July 2008

The following news article highlights a very alarming issue: bubbling of methane from Artic ocean. Contrary to what Climategate is trying to demonize, the problem of climate change is not just about the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide or 1~2 degree change in temperature. But the oil industry has been trying to force us to focus on carbon dioxide and the definition of global warming only:

"Study Says Methane a New Climate Threat

"Scientists Find New Global Warming 'Time Bomb' - Methane Bubbling Up From Permafrost

SOURCE 

"By SETH BORENSTEIN

"The Associated Press

"September6, 2006

"WASHINGTON - Global warming gases trapped in the soil are bubbling out of the thawing permafrost in amounts far higher than previously thought and may trigger what researchers warn is a climate time bomb.

"Methane a greenhouse gas 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide is being released from the permafrost at a rate five times faster than thought, according to a study being published Thursday in the journal Nature. The findings are based on new, more accurate measuring techniques.

""The effects can be huge," said lead author Katey Walter of the University of Alaska at Fairbanks said. "It's coming out a lot and there's a lot more to come out."

"Scientists worry about a global warming vicious cycle that was not part of their already gloomy climate forecast: Warming already under way thaws permafrost, soil that has been continuously frozen for thousands of years. Thawed permafrost releases methane and carbon dioxide. Those gases reach the atmosphere and help trap heat on Earth in the greenhouse effect. The trapped heat thaws more permafrost and so on.

""The higher the temperature gets, the more permafrost we melt, the more tendency it is to become a more vicious cycle," said Chris Field, director of global ecology at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, who was not part of the study. "That's the thing that is scary about this whole thing. There are lots of mechanisms that tend to be self-perpetuating and relatively few that tend to shut it off."

"Some scientists say this vicious cycle is already under way, but others disagree.

"Most of the methane-releasing permafrost is in Siberia. Another study earlier this summer in the journal Science found that the amount of carbon trapped in this type of permafrost called yedoma is much more prevalent than originally thought and may be 100 times the amount of carbon released into the air each year by the burning of fossil fuels.

"It won't all come out at once or even over several decades, but if temperatures increase, then the methane and carbon dioxide will escape the soil, scientists say.

"The permafrost issue has caused a quiet buzz of concern among climate scientists and geologists. Specialists in Arctic climate are coming up with research plans to study the permafrost effect, which is not well understood or observed, said Robert Corell, chairman of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment, a study group of 300 scientists.

""It's kind of like a slow-motion time bomb," said Ted Schuur, a professor of ecosystem ecology at the University of Florida and co-author of the study in Science.

"Most of the yedoma is in little-studied areas of northern and eastern Siberia. What makes that permafrost special is that much of it lies under lakes; the carbon below gets released as methane. Carbon beneath dry permafrost is released as carbon dioxide.

"Using special underwater bubble traps, Walter and her colleagues found giant hot spots of bubbling methane that were never measured before because they were hard to reach.

"I don't think it can be easily stopped; we'd really have to have major cooling for it to stop," Walter said.

"Scientists aren't quite sure whether methane or carbon dioxide is worse. Methane is far more powerful in trapping heat, but only lasts about a decade before it dissipates into carbon dioxide and other chemicals. Carbon dioxide traps heat for about a century.

""The bottom line is it's better if it stays frozen in the ground," Schuur said. "But we're getting to the point where it's going more and more into the atmosphere."

"Vladimir Romanovsky, geophysics professor at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks, said he thinks the big methane or carbon dioxide release hasn't started yet, but it's coming. In Alaska and Canada which have far less permafrost than Siberia it's closer to happening, he said. Already, the Alaskan permafrost is reaching the thawing point in many areas.

High in the atmosphere hovers the thin but important ozone layer, which absorbs most of the Earth's solar ultraviolet radiation and converts it into heat energy. Only a small portion of the ultraviolet radiation is left to reach the Earth. Now the ozone layer is undergoing severe destruction and becoming thinner and thinner. As a result, all life forms on Earth are being exposed to more ultraviolet radiation, which causes sunburn, disruption of DNA and other bio-molecules, an increased incidence of skin cancer and cataracts, and suppression of our immune systems. The attenuation of the ozone layer also tips the balance of the ecosystem and retards the growth of crops, leading to possible food shortages. It is also associated with the greenhouse effect, which causes global warming and, in turn, a rise in the sea level.

What is responsible for this consumption of the ozone layer? Scientists discovered that high flying supersonic jet aircraft, atomic weapons testing, chemicals such as CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) and halons are among the first of the culprits. The CFCs were once considered harmless and used extensively in spray cans, cleaners for electronic and optical components, foaming agents, styrofoam, and freon. Halons were used as an effective agent in fire extinguishers, and they are more potent than CFCs in damaging the ozone layer. International agreement is therefore required to effectively limit the use of CFCs and halons.

Apart from the tangible factors mentioned above, very few people have approached this problem in terms of invisible spiritual vibrations. Master has given some interesting opinions in this regard, in which She mentioned the axis of the Earth is changing its direction, and reminded us to repair the holes in the ozone layer with our spiritual energy. In these opinions, we can see that living a virtuous life is also a way to protect the world.

Today's Fairy Of The Ninth Heaven

Spoken By Supreme Master Ching Hai,

Hsihu Center, Formosa, June 18, 1995 (Originally In Chinese)

The climate has changed a lot in many countries. In Ireland, Britain and some other countries, there used to be a lot of fog and hardly any sun. The people often joked, "We only see the sun once a year in Britain." But now in these countries, people go to the hospital because of sunburns. Why? It's so strange and scary! Maybe it's because the protective layer around our planet is being damaged and has not been properly repaired. Maybe the Earth is turning and gradually changing the direction (of its axis). I heard the ancient Egyptian history recorded that it used to be very hot in the Arctic and Antarctic areas. That means where the sun comes up now is where the sun used to set. Maybe the Earth is about to change the direction (of its axis). I don't know. There are many possibilities!

Spoken By Supreme Master Ching Hai,

Chiayi, Formosa, January 16, 1989 (Originally In English)

Q: I heard that the atmosphere has been broken. What can we do about it?

M: It has been broken for a long time. Now you ask me. But the Fairy of the Ninth Heaven has come to repair it! (Laughter) We have to repair it! We should do it ourselves instead of just standing there asking what to do. We should practice the Quan Yin Method and patch those holes with our magnetic field, and drive the astral beings back to where they belong. Now our world is under a lot of influence from the astral world. That's why there are so many bad things such as gambling and drinking. We should try our best to control and resist this influence and protect our world as quickly as we can.

So, the time is right that everyone should push for peace now, at any price, because without peace we cannot build anything up. There are more pressing matters now than killing, my God! There’s global warming; there’s ice melting. And it’s not just the warming: after it has warmed it might get cold. And that’s even worse. If it’s warm, you can jump into the water, but if it’s too cold I don’t know if you have enough things to keep you warm when it’s freezing all the time. Because of the changes in the atmosphere, it might get worse and become freezing even, after the warming period. Sometimes the pollution damages the ozone layer and then maybe all the heat escapes. Then after a while we won’t have any heat, because then maybe too much pollution covers the sun and with too many changes then everything will get so bad and it might be freezing. That’s even worse also.

