuels.  This does not include hydro, nuclear or “renewables”.

The original term was “energy slave”.

I think this disparages the horror and

ugliness of slavery.

How Much Oil Have We Used?

According to John Jones from the University of Aberdeen’s School of Engineering as many as 135 billion tonnes of crude oil have been extracted since commercial drilling began in 1850.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090507072830.htm

How Much Natural Gas Have We Used?

The world's first industrial extraction of natural gas started

at Fredonia, New York, United States, in 1825. By 2009, 66000 km³ (or 8%) had been used out of the total 850000 km³ of estimated remaining recoverable reserves

of natural gas.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_gas

Cubic Kilometer (km³) is a metric unit of volume equal

to the volume of a cube with sides of 1 kilometer.

66000 km³ of natural gas equals 66000000000000 cubic meters

This equals 1,508,804,280 tonnes of oil equivalent.

If we compare the 2015 contribution of fossil fuels to installed solar energy farms or wind energy farms, it gives an indication of how large an area would be needed to equal this contribution of fossil fuels in one year.

TOPAZ SOLAR FARM

RESOURCES

https://www.bp.com/content/dam/bp/pdf/energyeconomics/statistical-review-2016/bp-statistical-review-of-world-energy-2016-full-report.pdf

topazsolar.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alta_Wind_Energy_Center

http://www.caithnessshepherdsflat.com/project-facts/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shepherds_Flat_Wind_Farm

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/geography/continents/Land.shtml http://energyskeptic.com/2014/energy-slaves/

An American Child's Future.

With decreasing concentrations of many minerals thus requiring more energy to mine and process. With the decreasing ERoEI of fossil fuels primarily petroleum also requires more energy to obtain. With many minerals and other materials requiring high temperatures (2000°C) to process, this will be an interesting future.

This paper quantifies, on a global level, the relationship between ore grade and energy intensity. With the case of copper, the study has shown that the average copper ore grade is decreasing over time, while the energy consumption and the total material production in the mine increases. Analyzing only copper mines, the average ore grade has decreased approximately by 25% in just ten years. In that same period, the total energy consumption has increased at a higher rate than production (46% energy increase over 30% production increase).

“Decreasing Ore Grades in Global Metallic Mining: 

A Theoretical Issue or a Global Reality?”

Guiomar Calvo 1,*, Gavin Mudd 2, Alicia Valero 1 and Antonio Valero

http://www.mdpi.com/2079-9276/5/4/36/htm

Resources 2016, 5(4), 36; doi:10.3390/resources5040036

Things may change?

REE = Rare Earth Elements

Green Irony

This is a wonderful irony. The attempt to be green, the felling of trees in juxtaposition coupled with the chainsaw and its industrial history as well as the history of the panels themselves. Love it.

I got this picture off the internet, thanks to the unknown author.

This one too.

NARCISSUS from me me to ennui

Written many years ago

NARCISSUS TURNS FIFTY

from me me to ennui

So I’m not a flower. I knew that all along. I’ve begun to

realize that I have been sitting here a long time. How? I

think it was the thunder. I think it was the lightening. I

think I was struck or the water was struck or my image was

struck. I think my image was hit with one hell of a jolt.

When I first stopped to look, time meant nothing. I

mean it simply meant nothing. Not just the sitting or

wandering through the forest. Time is for hope. I was

beyond hope. No, not hopeless. When you are the center,

the all, what’s the need to hope? When you don’t know

there is more, what’s the need for hope? Well, maybe I

didn’t have it all. Maybe I didn’t want to know there was

more. So for me there was no time. So that is the way it

was. Then.

Why did I stop and look in the first place? You might

think it’s because I thought I was beautiful. That I was so

important. I don’t think I was important. I think the idea of

me was important. But I only exist as someone else’s idea.

And that idea wasn’t me and I couldn’t be that idea. Back

then I was frozen in the idea. I had to stop. There was no

where else to go.

Of course my story was so simple. How beautiful, how

charming, how wonderful I was that was the story. And how

I saw myself in this pool and became entranced. (Forget the

flower part.) Do know about my parents or my ancestry or

my home. Hello, who are Narcissus’s parents? Do I really

know who my parents are?

I didn’t know anybody was trying to talk to me either. I

mean when you have to believe you are beautiful, charming

and wonderful shouldn’t you be heard not talked to. So

Echo who if you ask me has her own problems was yelling

out to me, “I’m here, it’s me,” all I heard was “me, me, me.”

So what do you expect? I mean if I was a flower I couldn’t

hear anyway could I?

