Category: Science

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Why the Osprey….. & Sturgeon

When thinking about the possibility of beginning Substack writing in addition to continuing my WordPress Blog, almost immediately the Osprey came to mind. The art I have used as the logo was by an artist I knew named Don Gabbert from Minnesota. I have kept this art of the Osprey close for over 30 years. It is precious to me.

At the bottom of the Osprey is a saying written by Don. It says, “It’s Our Earth, Too!” That saying really says it all. We are only one of God’s marvelous creatures that call Earth home. Yet, we are the creature that seems to be destroying it.

The Osprey is a raptor: a hunter. Its primary source of food is fish that it catches by diving from air into the water below; something no other raptor can do. Its sight is phenomenal to be able to see fish in water from very high perches above. Its flight is precise. Its goal clear. Ospreys symbolize new beginnings, healing, and cooperation with nature.

And fish…. Almost all of my graduate work at Purdue involved water environments and fish. My doctorate focused on the evolution of Acipencers: the Sturgeon. The sturgeon are estimated to not have changed for millions of years. They are some of the oldest fish species on Earth. I see them as the “Wise Ones”. In Native American mythology, the sturgeon is often seen as a symbol of strength, resilience, and perseverance. In Celtic mythology, the sturgeon was associated with wisdom and knowledge.

So, together, it is my hope that the spirit of both the Osprey and the Sturgeon will guide my way forward.

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Peoples Osprey

Times change and new opportunities emerge. Substack is new to me, but it sure seems to be a path for me to be able to write what I want when I want. In eons past, I was able to write articles and columns for the Kokomo (IN) Tribune at will. You see, I was part of the family that owned that newspaper. I was either in top management or the CEO/Publisher of this then a 34,000 daily newspaper having about 185 employees and over 300 newspaper carriers. All employees were considered family. Together, we were designated the top newspaper in the USA for penetration (subscribers) of its market for 9 of 10 years running; and second the one odd year. On top of that, we were leaders in new technology in the industry. Times have changed since then…. and not for the good. Many communities now are news deserts without a local newspaper.

I do write a blog and have for many years: kentblacklidge.com. I will continue to post on it, but I have become rather erratic in posting. I know why. I no longer have and have not had the decision authority for decades about what goes into the Kokomo Tribune. Since my family sold the KT, this newspaper has passed through two group owners. It is now owned by a group (CNHI) that editorially is way too far left politically for me. The Managing Editor has published columns I have written from time to time, but I have given up that route. It felt constrained. In recent times, when the KT prints a column with which I disagree strongly, I typically will email the columnist directly. Again, constraint given no one else reads/knows my thoughts and writing directly has resulted in fewer blog posts. Not a good reason, but true.

On a national and state level, I write representatives directly. I intend to continue this but at the same time will post any letters to Substack and my blog. I have things to say even if no one else gives a damn about my opinions.

My interests are wide. I have indicated in Substack I would be particularly interested in politics, government, science, and the environment. These interests are not limited to local issues. They would include local, state, and national matters. And what credentials do I have to write about these areas: four degrees from Purdue University which are a BS Industrial Management, MS Conservation, MS Aquatic toxicology, and a Ph.D. in genetics. Those plus over 20 years in newspaper journalism.

In my opinion, honest and open communications between people is the glue that holds communities and countries together. The major media, print and electronic, in the USA have failed. They largely have become propaganda tools of the political left. It is up to us, individuals, to restore the integrity of news offered to the public. We must. I intend to do my part. The Peoples Osprey on Substack is open.

Kent Blacklidge Ph.D.
(kentblacklidge.com and peoplesosprey.substack.com)

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Thought from Jane Goodall

“Here we are, arguably the most intelligent being that’s ever walked planet Earth, with this extraordinary brain, yet we’re destroying the only home we have” Jane Goodall

The beat goes on. We get caught up in the crisis of the day and lose sight of the big picture. All over the planet we have mass migration of people going on. Why? There was a time when people stayed close to where they were born for generations. The natural resources were there to nurture them. Now we see those resources being used up rather than conserved. What happens then. In the past when there was what was perceived as unlimited resources elsewhere, populations just moved to other more resource rich areas. That is no longer possible. Planet wide natural resources are now limited and being used up at alarming rates. We are seeing exactly what happens when a species overshoots what supports it, but in the case of humankind, it is the entire planet. I believe you can conclude what happens eventually.

The biggest issue now seems to be “climate change”. I prefer to call it what it once was: “global warming”, which is a more accurate description of what is happening. The evidence of warming is overwhelming. The questions arise over whether this is part of a natural Earth cycle or is being caused by human activity; specifically the burning of fossil fuels and the creation and release of chemicals that contribute to the capture of solar energy on the planet. My conclusion is that the argument does not matter. We have passed the point of any effective action. The planet is warming and will continue to warm for an indefinite future. Nothing human beings can do will make any difference at this point and certainly the USA alone cannot do anything effective. The hysterical move to electric vehicles is absurd and counter productive. More waste will be created. And where is the electricity going to come from? I do not see any significant moves to modernize the electric grid in the USA and to increase electric generation by some means to replace generation by coal or natural gas. Certainly, solar panels and windmills cannot possibly do the job and they both have significant downsides including environmental damages. So, we are really stuck with global warming and the continued use of fossil fuels to power modern civilization. Hang on.

Jane Goodall is right.

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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