Category: Science

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The Climate Pandemic [Open Letter]

7-17-2023

Senator Mike Braun
Senator Todd Young
Representative Victoria Spartz

To all:

I am in the midst of reading a book all of you must read. It is “The Climate Pandemic” by Dennis Meredith, a long time and very reputable science writer. He details where we are and how we got there as humans who populate our planet home, Earth. The content is highly referenced.  

The message of the book is devastating. The conclusion is that we, human beings, may have already passed the point of no return regarding the climate and the viability of the natural life support systems that have made living possible for our species. He notes that on Earth, species have come and gone over the millennia. Earth will survive, but the human species may not.   

I hope you or a key person on your staff will take the time to consider the message in “The Climate Change”. I believe it will change your perspective on future decisions and actions.

Thank you for your attention.

Sincerely,
Kent H Blacklidge Ph.D.

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The Messiness of Life

by Marcia Blacklidge MS

We all want to create a past that benefits us and our fantasies of who we are and the families and family members we came from. But the truth is different than that.

The truth of us and who we are is buried in the messiness of youth, mistakes, ambitions, ego, love, sex and the biggest mess of all: relationships.

No matter how deeply buried that messiness is, truth has a way of niggling it’s way to the surface and confronting us.

We all like stories that elevate us. But to find the fullness of who we are, we must find the courage to process the messiness of that truth that is concealed behind the lovely stories we cling to.

There is an inconvenient truth that none of us can escape.  Life is messy. All lives are messy. All lives are filled with it. No one escapes. Most of us will glibly declare no one is perfect. Few of us are willing to do the work that will bring us to a place of freedom from that truth. Most of us hold our mistakes and the mistakes of others against ourselves and against them.

Sadly, that only makes things worse. At best we only have a partial picture of our lives and of the people that surround us

There is one more inconvenient truth. If one believes in an after life, some kind of life review is included in that belief system. That includes having to watch every step of the life we have just completed, and how we reacted to the messiness we were confronted with and how we dealt with our own messes.

The pain that comes from that review will not be rendered from some unforgiving God judging us. It will come from ourselves to ourselves as the fog of all that messiness is lifted. And it will come from the realization of how much power we had but failed to use it in a way that prospers all. The most pain will come as we are reduced to watching the moments of our lives unfold without the power to effect a positive change now removed. Those that have had near death experiences tell us that pain is beyond words, 

We will come to see a final inconvenient truth. The only thing that really matters in all that mess is the love we gave to ourselves and others and the forgiveness we always had an opportunity to render. That is the sum total of all that matters.

Starting today, I wish for each one of us to do the work of processing the messiness in our lives. I wish the fog of our lives to lift and we discover the love and forgiveness waiting to grace  the world.  

I wish for each of us to find the place where truth can free us. I wish for each of us to process the messiness of life with compassion and forgiveness. I wish for all trails messiness, hurt and pain to be diminished.

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Supreme Court and EPA Rulings

[Written in response to an editorial in the Kokomo Tribune 6/16/2023]

It is interesting the editorial writer from the Anderson Herald Bulletin does not know basic US law under the Constitution. In the recent editorial in the Kokomo Tribune titled, “Court attacks EPA authority”, the writer clearly makes the assumption the Court has the authority to make law. It does not.

The writer in the first paragraph says, “The US Supreme Court seems to be implementing military tactics in its offensive against the natural environment, attacking first from the air and now from the water”. What? The Supreme Court’s job is to hold the government and us all to within the bounds of legislation passed by the Congress. Nothing more, nothing less.

If there are muddy issues with what current law covers, it is up to Congress to clarify or correct it as an expression of the people. The authority granted the EPA is mostly from the Clean Air and Clean Water acts passed under President Nixon and Republicans long ago.

As one who considers himself an environmentalist from Rachael Carson “Silent Spring” days, I am fully on board with regulations that result in clean air, clean water, and uncontaminated soil. And we have a long, long way to go for those.

The main complaint voiced in the editorial involves the definition of a wetland. Many believed the EPA had itself extended its authority to even mud puddles. The Court did not agree, but limited EPA authority to areas connected to federally protected waterways; an authority granted under law.