Start Now to Implement Life-sustaining Solutions for the Planet

I watched on one of the British channels before, there was a very scary documentary. They said that along with the global warming, the sun is also getting cooler somehow. So warming and cold: it’s too warm in some parts, and then some parts will be too cold. Or after the warm will be cold, and if it’s too warm then the ice will melt and then we’ll have floods. And if after that there’s no ice left to balance the things anyway, either the planet will become very heated or it could be very cold, because of too much cover or the ozone layer being broken.

So, many things can happen, and they could happen soon. Several decades are not long. So right now it’s time that all the people of every country should get together and think of the solutions quick, like biofuel or something with sustainable energy like solar power or wind power. You can install it in your home if you can afford it. Or, you can put money together and install one home at a time, OK! For instance, two of you could pitch money together and install it in your home. Draw a lotto to see who’s house gets installed first, so it’s fair. And then next time, pitch money together and install it in her home. When I lived in the, in the cave in the mountains I lived only with solar energy. I charge my phone with solar energy. I watched TV with solar energy. My fridge ran on solar energy. It’s a little complicated but you can learn. To save lives, we must learn. To save the planet, it’s worth it. It’s complicated but it’s not un-doable, you know. It’s simple enough to do it. You have to capture the solar energy into some batteries, and then you connect with those batteries to use it to run your household. At least you can save energy, and you save money in long run anyway. You can even sell it back to the government. In Spain it’s like that.

There’s wind power also; it might be difficult, but you can install a small wind mill. (D: A turbine, or wind mill.) A wind mill, the old fashioned way, it also does work. The turbine takes a longer time and a lot of money and maybe it’s not so ‘in’ yet, so you can’t get it so easily. But you can do that. Do what you can, OK? And go together in one car to work or go shop together, in one car. It saves money and saves energy. And if you can, buy a hybrid car,. They’re not that expensive. I got one; maybe it costs you in the beginning, but later it saves you a lot. It saves your life, too, and saves the life of everybody else! But you can check on the Internet to see which car is cheaper and more convenient for you. And soon in the future we will run it on biodiesel and biofuels like corn fuel, sugar cane or garbage. We can recycle garbage. And maybe we don’t even have to do that if they push the wave energy program! A long time ago in Norway they began that program, to use ocean waves as energy. That would be limitless. You can use it forever, just like the sun.

enews169-hi-226 (Small) Energy is free everywhere actually. You can even harness power from thunder and so on. And that would be limitless, limitless! There would be no cost for anybody. It should be free for everyone, the basic things in life, like water and electricity - should be free actually, yeah! And it soon will be free. All this money that’s put into war, my God we could build a paradise on Earth! It’s about time everyone should know about this. So if you know of any of government important persons, you can remind them by writing or doing something. Do something in your power. Or, if you know how and where, just write. Write to the government. Remind them; help them; support them. Support their idea of environmental protection.

If we don’t act now, we won’t have any Earth left to even fight over with each other: no land to possess, no land to put the guns on or to install the cannons. It’s about time; my God, it’s the 21st Century already and we so called civilized humans are still fighting. I cannot believe it! Sometimes when I sit down, I don’t know how it’s possible. It’s not possible that we live in an era in which humans kill humans. How can we do that? How do you train such a beautiful, pure, handsome, strong, heroic young man to go into battle and just shoot someone like that? There was no quarrelling and no cause before, except the ‘big one’ somewhere behind telling him to go and do it: “That guy is an enemy; you go and shoot him for me.” That’s it.

War Is Never a Solution

This is wasting human resource also. These soldiers are the most brilliant generation of our time! They’re there to pass down better DNA for the new generation. They’re not to go there; they’re not born to die. I don’t care if it’s to die a hero or die a what; it’s the same. It’s a waste of resource! Do you know how much money it costs to grow a man like that? At least a million dollars until he grows into maturity. Growing men is not like growing trees: it’s not cheap. And he has so much love from the family, so much friendship from companions, so much teaching from the teacher and the school - so much affection going on around him. He’s not just ‘nobody’ - he is somebody. He has family; he might even be married and have children already. But he is forced to go out there and shoot someone he doesn’t even have any enmity with. Isn’t that ridiculous? This is crazy, and we live in it!

My God, what kind of the world is this? It’s about time they stop all this - just stop it! We cannot tolerate this. It’s incredible that humans can kill humans! Even animals don’t do that. They might kill one for some reason, but they don’t go out and kill a whole mass like that. For the sake of whatever, I don’t care. I don’t care who is right, who is wrong; it’s all wrong.

For example, even now, I read in the media or saw on television that the number of deaths of American soldiers is exceeding the number of victims from 9-11. And that’s not counting the other people: the women and the children, the victims of war, the innocent bystanders. So war is never a solution. The more war, the more death; the more death, the more enemies; the more enemies, the more war, and so on. It’s a vicious circle, and there is no end to it. So we just have to stop. We just have to shake hands and forgive each other and then let’s go on with our lives, because there are so many pressing matters now. With all the money that’s spent on war, can you imagine? Africa would become like Europe if they used all that money on Africa, on one continent alone. And with all the money that’s still going into the war, we could build space ships. We could have more time, more energy and recruit more talent. Instead of all these young men dying, they would become living bodies of the future, building houses for the needy.

Let There Be Soldiers of Peace

If all the soldiers changed their jobs, we’d have soldiers of peace: buildings soldiers who bring medicine to the sick and build homes for the homeless. They are able-bodied, intelligent, strong and handsome. They are beautiful beings; it is a waste that that they go there and just die like that. Just one bullet like this. (Master gestures to show the small size of a bullet) Can you imagine? It can go anywhere from anywhere and kill one handsome, beautiful, aspiring, pure, energetic, young human being - just like that. Can you imagine? And it costs millions of dollars even, to raise him, and so much love from the family and friends so that he grows up like that. We cannot teach him hatred when he grows out of love. You cannot change that into hatred; this is not right.

You should continue to nurture the love that he has in him, the trust that he has with his family and friends, and with the nation that he’s born into. You cannot change that love into hatred and tell a young man who has been loved all his life until now, to come out and turn into a hateful person - and then use a gun to kill another person who has also grown out from the love of a mother and father somewhere, and who has somehow has been nourished and nurtured all this time like a beautiful flower in the garden with all love and care, attention and hope for the future. And then - boom, just like that - with one bullet, finished. Such a beautiful dream is gone, collapsed.

How many more generations until we can cultivate many young beautiful men like that? They are at their prime, and they are so inspired by heroism. We cannot use that to turn it into hatred for any reason at all, because it is wrong; it’s wrong. You who have children, you know that! You nurture your children up, not to just to die like that. Can you imagine all these mothers, all the fathers and all the loved ones, all his friends, even his neighbors - it’s terrible! It’s time we have to stop all this nonsense. Anyone with intelligence cannot tolerate this, cannot continue to support this kind of world, can we? (Audience: No) One doesn’t have to be a Quan Yin practitioner or a Zen monk to understand this. It’s just common for a human being to have this knowledge, this understanding that humans are born to live.

