LIVING THINGS: NATURES ENERGY CHECK DAMS

·        The unique combination of factors on the Earth, viz. gravity, oxygen-rich atmosphere, an abundance of polar fluid (water), and the trajectory around the Sun are primarily responsible for rendering it habitable.

·        The favourable thermal regime in the biosphere is conspicuous by its absence in the above list. The temperature on the Earth is a consequence of the greenhouse phenomena. Without gravity and (consequently) the atmosphere, the Earth will get much cooler and would have acted as a ‘heat sink.’

·        The 'warmth' further differentiates the Earth from her celestial sisters. While the other planets have become either heat emitters or sinks, the Earth is perched ‘on the fence.’ It can either become a heat sink or become hot enough to act as heat emitters.  

·        ‘Life’ balances the Earth on the fence.

·        Together, all the above-stated attributes entrapped the Earth between the two extremes (heat radiator and sink). The heat received on the earth began to be passed around between the three spheres (lithosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere).

·        It is important to acknowledge the centrality of gravity in this cycling.

·        The differential rate of energy release from each sphere cumulatively added the stress on the energy cycle.

·        Living organisms propped up as moderators that regulate the energy flow and thereby relieve the stress on the energy cycle.

·        The moderation was achieved by sequestering energy in the living body for some time.

·        Living organisms can be visualised as energy check dams.

·        It was logical to find more living mass in those regions on the Earth that receives more solar energy and has adequate water (the tropics).  While the hot arid and the arctic regions of the Earth represent micro-theatres of the above-stated heat radiator and sinks.

·        The abundant polar fluid (water) became the baton (medium) of the energy cycle.

·        A host of elements piggy-back on this baton.  

·        Left to itself, the probability of the Earth becoming a heat-sink seems to be higher. [While there were multiple ice ages, there were no heat-age(s) during the planetary evolution.]

·        One species has altered this probability. Unless under some unexpected, unforeseen planetary-scale events, the Earth is unlikely to have an ice-age shortly (planetary time scale).

·        However, indiscriminate human actions have begun to destabilise the planetary level equilibrium. Our action has released vast amounts of energy stored in innumerous check dams both on the lithosphere (plants) and hydrosphere (marine life). The equilibrium is slowly but surely shifting to the right side (warmer atmosphere).

·        There are two options in front of us:

either wait for the Earth to restore the equilibrium 

or

intervene to recreate energy check dams.

11th International Conference on Ecological Informatics (ICEI: 2020) Trivandrum, India

The eleventh International Conference on Ecological Informatics; (ICEI:2020) is scheduled in November 2020 at Trivandrum, India.

For details: https://www.iiitmk.ac.in/cvrlei/icei2020/

Desalinization: The Urban Water Stress Reliever

The availability water, undoubtedly limits scope of human activities in any region. Water is the baton in the energy cycle, which maintains everything as we know today. However, we seem to be programmed to maintain a careless attitude towards this elixir of life. 

Despite increasing awareness of consequences of our consumption pattern, we remain opulent and continue to slide down to increasingly more unsustainable realm. The news of acute water shortage and its controlled distribution in South Africa was tossed around on digital platforms with fervour. Not much later, did we get to hear similar stories from within India. These are unmistakeable harbingers of tomorrow.

Conservation of water is one of the most important contemporary challenges. It is more so, especially in a regime of meteorological uncertainty. Clouds of uncertainty loom large on conventional strategies of water conservation. However, the 7500 odd Km of our coastline offers a silver lining. It is high time we give a determined thought on desalinization as a panacea for our urban water stress. 

Although the notion of massive desalinization of water as source of water for urban consumption, at the first reading, may seem uneconomic; a closer study will reveal the contrary. The volume of water that will be available for agriculture itself will address a lot of economic, social and political anxieties. Establishment and operationalization of desalinization plants will create employment. The list of benefits is long. 

Sadly, innovators and early adopters are missing.

Postulates of Soundscape Ecology

Based on studies carried out on sonic data collected from different locations, we put forth three postulates and call all interested researchers to join in testing their validity. The postulates are available at https://ecoevorxiv.org/w3mve/

 

The big bang or bubble theory

                              

    #   The big bang is the most widely spoken theory for the origin of the  Universe. 

    ## The universe is considered to have constant mass but a radially expanding entity, which originated from a singularity. 

    ###    About 13.8 billion years ago the singularity started radiating outward with the big-bang.

    ####  Cosmic microwave background radiation, discovered during the 1960s  was taken as the most significant evidence of the big bang.

......................

    ?     Everything that we know in the universe is spherical - the stars, the planets, the satellites. Does it not seem strange all particles thrown out from the singularity after the bang was spherical? While the probability of two fragments after an explosion being similar in shape (and more so, being spherical) tends to zero. 

    ??  Logically there is nothing wrong in being spherical. The shape imparts stability. However, there is a gap in our understanding when almost every known thing in the Universe formed after the bang is spherical.

    ???   Is it not possible that instead of the big bang, somebody was blowing bubbles? Contrary to the ‘instantaneous’ big bang; the bubbles were intermittently blown. The intermittent bubbles explain why objects with comparable masses are radially apart in the Universe.

   ????    It could be possible that the bubbling is continuing (although waining). Hence the cosmic microwave background radiation.

......................  

    !   The universe is made up of one fundamental entity - consciousness. It cannot be further subdivided into constituent entities.

    !!       However, consciousness can be broken down to innumerable consciousness. Something similar to the magnet being broken down to smaller magnets.  

    !!!        The ability to ‘attract’  (gravity) is an attribute of consciousness.

    !!!!   Neither space nor time can exist without consciousness.

Pampered Crops and Sustainability

Human beings are susceptible to conditioning. Formal classroom instruction or informal digital campaigns both stifle a common man’s ability to look over the wall. The din that we create over select issues of our choice shuts the doors on feasible alternatives. Over an extended period, we run the risk of losing the indigenous societal knowledge, and the alternatives soon become obscure.

Agriculture, especially human food and nutritional security exemplifies a classic instance of human conditioning, and consequent focus continues to remain on pre-selected issues. The scientific and technological world is putting all eggs in the same basket when chasing a handful of crops to satiate human hunger. It is unfortunate even the voice of philosophers, who are supposed to act as beacons, remains subcritical.

While time and again we remind ourselves that rice forms the staple crop of more than 50% of the human population, little do we care to think since when this has happened? Rice became available, accessible and affordable to the majority of the 50% over the last 50 years. Tubers, millets and other lesser known crops were predominantly consumed by the masses of the ‘struggling world’. A rice dish, for them, was a luxury.

With new rice varieties emerging from research labs, the crop got an impetus. Mass introduction, advocacy and adoption of rice in South and South East Asia raised the plant to its present global consumption status. Rice is a demanding crop. It needs plenty of water, nutrients and time investment. The crop is sensitive to and poorly adapted for ambient temperature fluctuations. The initial buoyancy was short lived. With fatigue setting in, rice yields continue to raise eyebrows. Increasingly more certain climatic deviations complicate the cauldron.

There is a thrust to explore prospects of emerging technologies to reduce uncertainty in rice yields. Field-specific crop advisory system (based on crop simulation models) and Artificial Intelligence for timely advisories are two instances. There is nothing wrong Per-Se in deploying emerging technologies in computing and communications realms to augment human food and nutritional security; it would be prudent to explore the possibilities of alternative species, which have been shut out. They are more resilient, less demanding and offer a more sustainable alternative.