The earlier complaint about air quality asked whether the EPA could place state-level caps on carbon emissions. The Court said no under current law. Again, the Court does not make law, it only sets the boundaries of authority under the law. If changes are needed, Congress is the body to make the changes; not the Supreme Court.

So, the editorial writer needs to freshen up on the Constitution before attacking the actions of the US Supreme Court.

Let me repeat… I am an environmentalist or conservationist of decades. I strongly believe in tight, effective laws that correct or prevent environmental degradation. At the same time, I believe such laws must come from the US Congress or State Legislatures and not from regulatory agency proclamation.

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Sagan: Pale Blue Dot

Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator an destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar”, every “supreme leader”, every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived here — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.

Carl Sagan 1994

[This writing by Dr. Sagan is one of the most profound ever written. We are coming up to Earth Day 2023. Earth is in trouble environmentally and politically. The future is far from certain. The dot is in a photo taken by Voyager just before it left our Solar System. Sagan reminds us how precious and sacred our small planet home really is.]

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Solar Madness

All hope the governing bodies of our community make decisions that benefit our citizens. Unfortunately, the Howard County Board of Zoning Appeals does not qualify. That Board (BZA) of 5 members in the past two months has approved solar farm projects for eastern Howard County that will take about 3,500 acres of the most prime farmland in the world out of agriculture production for 30 years or more. Think about that. Over 5 square miles of Howard County farmland will be covered with glass top solar panels for 30 years.

The rich soil land of Howard County will be destroyed for agriculture use. One of the most continuing and serious concerns of farmers is that top soil not be compacted. We will soon see heavy machinery all over this land that will, indeed, compact top soil. And, we have already been told that “dirt” will be moved to level areas. This takes bulldozers. This means top soil will be scraped off of some areas and moved to others leaving exposed clay behind.

Hundreds of pilings will be driven into the grounds. Heavy equipment is required to drive the pilings. More compaction and a total destruction of the tile drainage systems in the fields. Large area — over 5 square miles — drainage patterns will be disrupted. No one really knows now what effect that will have on neighboring properties.

Then one has to wonder about just who made such unwise, foolish, and damaging decisions. In both approvals, the BZA vote was 2 members of the Board against the solar projects and 3 for; so the approvals were made by a split vote. And who were those who voted “yes”. As far as I can tell, none of the 3 voting “yes” have any agriculture or biological background at all. One even has a direct vested interest in the development of electric vehicles. The ignorance of the three is blatant.

These approvals were made in spite of the fact new solar energy collection technology will soon follow. One such development would leave 80% or more of the land available for farming and still produce the same amount of collected solar energy. This information was given to the BZA a month ago. One must also anticipate even more technological developments in energy production in years to come making what was approved totally obsolete, but locked in for 30 years.

More importantly, the USDA early in 2022 reported the USA will become a net food importer within the next year or so. We are there. Ag exports are expected to grow at an annual rate of 0.8% per year through 2031 while imports grow at an average annual rate of 6%. Domestic preferences for an array of agriculture goods already exceed domestic production. Yet, the BZA for 30 years put rich, fertile land out of agriculture production. Insane.

Interestingly, several of the owners of the land involved are absentee owners caring about one thing — short term money. Shame on them.

The people of Howard County will come to regret the decisions made by the BZA. That may take a few years, but it will come. Eastern Howard County will become a sea of glass that will haunt those who voted “yes”.

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Wise Words

“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.” — Jane Goodall, Biologist

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Solar Insanity

To the Howard County Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA):

Mike Imbler, Dick Byrum, Mike Schroeder, Greg Tipton, Russ Hopkins

RE: ENGIE Emerald 1,800 Acre Solar Field Proposal on Prime Farmland

Board Members:

Kokomo, “City of Firsts”: a phrase that has defined this community and this county for more years than any of us alive today can count. From Elwood Haynes to the production lines to our farmers, the people of Howard County have made livings using their hands, hard work, and ingenuity. Occasionally, leaders of Howard County have been called upon to make decisions that will chart the course of the lives of those who have chosen to make this their home now and for many years to come.

In recent years, the responsibility of preserving the quality and integrity of the land upon which we walk and grow crops has entered into the hearts and minds of people everywhere. That we care about these things is not at issue. What we do about them is.  