God’s Gift of Life Is for Love, Not War

There’s nothing worth dying for. Nothing! God doesn’t give birth to you so that you have to die for something. Except to find God, there is nothing really worth dying for. People should be given hope, inspiration to live, not to die. Remember in one of my poems, I said that I don’t ever want to grow up to be a hero, to keep the war and die? It’s not my job, is it? It’s nobody’s job. You’re not born to grow up just to keep a war and then die for it. Isn’t that ridiculous? We should never have a war anyway; we’re so backward. If it hadn’t been for you, the Quan Yin practitioners who grace this Earth, who bless the atmosphere with love and universal energy, this Earth would soon be ‘kaput’ (meaning “ended”) already. So, we’re just holding it and waiting for humankind to wake up more and do something. If not, it has to go. We can leave it sooner or later anyway; we don’t care. But it’s such a negative way.

Suppose the Earth became kaput now, we could go up to a higher level. We are already there and we already have our ’security card,’ but the people out there, if they die like that, they will be living in shock in such a state of stupor, for a long, long time - thousands of years - before they wake up. And then their atmosphere will manifest in another kind of world again, and they’ll war with each other again, because they haven’t finished their thinking process. They haven’t gotten to the understanding about peace and “Love thy neighbor.” They haven’t done that. So if they wake up again from their stupor after thousands of years, they’ll do the same thing again.

Peace Costs Far Less than War

I therefore really hope that this is the time they understand this very simple concept. Even a child understands peace at all costs. But peace doesn’t cost anything: that is the thing. Only war costs something. War costs human resource, war costs emotional upheaval, war costs tremendous financial resource and every other resource of humankind. All this equipment they build for war could be used to build houses, to build railways for the tram, to build underground train stations or build bridges for the poor countries.

enews182-hi-14 (Small) And all this money - billions of dollars - something like $7 million per day or week in Iraq, for example, and how many weeks or years have already gone by? Do you understand how much that is? You don’t because it’s too much. It’s too much for us to even want to think about. It’s just too ridiculous when people are hungry or starving and don’t even have the basic things like clean water to drink. And we spend tons of money and tons of human resources, tons of world metal resources or any resource just to build a killing weapon. This is beyond imagination! No wonder our world is lagging behind, compared to all others in the galaxy.

But mind you, be happy. Our Earth is getting better of course, number one. Number two, our Earth is still better than many other planets. There are worse planets. There are planets whose people are evil, just pure evil. And they will harass you day and night. Some of the warlords have been born there; I don’t know how much longer; I don’t want to see. It’s terrible. Even if they repent, they don’t even have time to pray. Can you understand that? That’s why they have to stay there forever, because they don’t have time for anything. They’re just running and running, running and hiding, running and hiding, all day long, with no time. It’s such mental torment that hell even sounds better. So at least we’re born on this planet, where it’s half-and-half, and we’re pushed to go nearer to God. But even then I don’t know if I could ever get used to the kind of people who go out and kill each other like that. I mean, if you want to be a soldier, you have to have instilled in you the hatred; otherwise how can you kill? Just killing at random like that, killing as ordered. There’s no turning back. If you turn back, then you are killed too, by your own people for betraying your country.

Use Earthly Resources to Build and Help Others

We should use all this money and intelligence and time and resource to train people to love and to build. This makes more sense, yes? We should use it for a peaceful purpose. The soldiers are so strong and healthy and in the prime of their life, and they also very idealistic. When we are young, we are very idealistic; we are heroes. We want to do good for the world. So this good and pure energy and enthusiasm has to be used for a peaceful purpose, for building the world and for helping the needy. That is the kind of heroism that the young people love to spend their energy on; they will love it. Suppose any government tells the soldiers, “Look here: no more war, you go out and build houses,” they’d be very, very happy. They would be relieved. They would feel that this is really what they want. I bet you that’s what would happen. Any soldier - you ask them - they would want to do that.

We can retrain them. There’s still time. Because they are young, they can learn fast. What I mean is that their youthful inspiration and heroism and idealism should not be misused. It’s a waste. The young people are the best. You tell them what to do, and they will do it. They are so eager to serve, they’re eager to learn, they’re eager to do something good because they’re full of energy. If they are used for war, it is a pity. It’s a misuse of their purity and their idealism. So it’s better to use the soldiers for peaceful purposes. We can keep the army. Keep it and use it to build things up. In the Philippines, they are trying to do that. That is a very good idea, and I hope they will. Maybe the Filipino soldiers should do that first, and everyone else will follow. We have to start somewhere.

Our world would have been a paradise a long time ago if we did not have so much war going on, which is wasting a lot of the energy, finances and resources of the Earth. There’s no need to believe me; you know it yourself. This is terrible; so now I hope that all signs of peace are coming our way. It is coming, and I hope more will come. The true peace really must come, because that’s the only way to survive on this planet, my God. We must use our time now, to change the course of history; otherwise we’ll all die together. The good and the bad, the powerful nations and the weak nations, will all be gone.

Being gone is no problem; the problem is that not all of the people on the planet are ready to integrate into paradise. After they’re gone they’ll still stay in shock or in misery. And that state of mind will keep them for a long time in a hellish existence, worse than this planet’s. They’ll be warring with each other in that kind of existence and then wake up and become human again, warring with each other again. Have you heard of those stories that in some of the big major battlefields, sometimes those who have psychic power can see that the soldiers in their astral forms are walking around and trying to fight each other still? Or, looking for the fighting or thinking that the war is still going on, because if you’re not enlightened now, you won’t ever be. Not after you die; you just suffer more, because you can see more. With a body you can shield yourself from some of the emotional distress, and recover or don’t see the suffering. But without the body you’ll see more; you’ll see the naked misery in hell and you will suffer more and more. And this is terrible.

Making a Model for the World

MASTER 92So the question is not whether I care that the planet is still alive or not, it’s just for the people who live in it. They have to know this concept; they have to awaken to this peaceful solution, to the real human purpose, to build up the peaceful atmosphere, to find God or to remember God at least, and to be at peace with each other, just like God wants us to be, like one time paradise. Otherwise if they die like this, they will suffer more than what they do now. You understand me? That is the reason why they have to stop the war and begin to build peace now. Otherwise if they die, it would be terrible: more terrible than being alive, more terrible than the war in Iraq, more terrible than 9-11, more terrible than any terrorism can ever cause you to feel.