Does it seems like I have a lot of questions? I mean there

is one. Well, you would have questions too if you just sort

of woke up after a long period of no time to find out it was

a hell of a long time. Of course when I was stuck in that no

time thing I thought I was the only one. Let me tell you

there are a lot of us around this pool. And lord knows how

many pools there are. That’s sort of disappointing. If I

spend all this time here (not knowing it until now as I said)

then the least of it I could be special.

The story goes that I got stuck here looking at my

reflection and turned into a flower. Well forget the flower

thing. Forget the reflection too. I wasn’t looking down at

me. I wasn’t of course looking back at me, that’s too deep.

I was just that surface. I was stuck right on that surface.

You know what that’s like? The slightest breeze can

ripple me. Someone pointing a finger can distort me all to

hell. Currents rising up from below cause real havoc. It

isn’t easy being on surface like that. Of course, I almost

didn’t know that.

And it isn’t just that I got stuck on the surface. No, I got

stuck just the way I was the moment it happened. Can you

imagine (guess you can) what it is like to wake up and see

this image that might as well be three years old and me

really showing the wear of time. Quite a shock, whoa,

wrinkles and gray.

And lost options and opportunities which is another

matter all together. No, I’m not feeling sorry for myself.

Well maybe a little. But let me tell, while sitting here trying

to figure what to do, I’ve seen others. One guy’s part of the

pool just dried up, don’t even know where he went. Then

there was this woman the shore slip right into the pool.

Don’t know where she went either. And another a tree fell

in a huge storm, poof gone. So at least I’m here.

Okay about that flower thing. This part is secret okay.

I’m mean I was a weed. Just useless. Maybe pretty because

someone wanted me to be pretty. Or maybe important

because of their need. It was all their lie, I was a weed.

That’s why I don’t like even mentioning the flower part.

Pure bull, pure wishful thinking, pure illusion.

Okay even that’s not true. All the while some part of me

has been stuck here at this damn pool the rest of me (no I

don’t know what I mean) has been out there playing like I’m

all grown up. Doing my productive thing. So I’m not a weed

either. I’m not a flower either. I’m just me. Now what?

Survivalists, The Optimistic Minority

 This is from my Facebook friend Kathi A. Irwin with her permission.
It says it for me.

Survivalists, The Optimistic Minority
I am a 21st century survivalist and by nature an optimist. I don't have one pessimistic bone in my body. If that sounds odd to you, then you do not understand the modern survivalist or me. It's been difficult for me to communicate the concept of the optimistic survivalist. Let me make some comparisons....
A fireman becomes a fireman not because he believes everything is going to burn. He doesn't start fires but believes property can be saved. A doctor becomes a doctor not to make disease. He doesn't believe in death but believes many lives can be saved. A survivalist doesn't make disaster or believe that everything must be destroyed and everyone must die but believes with preparation, lives and property can be saved.
Crime, disease, fire, war, flood, revolution, famine and periodic economic upheaval are the results of nature and the nature of man and, unfortunately, are not completely preventable. The sun will set leaving us in darkness and the summer sun will give way to the cold winds of winter. We know this will happen, that it is unpreventable and we prepare daily and seasonally for both. Does that make us pessimistic? Of course not! So why then is the survivalist who plans for events that are as much a part of history as the sun setting and the seasons changing called a pessimist?
A common misconception is that survivalists predict world disaster. Actually, we are the OPTIMISTIC MINORITY predicting world survival! I invite you to find an insurance actuary, an historian, economist,
political scientist, sociologist or military strategist that can give us even a 50/50 chance of avoiding a large scale catastrophe. Yet, survivalists dare to be optimistic about the future. I don't need to predict the probability of disaster any more than the sun setting. Refusing to look at the calendar doesn't prevent aging.
Another misconception is that survivalists will be disappointed if there isn't some world cataclysm. I have loved ones I would never want to see harmed or worse. I have a home I don't want to see destroyed. I'm not a fool that thinks because I am prepared that a disaster would be fun or that I would not experience danger, hunger, loss, injury, cold, despair or even death.
I have spent some time and some money to improve my/our chances for survival and recovery from disaster but I would welcome, with a great celebration, if someday someone could assure me that I had wasted my time! I will not be disappointed that there is no disaster to survive anymore than I will be disappointed that my house fails to burn down after buying my homeowners insurance policy.
I prefer the pleasant (but unlikely) surprise of being wrong to the (probable) deadly rude awakening that the non survivalist will face if he's wrong. I can't lose, really, because my preparations will be valuable regardless of what the future has in store.
I'm a resource, not a threat. Those without resources are actually a threat to me. I won't be emptying store shelves in an emergency but leaving more for others. I may even be able to help some. I see my survival preparation as a social obligation.
So, you see, I am an optimist. I see the imperative of preparing for the worse by being a self reliant asset.

http://dailydiarya.blogspot.com/2012/01/survivalists-optimistic-minority.html?m=1