ENGIE is a very ambitious French (not USA) multi-national energy company with tentacles everywhere on the planet. It reportedly operates in 27 European countries and 48 countries worldwide. The tentacles of this company have now found Howard County, Indiana. The BZA Board has been struggling with this intrusion for some time. To date they have denied the Emerald 1,800 acre solar project twice.

Why Howard County? ENGIE has a slick answer repeated verbatim in every agri-acquistion they seek. “ENGIE is looking to be the best local business and neighbor that we can in (Blank County, Blank State.)” “Beyond Clean, renewable energy, the project will create positive economic and quality of life impacts in the region with short and long term employment opportunities as well as tax benefits…”

In truth, ENGIE has locked into a tunnel vision solar strategy called, “utility-scalar solar.” This means ENGIE is converting flat, tillable US acreage into fields of solar panels. Cleverly, ENGIE targets rural communities they know are struggling in these challenging times. Howard County and its rich farmland make ENGIE developers salivate.

However, ENGIE doesn’t live up to its hype. Short term employment is typically outsourced and long term job creation commonly translates to 2 per project.

Howard County residents don’t have direct experience with these solar fields. Ohio residents do. They now live with the 30 year sentence consequences imposed by ENGIE contracts. These include loss of farmland, buzz of solar panels, and an increase in temperature by 5 degrees in the region.

ENGIE doesn’t like to be told “NO.” They are fighting right now to get Miami County judge David Grund to overturn prior denial of its project by the Howard County Board of Zoning Appeals and rule in ENGIE’s favor. And despite their friendly spin, ENGIE CEO of North America, Gwenaelle Avice-Hue, boldly states how ENGIE really views us “…we want to be big in the U.S.. This is a huge playground and a core geography for us strategically”.

Howard County, like many other places in this country and around the world, is faced with two issues: sustainable energy production and food production. If you isolate those concepts and make decisions from an isolated viewpoint, they wind up as competitors. ENGIE is focused on finding places to install sustainable energy and they have selected agriculture land as a target not only here but elsewhere. What they ignore is the competing needs of the world to be fed from the land upon which food is produced.

Do these ideas have to be enemies; do they have to be at war? No. Is there a third way? Yes. Howard County has acreage (brownfields) that has been rendered useless from decisions made in the past or land not suitable for tillage. Perhaps a third way is to build on the non-tillable land and brownfields and to turn them into fields of light energy… and preserve the highly valuable, tillable agriculture land.

The proposed Emerald solar project would remove over 1,800 acres of land from agriculture use for 30 years or even more. By the grace of God, Howard County is blessed with some of the most fertile soils anywhere in the world. This fertility, with its ability to produce abundant crops, would be traded for acres of sterile electric generating solar panels. Capturing land for 30 years is a huge committment given how fast technology and conditions change. That, itself, does not seem wise.  

It appears all associated ENGIE resources with justification analysis (cost/benefit analysis) for the Emerald solar project are economists – dollars folks. That is telling.  Nowhere is it stated any have a science or agriculture background. The project is viewed for dollars from widgets in and widgets out similar to a manufacturing operation; period. There is no regard for the loss of the biological potential of the soil over many decades. The pitch is for more money now into the pockets of landowners and the county. There may be a time in those 30 or more years when all available tillable land will be needed for food production. There are already food shortages in many countries around the world.

The analysis by the Certified General Appraiser, Richard C. Kirkland, concerning property values is voluminous. He could have easily summarized his findings on one page in one sentence by stating his opinion is there is no negative impact of solar panel fields on the value of any adjacent or nearby property anywhere forever. That’s it. His report is an exercise in extrapolating conclusions from data from the past and places far and wide into the uncertain distant future and into Howard County. This defies common sense.  

Another extremely important point is about the solar panels themselves. Communist China is involved in manufacturing more than 80% of solar components worldwide according to the IEA (International Energy Agency-Paris) and reported by Mamun Rashid, CEO of California-based Auxin Solar; one of the few US manufacturers of solar panels. Ask yourself, do we want to support economically the Communist Chinese: enemies of our nation?

Again, if solar electric generation using US manufactured solar panels without Chinese components is something our county and city wants, there are many locations for possible solar generation development as mentioned earlier. There may be more. I ask you consider other locations and continue to deny the proposed 1,800 acre ENGIE Emerald solar panel project in eastern Howard County on productive agriculture land.