So that’s the reason we practice hard, we really pray for peace in our way, and we’re pushing for it inside our hearts. And then peace has to come; people have to stop. Just stop like that! Just shake hands, with no conditions. There shouldn’t be any condition for peace at all because both sides will gain. Maybe you lose one piece of land but who cares? If Noah and the flood ever come again, you’ll lose everything. You’ll lose the whole land, not to talk about one piece! Because suppose a typhoon like Katrina comes, we would also lose billions of dollars for nothing. So if we lose billions of dollars or a piece of land or even a country for a peaceful purpose, let it be. Why do we need a frontier? Why do we need the country anyway? If you don’t have Egypt, you can go to live in Germany. If they dissolve the border, for example, between your countries and you become another citizen, why not! Just like me, I’m Aulacese and I’m British and now I’m in Germany, who cares? And you guys even come from England, Finland, Poland, Greece, Croatia, France, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Russia, Spain, Romania, Austria, Sweden, Switzerland, Estonia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Czechoslovakia, Africa, Ukraine - welcome! Bulgaria, Italy and Israel even. (Congratulations, your country is getting good. We celebrated your country’s peace with the Palestinians for one week. We had cakes and dancing, just to support more peace and make it more real, make it getting better, like a little push.) Where else? Sri Lanka, Columbia, Belgium, of course Germany, India, Armenia, Australia, New Zealand, Iran - Oh, wonderful. It’s international, a big United Nations, and we are happy together. (Applause)

This is a model for the world to follow. So your actions of coming here have many meanings. Number one, you of course want to see me, your lovely Princess; that I understand. (Applause) Second, you want to meditate together, which is very important, and third… eating! (Laughter) But the most important thing is that you make a model; I let you come so we can realize peace in one section of the world. Because we are all telepathic, I told you already. And if we are peaceful here, we will be peaceful everywhere. (Applause) This is a mini-model for the world to follow; this is how the world should be, and they should follow our example, that we live peacefully together. Here no one cares if we are from Iran or Czechoslovakia. We eat the same food and we sit on the same floor, if you have a seat at all. So here you fighting for property and also for food, but in a loving and peaceful way. And we are so happy; even you can sit in the corner like that. This is all we need, just a little square and we’re so happy! So whatever you do here with us together, it will affect the world. Whatever you do in your house, in your group meditation weekly, it will affect the world. And then it will change. Some people learn slowly; some people learn fast. They better learn fast! There’s not too much time. But they are learning fast.

Be Prepared to Act Positively and Quickly

I think the world is getting very aware now that they must do something. There’s no more excuse to say they don’t know; they do know, because what affects the neighbor affects you. Imagine if all the people from the lowlands, when the flood arrives, they don’t have time to build a Noah’s boat. They will not know and it will hit them quick, according to the reports, which is logical also unless a miracle happens. Imagine these people who have nowhere to go and who will then all run into the city, to higher land, where there’s no flood, no disaster - where do they go? They’ve lost everything by then. At that time there’s too many people for us even to go and rescue or to help because there’s so many, and then they will have no home. They will have lost everything; there’s nothing to lose anymore and they will be very chaotic. They will go looting the cities, and they might even have worse war than we’re having now.

enews180-hi-141 (Small)So, whatever affects them, affects everyone. It’s not like, “OK, I am the President, it doesn’t concern me.” Or, “I am the Governor, a high official; it doesn’t concern me,” or, “I live on the high land; I don’t live next to the sea; it doesn’t concern me.” It does concern everyone because if they come in hundreds of thousands at the same time, hungry, stressed, disoriented, starving and confused, they’ll do anything. They will be like so-called zombie soldiers and that’s the worst you could ever be confronted with. They don’t know anything anymore at that time. It’s too big a grievance for them to even keep their mind together. And there’s no weapon that can stop this kind of war. It will be terrible.

So we’d better be prepared, and whoever has the authority and the power must use it to change the way we live our life. We have to clean up our planet, and quick.

Greenhouse gas	Sources	Sinks	Importance for climate
Carbon Dioxide (CO2)	1) Burning of fossil fuel 2) Land-use change (deforestation)	1) Ocean Uptake 2) Plants!& photosynthesis	Absorbs infrared radiation; affects stratospheric O3
Methane (CH4)	1) Biomass burning 2) Enteric fermentation 3)Rice paddies	1) Reactions with OH 2) Microorganisms uptake by soils	Absorbs infrared radiation; affects tropospheric O3 and OH; affects stratospheric O3 and H2O; produces CO2
Nitrous Oxide (N2O)	1) Biomass burning 2) Fossil-fuel combustion 3) Fertilizers	1) Removal by soils 2) Stratospheric photolysis and reaction with O	Absorbs infrared radiation; affects stratospheric O3
Ozone (O3)	Photochemical reactions involving O2	Catalytic chemical reactions involving NOx, ClOx and HOx species.	Absorbs ultraviolet and infrared radiation
Carbon Monoxide (CO)	1) Plant emissions 2) Man-made release (transport, industrial)	1) Soil uptake 2) Reactions with OH	Affects stratospheric O3 and OH cycles; produces CO2
Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)	Industrial production	Insignificant in troposphere, dissociated in stratosphere (photolysis and reaction with O)	Absorbs infrared radiation; affects stratospheric O3
Sulphur Dioxide (SO2)	1) Volcanoes 2) Coal and Biomass burning	1) Dry and wet deposition 2) Reactions with OH	Forms aerosols, which scatter solar radiation

* Adoration of Nature: Students! The progress of modern technology, by polluting the atmosphere with carbon dioxide smoke, is causing threat to the life on earth. The smoke has already created a hole in the ozone ring above the earth which has been serving a protecting cover against harmful radiation from the sun.

The Ozone layer above the earth faces great danger owing to atmospheric pollution and intensive afforestation is essential for controlling this pollution and safeguarding the ozone layer.

* Because of the advance of technology, several factories have sprung up, causing emission of harmful gases in the atmosphere and resulting in the ozone layer becoming thinner. If this goes on unchecked, it may have disastrous consequences. Scientists are trying to stop the breakup of the ozone layer but are unable to find a remedy. The cause of this situation is that more carbon dioxide is being let into the atmosphere. Normally, plants and trees absorb and assimilate the carbon dioxide and supply oxygen by the natural process of photosynthesis. But because there is deforestation to an alarming extent, the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has considerably increased. The remedy for this situation is intensive afforestation, growing more trees everywhere, and protecting the existing trees without destroying them for other purposes. The relationship of man, nature, and God is very intimate, which scientists may not be able to realize. - Sathya Sai Baba, Sanathana Sarathi 36, February 1993, p. 45.

(Update: Sai Baba is not a scientist, and his language is not scientifically sound. But it is worth noting that many of his warnings regarding the climate abnormality and earthquakes were given in early 1990s. )

Mr. Roland Jung, Asia Affairs Advisor of the US Democratic Party: We are well aware that humankind’s daily habits and the changes of the sun are affecting the Earth’s climate in many ways. It is predicted that in 2010, the Earth’s climate will experience a massive change due to a great explosion of the sun’s sunspots. It has also been predicted the climate will cause an oil crisis, or kind of an oil shock. Therefore, it seems that there is a need for worldwide awareness and change concerning global warming. I would like to ask Your specific opinion and message concerning this. What do You think we need to do as preparation?

Master Ching Hai: Thank you, Mr. Jung. Against this kind of great upheaval of calamities, the only refuge that we can take is in Heaven’s grace, by being virtuous, compassionate and a true believer of God, and praying for God’s grace; then we can be saved. We should start to change our way of living now. We have to change. We have to. That’s the only way we can save ourselves and the planet, and the whole world and all the beings in it; because as the saying goes in ancient India, “Any nation that produces 10 great persons worthy in the eyes of Heaven will not know destruction.”

So, what is meant by 10 great personages? That means the person who is truly a human being: He is compassionate, he is spiritually elevated, and he is unconditional and selfless. He is serving others and remembers God. For doing that, we are a little bit far. So, if we really want to save the world, that’s the only way we can. Otherwise, even if we dig a hole into the mountain or under the ground to stay away from the sun’s heat, or we go up in the mountain to avoid the sea rising, there are other calamities that will be coming our way. Anyone who has any belief in any religion should study their scriptures again, and do exactly what is commanded therein because “As you sow, so shall you reap.” All the religions have told us that.

So, now we come back to the ancient saying in India that 10 persons who are virtuous can save a nation. How do we do this? In the ancient times, the nations were smaller than they are now and 10 persons in each country should be enough. But for our expanded community nowadays, we need more than 10 persons in a community. I would say it depends on the population also. New York, for example, we would call a nation in the old times. In New York, we probably need a million people to be virtuous, upright and spiritually elevated, in order to save New York.

So, I think we have to do it faster than what we are doing now. I’m glad the governments are doing something and all the celebrities, the distinguished people and organizations just like you today, are concerned and trying to push with all the vital actions to save the planet and to stop global warming. I’m very happy about that, but maybe we should move faster and take more action: The vegetarian diet is number one. Green energy is number two. Everyone must work together to be frugal and protect the environment and the animals. It’s not that difficult. It’s just the habits that we have to change, that’s all.

The following very dated news article suggests that the issue of today's climate change has already been predicted by scientists three decades ago. Contrary to what Climategate is trying to demonize, the issue of climate change is not really invented by the climate researchers. The problem is not just about the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, but the oil industry has been trying to force us to focus on carbon dioxide only:

"A sharp increase in methane gas in the atmosphere since 1978 will probably make the earth warmer and may worsen seasonal losses of protective ozone over Antarctica, scientists say.

"But the 11 percent increase in methane in the last decade may also slow depletion of the ozone shield over the rest of the planet, said F. Sherwood Rowland and Donald R. Blake, chemists at the University of California at Irvine.

"Their study, financed by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, was published Friday in the journal Science.

"Methane is the major component of natural gas, but about 80 percent of atmospheric methane comes from decomposition in rice paddies, swamps and the intestines of cows, with some contribution from wood digestion in termites, Mr. Rowland said.

"Humans are responsible for increased methane levels because they are raising more cows, growing more rice and chopping down tropical forests, which provides food for more termites, said atmospheric scientist Pat Zimmerman of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo.

(Update 1: According to The Earth Encyclopedia , methane emissions resulting from human activities are now thought to exceed those from natural sources, annual emissions being around 320 million tonnes. The main human-made sources arise from losses occurring during oil, coal and gas extraction, from ruminant livestock and waste treatment, from landfill sites, rice cultivation and biomass burning. )

(Update 2: In 2008, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that methane is on the rise again after nearly a decade of near stagnation. The rising level of methane may be caused by the increased rate of oil, coal and gas extraction.)

"Mr. Blake and Mr. Rowland collected air samples regularly from January 1978 to September 1987 at up to 60 locations around the Pacific to measure methane levels. Their study indicates the rate of increase in methane gas slowed slightly in the last five years. The Greenhouse Effect

"Researchers generally agree that by trapping solar heat like glass in a greenhouse, methane, carbon dioxide and other pollutants are likely to warm the earth's lower atmosphere by a few degrees in the next half century.

"They fear this greenhouse effect may cause crop-threatening droughts and partly melt polar ice caps, raising sea levels.

"Ozone is an air pollutant at low altitudes, but in the stratosphere it shields the earth from harmful ultraviolet radiation. Scientists say reduction of the ozone layer will cause more skin cancers and ecological damage.

"In 1974, Mr. Rowland and a chemist, Mario Molina, first warned that the ozone layer was threatened by man-made chlorine compounds called chlorofluorocarbons, or CFC's, which are used as refrigeration coolants, aerosol propellants and for making plastic foams. The United States banned spray-can CFC's in 1978. A global treaty aims to reduce global output of CFC's and other ozone-destroying chemicals.

"Mounting evidence indicates CFC's are responsible for the worldwide loss of about 1 percent of the earth's ozone shield and drastic thinning of the ozone layer above Antarctica for a few months starting every September. Ice Clouds Over Antarctica

"Mr. Blake and Mr. Rowland said methane increases might worsen the Antarctic ozone hole by aiding formation of ice clouds above Antarctica. Studies by Molina and others suggest the clouds enhance chemical reactions that allow chlorine from CFC's to break down ozone.

"As methane rises into the polar stratosphere, it breaks down and releases hydrogen, which combines with a chemical called hydroxyl to form water, which in turn freezes into clouds, Mr. Blake explained.

"Outside Antarctica, wind and higher temperatures prevent formation of stratospheric clouds. Instead, by attacking chlorine from CFC's, methane may reduce the amount of chlorine available to destroy ozone, Mr. Blake said.

"The 11 percent methane increase ''will make the ozone hole over Antarctica more severe,'' said Mr. Molina, who is at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. ''It will probably make the ozone depletion in the rest of the world less severe,'' he said.

"Mr. Rowland and Mr. Blake also said that because increasing atmospheric methane reduces the amount of hydroxyl present, it may reduce the atmosphere's ability to cleanse itself of pollutants. Hydroxyl reacts with many pollutants and removes them from the atmosphere.

SOURCE OF THE ARTICLE 

In China, the highest temperature recorded in 2008 was 47 degree C (in Hunan). The western news media did not say very much about the heat wave in China, but the following news article is a piece of evidence. This year (2010), the climate would probably evolve differently, because of the recent volcano eruption in Iceland. At this stage, it is unclear whether there would be another bigger volcano eruption iin the coming future:

www.chinaview.cn 2008-07-26 20:31:08

"GUANGZHOU, July 26 (Xinhua) -- A heatwave swept through most of south China's Guangdong Province as Fung Wong, the eighth tropical storm of the year, intensified into full-scale typhoon late on Saturday.

"High temperatures occurred in 68 cities and counties, of which nine cities and counties were hit by temperatures exceeding 38 degrees Celsius. Many areas issued the orange warning heatwave signal, said Lin Liangxun, the Guangdong Provincial Meteorological Observatory chief forecaster.

"Guangzhou, the provincial capital, on Saturday hit 37.7 degrees Celsius, a record high this summer at Wushan Observatory. The highest temperature of 39.2 degrees Celsius was said to happen in Lianzhou, according to Lin.

(Update on 28 July 2008: Our body temperatures is only 37 degrees Celsius, but over the past few days, the highest temperature in Southern China has reached 41 degrees Celsius. Such a high temperature is either unprecedented or very rare in Chinese history. I think this problem deserves some attention.)

"By 5 p.m. on Saturday, the eye of typhoon Fung Wong, or "Phoenix", was monitored at 21.4 degrees north latitude and 126.4 degrees east longitude, or 560 km east of Taiwan, packing up to force-12 winds.