Sincerely,

Kent H Blacklidge MS Ph.D.

BS Industrial Management
M S Conservation of Natural Resources and Public Policy         
MS Aquatic Toxicology and Fish Biology              
PhD Genetics — Purdue

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The Grandfather

[From the Internet with a bit of modification by me}

One evening a grandson was talking to his grandfather about current events. The grandson asked his grandfather what he thought about the shootings at schools, the computer age, and just things in general.

The grandfather replied……

Well, let me think a minute. I was born before television, Penicillin, polio shots, frozen foods, Xerox, contact lenses, Frisbees, Hula Hoops, and the pill. There were no credit cards, laser beams or ball point pens. Man had not invented panty hose, air conditioners, dishwashers, clothes dryers, and the clothes were hung out to dry in the fresh air and space travel was only in Flash Gordon books.

Almost every family had a father and a mother. I called every woman older than me, “Mam” and every man, “Sir”. Still do for that matter, even though I am older than most.

We were before gay-rights, transgender anything, computer dating, dual careers, daycare centers, and group therapy.

Our lives were governed by the Christian principles, good judgment, and common sense. We were taught to know the difference between right and wrong and to stand up and take responsibility for our actions.

Serving your country was a privilege; living in this country was a bigger privilege… We thought fast food was eating half a biscuit while running to catch the school bus…. If there even was one to catch. Mostly, we either walked or rode our bikes to school.

Having a meaningful relationship meant getting along with your cousins and other family members.

Draft dodgers were those who closed front doors (and even locked them) as the evening breeze started. Front doors were commonly not locked and keys were left in cars.

Time-sharing meant time the family spent together in the evenings and weekends — not purchasing condominiums.

We never heard of FM radios, tape decks, CDs, electric typewriters, yogurt, or guys wearing earrings. We listened to Big Bands, Jack Benny, and the President’s speeches on our radios. We rushed home from school to listen to Hop Along Cassidy, the Green Hornet, Inner Sanctum, Captain Marvel, and Tennessee Jed on the radio.

We loved Comic books and Yo-Yos. We loved Saturday movies of Roy Rodgers, Buck Rogers, and Tarzan. Those were 25 cents.

It you saw anything with “Made in Japan” on it, it was junk. Chinese stuff did not exist. The term ‘making out’ referred to how you did on your school exam… or necking.

Pizza Hut, McDonald’s, Starbucks, and instant coffee were unheard of. We had 5 & 10 cent stores, Woolworths and Kresge’s, where you could actually buy things for 5 and 10 cents. Ice cream cones, phone calls, rides on the city bus, and Pepsi were all a nickel or at most a dime. And if you didn’t want to splurge, you could spend your nickle on enough stamps to mail 1 letter and 2 postcards.

You could buy a new Ford Coupe fo $600, …. But who could afford one? Too bad, because gasoline was 11 cents a gallon.

In MY day:
“Grass” was mowed.
“Coke” was a Coca Cola drink.
“Pot” was something your mother cooked in.
“Rock Music” was your mother’s lullaby.
“Aids” were helpers in the Principal’s office.
“Chip” meant a piece of wood.
“Hardware” was found in a hardware store.
“Software” was not even a word.

And we were the last generation to actually believe that a woman needed a husband to have a baby…. or even a woman was the only gender that could have a baby. No wonder people call us “old and confused” and say there is a generation gap.

How old do you think I am? I bet you have this old man in mind…. You are in for a shock!

Read on to see — pretty scary if you think about it and pretty sad. This old man would be 72 years old today. Gives you something to think about. Oh, and one more thing: our phone number was 4339.

ADDENDUM: Auto tires had inner tubes, most cars had manual (not automatic) transmissions, no power brakes or power steering. Necker’s knobs were the thing on steering wheels. And about everyone had a Victory Garden and/or ate food grown by local farmers without pesticides. There were slide rules, not desk or handheld calculators. No Internet and even no computers, really….. let alone cell phones and before them, beepers. This from an 84 year old man.