"The typhoon was expected to continue to move westward at a speed of 15 km to 20 km per hour and would approach Fujian Province after reaching Taiwan early on Monday, Lin said.

"Under the impact of the advancing typhoon, it will remain sunny for most parts of the southern province through Monday, and the maximum temperature in northern and eastern Guangdong will be as high as 37 to 38 degrees Celsius.

"Elsewhere, meteorological observatories in Fujian and Zhejiang, two provinces on the eastern seaboard, on Saturday issued warnings to ships at sea or ocean-going vessels for tropical storm Fung Wong.

"The storm first appeared in the ocean waters east of the Philippines at 2 p.m. on Friday and intensified into a strong tropical storm at 8 a.m. on Saturday. The eye of the storm was monitored at 21.8 degrees north latitude and 127.9 degrees east longitude.

"As Fung Wong moved westward, it brought about strong winds and a lot of rain in the areas it swept through.

"A Fujian provincial meteorological observatory forecast said it would make landfall head-on in Fujian late on Monday and early Tuesday.

"Before its arrival, Fujian was gripped by freak weather on Friday and most of Saturday: heatwave, thunder and lightning, torrential rain and hail stones.

"The local meteorological observatory in Fujian gave a blue-color warning before midday on Saturday, predicting there were more days of strong wind and rain ahead beginning on Sunday. It warned ships working in the Taiwan Strait and passing vessels to take special notice.

"The meteorological observatory in Zhejiang on Saturday also issued warnings to ocean-going ships for the approaching of Fung Wong and accompanying gale on the sea.

"The Zhejiang observatory said the eye of the tropical storm was moving westward at a speed of 15 km to 20 km per hour.

"The heatwave that had lingered in Zhejiang over the past several days was ended at midday on Saturday by showers, thunder showers, alongside strong wind.

"The forecast said the strong winds whipped up by Fung Wong would continue in the central and southern parts of Zhejiang until Tuesday.

"Editor: Sun Yunlong

September 1929

"There is no cause to worry. The high tide of prosperity will continue." — Andrew W. Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury.

October 14, 1929

"Secretary Lamont and officials of the Commerce Department today denied rumors that a severe depression in business and industrial activity was impending, which had been based on a mistaken interpretation of a review of industrial and credit conditions issued earlier in the day by the Federal Reserve Board." — New York Times

December 5, 1929

"The Government's business is in sound condition." — Andrew W. Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury

December 28, 1929

"Maintenance of a general high level of business in the United States during December was reviewed today by Robert P. Lamont, Secretary of Commerce, as an indication that American industry had reached a point where a break in New York stock prices does not necessarily mean a national depression." — Associated Press dispatch.

January 13, 1930

"Reports to the Department of Commerce indicate that business is in a satisfactory condition, Secretary Lamont said today." - News item.

January 21, 1930

"Definite signs that business and industry have turned the corner from the temporary period of emergency that followed deflation of the speculative market were seen today by President Hoover. The President said the reports to the Cabinet showed the tide of employment had changed in the right direction." - News dispatch from Washington.

January 24, 1930

"Trade recovery now complete President told. Business survey conference reports industry has progressed by own power. No Stimulants Needed! Progress in all lines by the early spring forecast." - New York Herald Tribune.

March 8, 1930

"President Hoover predicted today that the worst effect of the crash upon unemployment will have been passed during the next sixty days." - Washington Dispatch.

May 1, 1930

"While the crash only took place six months ago, I am convinced we have now passed the worst and with continued unity of effort we shall rapidly recover. There is one certainty of the future of a people of the resources, intelligence and character of the people of the United States - that is, prosperity." - President Hoover

June 29, 1930

"The worst is over without a doubt." - James J. Davis, Secretary of Labor.

August 29, 1930

"American labor may now look to the future with confidence." - James J. Davis, Secretary of Labor.

September 12, 1930

"We have hit bottom and are on the upswing." - James J. Davis, Secretary of Labor.

October 16, 1930

"Looking to the future I see in the further acceleration of science continuous jobs for our workers. Science will cure unemployment." - Charles M. Schwab.

October 20, 1930

"President Hoover today designated Robert W. Lamont, Secretary of Commerce, as chairman of the President's special committee on unemployment." - Washington dispatch.

October 21, 1930

"President Hoover has summoned Colonel Arthur Woods to help place 2,500,000 persons back to work this winter." - Washington Dispatch

November 1930

"I see no reason why 1931 should not be an extremely good year." - Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., General Motors Co.

January 20, 1931

"The country is not in good condition." - Calvin Coolidge.

June 9, 1931

"The depression has ended." - Dr. Julius Klein, Assistant Secretary of Commerce.

The message from the Kogi was copied from a Kogi website . They don't say very much about science, but I tend to agree with their message:

 

‘From the beginning in Colombia

everything, everything remained as it

was

among us,

the native people;

the same belief, the same mask,

the same dance.

Everything well organised, in order,

A terrace for every animal.

‘Younger brother was permitted in

other places,

other countries.

There was a dividing line, the sea.

‘He said, ‘Younger Brother that side,

Elder Brother this side.

You cannot cross it.’

Because this Colombia was the heart of

The world,

Of the whole universe.

‘But Younger Brother came from

another country

and immediately saw gold

and immediately began to rob.

There were golden images,

golden oracles.

The Mama prophesied with golden

Bowls,

he had a golden tuma,

he had everything

and Younger Brother took it all to

another country.

‘Now the Mama grows sad,

he feels weak.

He says that the earth is decaying.

The earth is losing its strength

Because they have taken away much

petrol,

coal,

many minerals.

‘A human being has much liquid inside.

If the liquid dries up we fall with

weakness.

This same thing can happen to the

Earth,

Weakness makes you fall,

weakness.

‘So the earth catches diseases of all

kinds.

The animals die.

The trees dry up.

People fall ill.

Many illnesses will appear

And there will be no cure for them

Why?

‘Because the Younger Brother is among us,

Younger Brother is violating

The basic foundation of the world’s law

A total violation.

Robbing.

Ransacking.

Building highways,

Extracting petrol,

minerals.

‘We tell you,

We the people of this place,

Kogi,

Asario,

Arhuaco:

that is the violation

‘So the Mamas say,

‘please BBC

no one else should come here,

no more ransacking

because the earth wants to collapse,

the earth grows weak,

we must protect it,

we must respect it,

because he does not respect the earth,

because he does not respect it.’

‘Younger Brother thinks,

‘Yes! Here I am! I know much about

the universe!’

But this knowing is learning to destroy

the world,

to destroy everything,

all humanity.

‘The earth feels, they take out petrol, it

feels pain there.

So the earth sends out sickness.

There will be many medicines,

drugs,

but in the end the drugs will not be of

any use.

‘The Mamas say that this tale must be

learnt

by the Younger Brother.’

SOURCE 

"We work to take care of the world. We respect the Mother Earth... [W}e know that the land is our Mother Earth. If we plant an orange tree or any type of tree and then dig it up by the roots it will die. Digging out the earth’s gold is the same thing. It could die. We’ve all heard many stories that the world is dying. Why is it dying? It is because they have robbed so many tombs. The world is like a person. Robbing tombs, stealing its gold, it will die. We don’t take out the earth’s gold. We know that it is there but we do not take it. We know from our divinations that the advice of the Mother is not to take the gold. We know where it is but we decide only to make offerings to it.

"How is it that we are able to live? Without blood we cannot live and without bones we cannot walk. Here all the Mamas [teachers, custodians of Kogi cosmological thought] are in agreement about what it is we are going to say and how to speak. If i cut off my foot I cannot walk. When they [the Younger Brothers, us] dig into the earth and take it’s gold it is the same thing....Gold has it’s own thought and it can speak. It is a living being. They must stop stealing it.

"If they take all the gold the world will end. The Mothers of banana trees, of all the trees and of all the birds, they have all been stolen. They are cutting off the flesh of the Mother’s body. They have taken everything. They have stolen the spirits of all things from the Mother. They are stealing the very spirit and thought of the Mother...

"It is the mountains which make the waters, the rivers and the clouds. If the trees are felled they will not produce any more water. We do not cut down the trees that grow by rivers, we know that they protect the water. We do not cut down huge areas of forest like the Younger Brother does, we cut small clearings for our fields. The Mother told us not to cut down many trees, so we cut very few, tiny patches.

"If the Younger Brother keeps cutting down all the trees, there will be fires because the sun will heat the earth.... We are the Elder Brothers so we have to think clearly....

"Younger Brother, stop doing it. You have already taken so much. We need water to live. The Mother told us how to live properly and how to think well. We’re still here and we haven’t forgotten anything.

"The earth is decaying, it is losing its strength because they have taken away much petrol, coal, many minerals. Younger Brother thinks, Yes! Here I am! I know much about the universe! But this knowing is learning to destroy the world, to destroy everything, all humanity.... The Mother is suffering. They have broken her teeth and taken out her eyes and ears. She vomits, she has diarrhoea, she is ill.

"If we cut off our arms, we can’t work, if we cut off our legs, we can’t walk. That is how it is with the Mother. The Mother is suffering. She has nothing.

Does the Younger Brother understand what he has done? Does he?

SOURCE 

The following paragraph was extracted from a newsletter published about six years ago. The warning in this newsletter was actually given by Sai Baba before the Y2K fever. The original newsletter can be found in here  :

".... In an interview that Ann and I had with Sai Baba last February Swami told us that the Earth was sick. He said that the hole in the ozone layer was getting bigger and that as a result the Earth was heating up. He also said that the Earth had a high temperature, a fever, and that she would have to cleanse herself of this fever. What form this cleansing will take I do not know, but I believe that we are witnessing the first symptoms of this fever in the extremes of weather that we are now experiencing all over the world.

Then Sai Baba warned us that Man was extracting far too many minerals and too much oil from the Earth for short term financial profit. He said that the Earth was hollow and was becoming unbalanced. He held his hand up, in the shape of a clenched fist, to look like a ball, and then he turned his hand sideways. What this portends I do not know, but it seems to me to imply that there will be a shift in the axis of rotation of the Earth. ... "

Some Facts on Oil Exploration/Exploitation: 1) The world has drilled about 5 million oil wells. 2) world uses about 86 million barrels of oil everyday. With this consumption rate, we have just about 40 years of oil remaining for consumption. 3) World extracts about 85 million barrels of oil from the ground everyday. In other words, world creates about 13 million cubic metres of underground voids everyday. 4) The undergound void spaces as result of oil extraction are being filled by either water or gases 5) The oil extracted from the ground is about 100 degree C.

Every living being is an engine geared to the wheelwork of the universe. Though seemingly affected only by its immediate surrounding, the sphere of external influence extends to infinite distance. There is no constellation or nebula, no sun or planet, in all the depths of limitless space, no passing wanderer of the starry heaven, that does not exercise some control over its destiny -- not in the vague and delusive sense of astrology, but in the rigid and positive meaning of physical science.

More than this can be said. There is no thing endowed with life -- from man, who is enslaving the elements, to the humblest creature -- in all this world that does not sway it in turn. Whenever action is born from force, though it be infinitesimal, the cosmic balance is upset and universal motion result.

Herbert Spencer has interpreted life as a continuous adjustment to the environment, a definition of this inconceivably complex manifestation quite in accord with advanced scientific thought, but, perhaps, not broad enough to express our present views. With each step forward in the investigation of its laws and mysteries our conceptions of nature and its phases have been gaining in depth and breadth.

In the early stages of intellectual development man was conscious of but a small part of the macrocosm. He knew nothing of the wonders of the microscopic world, of the molecules composing if of the atoms making up the molecules and of the dwindlingly small world of electrons within the atoms. To him life was synonymous with voluntary motion and action. A plant did not suggest to him what it does to us -- that it lives and feels, fights for its existence, that it suffers and enjoys. Not only have we found this to be true, but we have ascertained that even matter called inorganic, believed to be dead, responds to irritants and gives unmistakable evidence of the presence of a living principle within.

Thus, everything that exists, organic or inorganic, animated or inert, is susceptible to stimulus from the outside. There is no gap between, no break of continuity, no special and distinguishing vital agent. The same law governs all matter, all the universe is alive. The momentous question of Spencer, "What is it that causes inorganic matter to run into organic forms!" has been answered. It is the sun's heat and light. Wherever they are there is life. Only in the boundless wastes of interstellar space, in the eternal darkness and cold, is animation suspended, and, possibly, at the temperature of absolute zero all matter may die.

Man as a Machine

This realistic aspect of the perceptible universe, as a clockwork wound up and running down, dispensing with the necessity of a hypermechanical vital principle, need not be in discord with our religious and artistic aspirations -- those undefinable and beautiful efforts through which the human mind endeavors to free itself from material bonds. On the contrary, the better understanding of nature, the consciousness that our knowledge is true, can only be all the more elevating and inspiring.

It was Descartes, the great French philosopher, who in the seventeenth century, laid the first foundation to the mechanistic theory of life, not a little assisted by Harvey's epochal discovery of blood circulation. He held that animals were simply automata without consciousness and recognized that man, though possessed of a higher and distinctive quality, is incapable of action other than those characteristic of a machine. He also made the first attempt to explain the physical mechanism of memory. But in this time many functions of the human body were not as yet understood, and in this respect some of his assumptions were erroneous.

Great strides have since been made in the art of anatomy, physiology and all branches of science, and the workings of the man-machine are now perfectly clear. Yet the very fewest among us are able to trace their actions to primary external causes. lt is indispensable to the arguments I shall advance to keep in mind the main facts which I have myself established in years of close reasoning and observation and which may be summed up as follows:

1. The human being is a self-propelled automaton entirely under the control of external influences. Willful and predetermined though they appear, his actions are governed not from within, but from without. He is like a float tossed about by the waves of a turbulent sea.

2. There is no memory or retentive faculty based on lasting impression. What we designate as memory is but increased responsiveness to repeated stimuli.