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Women of the Year

The Gannett Company, a major US media company whose newspaper flagship is USA Today, has announced its choices for “Women of the Year”. There is only one issue. One of the “women” is a man, Dr. Rachael Levine. Dr. Levine is a four-star admiral in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and serves as the Assistant Secretary for Health under President Joe Biden.

Rachael Levine was born on October 28, 1957, as Richard Levine. He was married to Martha Peaslee Levine in 1988 and divorced in 2013. Together, they had two children, the offspring of a man and a woman. This leaves no doubt that Richard, now Rachael, is male, not female.

In 2011, he decided to “transition” to a she. Biologically, this is not possible. A short lesson in biology is in order.

In human beings, there are only two genders: male and female. The genetics are fixed and do not lie. Our DNA make up is determined at one point in time, conception, and cannot be changed. This happens only once in a lifetime; at the instant of beginning.

DNA is packaged in each of us in structures called chromosomes. We each have 46 chromosomes, 23 from our mother and 23 from our father. The chromosomes that determine our gender, male or female, are named the “X” and “Y”. Female children have two “X” chromosomes and male children have one “X” and one “Y” chromosome. That’s it.

And, yes, there are genetic abnormalities where there are extra chromosomes, DNA deletions, and more. And the CDC reports that about 2/3rds of all conceptions end in spontaneous abortion due to genetic abnormalities and other problems.

The point of all of this is there is no such thing as a transgender male or female. The term itself is an oxymoron. Biology is fixed at conception. One can claim to be a woman or man at will, but this does not change biology.

A prime example is what we now see in women’s athletics. So-called transgender women have different bone and muscle structure than biological women. This has resulted in transgenders being dominate in athletics requiring strength and endurance. Why true women have not gone ballistic over transgender participation in traditional womens’ sports is a mystery.

Biological men or women can identify with, dress like, groom like, romance like, and behave like those of the opposite sex; but they can never biologically become the opposite sex. This is regardless of hormone treatments and/or surgical changes. Will not happen. Time to quit fooling ourselves. A man should not be among the “Women of the Year”. This is an insult to women.

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Transgender Athletes

In the midst of the Biden created chaos and failures, there is an issue that seems to have mostly dropped off of the radar. The issue is that of biological males wanting to compete in womens sports. This becomes particularly critical in competitive sports that demand physical strength and speed and are at the higher performance levels.

The most recent example is of a transgender male breaking records in swimming competition at the University of Pennsylvania. The transgender UPenn swimmer has shattered swimming records held by women swimmers in multiple events. He, now she, was not a top swimmer when competing in men’s sports.

There are other sports, too, where transgender males have come to dominate competition. The truth: the whole idea of “transgender” is a genetic misnomer. Males cannot become women any more than females can become men.

There are only two genders in humans: male and female. Whether one is male or female is determined at the moment of conception and is carried throughout one’s life regardless of belief, attitudes, or behaviors.

It appears we need a basic lesson in biology. From conception, our DNA — you know, the genetic material that from one cell creates our entire body — is packaged in 46 structures called chromosomes. These come in 23 pairs; one from our mother and one from our father in each pair. The chromosomes that determine gender are named the X-chromosome and the Y-chromosome.

A female has an XX pair of chromosomes. A male has one X chromosome and one Y chromosome. So, female or woman is XX and male or man is XY. That is it. This pairing occurs in every cell of our body. It is fixed in time and space and cannot be changed.
So, what is going on with the transgender movement. The most common seems to be biological males who want to be considered female. Letting hair grow long, using make-up, getting hormone treatments, wearing typically female style clothing, and even undergoing body altering surgery does not change the fact a XY male underlays it all.

Being genetically XY or male brings with it fundamental body differences in strength, bone structure, quickness of reflex and more from than of an XX female. These differences give huge undue advantage to such a person competing in womens athletics. XY equals male qualification for male sports only. Pretty easy to understand.

Anything that allows biological males to compete in female sports is victimizing biological females. There have been stories of female high school athletes losing scholarships because of having to compete with genetic males. And now we see instances of biological males being allowed in women/girls restrooms and locker rooms because of claimed gender identity. Abuse of this has been seen.

If transgender males continue to be allowed in women’s sports, we are just beginning to see the demise of women’s sports. I hope both women and men demand an end to this unfair situation. Maybe the answer is to create a whole new category of competition for transgender only individuals whether male or female.