3. It is not true, as Descartes taught, that the brain is an accumulator. There is no permanent record in the brain, there is no stored knowledge. Knowledge is something akin to an echo that needs a disturbance to be called into being.

4. All knowledge or form conception is evoked through the medium of the eye, either in response to disturbances directly received on the retina or to their fainter secondary effects and reverberations. Other sense organs can only call forth feelings which have no reality of existence and of which no conception can be formed.

5. Contrary to the most important tenet of Cartesian philosophy that the perceptions of the mind are illusionary, the eye transmits to it the true and accurate likeness of external things. This is because light propagates in straight lines and the image cast on the retina is an exact reproduction of the external form and one which, owing to the mechanism of the optic nerve, can not be distorted in the transmission to the brain. What is more, the process must be reversible, that in to say, a form brought to consciousness can, by reflex action, reproduce the original image on the retina just as an echo can reproduce the original disturbance If this view is borne out by experiment an immense revolution in all human relations and departments of activity will be the consequence.

Natural Forces Influence Us

Accepting all this as true let us consider some of the forces and influences which act on such a wonderfully complex automatic engine with organs inconceivably sensitive and delicate, as it is carried by the spinning terrestrial globe in lightning flight through space. For the sake of simplicity we may assume that the earth's axis is perpendicular to the ecliptic and that the human automaton is at the equator. Let his weight be one hundred and sixty pounds then, at the rotational velocity of about 1,520 feet per second with which he is whirled around, the mechanical energy stored in his body will be nearly 5,780,000 foot pounds, which is about the energy of a hundred-pound cannon ball.

This momentum is constant as well as upward centrifugal push, amounting to about fifty-five hundredth of a pound, and both will probably be without marked influence on his life functions. The sun, having a mass 332,000 times that of the earth, but being 23,000 times farther, will attract the automaton with a force of about one-tenth of one pound, alternately increasing and diminishing his normal weight by that amount.

Though not conscious of these periodic changes, he is surely affected by them.

The earth in its rotation around the sun carries him with the prodigious speed of nineteen miles per second and the mechanical energy imparted to him is over 25,160,000,000 foot pounds. The largest gun ever made in Germany hurls a projectile weighing one ton with a muzzle velocity of 3,700 feet per second, the energy being 429,000,000 foot pounds. Hence the momentum of the automaton's body is nearly sixty times greater. It would be sufficient to develop 762,400 horse-power for one minute, and if the motion were suddenly arrested the body would be instantly exploded with a force sufficient to carry a projectile weighing over sixty tons to a distance of twenty-eight miles.

This enormous energy is, however, not constant, but varies with the position of the automaton in relation to the sun. The circumference of the earth has a speed of 1,520 feet per second, which is either added to or subtracted from the translatory velocity of nineteen miles through space. Owing to this the energy will vary from twelve to twelve hours by an amount approximately equal to 1,533,000,000 foot pounds, which means that energy streams in some unknown way into and out of the body of the automaton at the rate of about sixty-four horse-power.

But this is not all. The whole`solar system is urged towards the remote constellation Hercules at a speed which some estimate at some twenty miles per second and owing to this there should be similar annual changes in the flux of energy, which may reach the appalling figure of over one hundred billion foot pounds. All these varying and purely mechanical effects are rendered more complex through the inclination of the orbital planes and many other permanent or casual mass actions.

This automaton, is, however subjected to other forces and influences. His body is at the electric potential of two billion volts, which fluctuates violently and incessantly. The whole earth is alive with electrical vibrations in which he takes part. The atmosphere crushes him with a pressure of from sixteen to twenty tons, according, to barometric condition. He receives the energy of the sun's rays in varying intervals at a mean rate of about forty foot pounds per second, and is subjected to periodic bombardment of the sun's particles, which pass through his body as if it were tissue paper. The air is rent with sounds which beat on his eardrums, and he is shaken by the unceasing tremors of the earth's crust. He is exposed to great temperature changes, to rain and wind.

What wonder then that in such a terrible turmoil, in which cast iron existence would seem impossible, this delicate human engine should act in an exceptional manner? If all automata were in every respect alike they would react in exactly the same way, but this is not the case. There is concordance in response to those disturbances only which are most frequently repeated, not to all. It is quite easy to provide two electrical systems which, when subjected to the same influence, will behave in just the opposite way.

So also two human beings, and what is true of individuals also holds good for their large aggregations. We all sleep periodically. This is not an indispensable physiological necessity any more than stoppage at intervals is a requirement for an engine. It is merely a condition gradually imposed upon us by the diurnal revolution of the globe, and this is one of the many evidences of the truth of the mechanistic theory. We note a rhythm or ebb and tide, in ideas and opinions, in financial and political movements, in every department of our intellectual activity.

How Wars Are Started

It only shows that in all this a physical system of mass inertia is involved which affords a further striking proof. If we accept the theory as a fundamental truth and, furthermore, extend the limits of our sense perceptions beyond those within which we become conscious of the external impressions, then all the states in human life, however unusual, can be plausibly explained. A few examples may be given in illustration.

The eye responds only to light vibrations through a certain rather narrow range, but the limits are not sharply defined. It is also affected by vibrations beyond, only in lesser degree. A person may thus become aware of the presence of another in darkness, or through intervening obstacles, and people laboring under illusions ascribe this to telepathy. Such transmission of thought is absurdly impossible.

The trained observer notes without difficulty that these phenomena are due to suggestion or coincidence. The same may be said of oral impressions, to which musical and imitative people are especially susceptible. A person possessing these qualities will often respond to mechanical shocks or vibrations which are inaudible.

To mention another instance of momentary interest reference may be made to dancing, which comprises certain harmonious muscular contractions and contortions of the body in response to a rhythm. How they come to be in vogue just now, can be satisfactorily explained by supposing the existence of some new periodic disturbances in the environment, which are transmitted through the air or the ground and may be of mechanical, electrical or other character.

Exactly so it is with wars, revolutions and similar exceptional states of society.

Though it may seem so, a war can never be caused by arbitrary acts of man.

It is invariably the more or less direct result of cosmic disturbance in which the sun is chiefly concerned.

In many international conflicts of historical record which were precipitated by famine, pestilence or terrestrial catastrophes the direct dependence of the sun is unmistakable. But in most cases the underlying primary causes are numerous and hard to trace.

In the present war it would be particularly difficult to show that the apparently willful acts of a few individuals were not causative. Be it so, the mechanistic theory, being founded on truth demonstrated in everyday experience, absolutely precludes the possibility of such a state being anything but the inevitable consequence of cosmic disturbance.

The question naturally presents itself as to whether there is some intimate relation between wars and terrestrial upheavals. The latter are of decided influence on temperament and disposition, and might at times be instrumental in accelerating the clash but aside from this there seems to be no mutual dependence, though both may be due to the same primary cause.

What can be asserted with perfect confidence is that the earth may be thrown into convulsions through mechanical effects such as are produced in modern warfare. This statement may be startling, but it admits of a simple explanation.

Earthquakes are principally due to two causes -- subterranean explosions or structural adjustments. The former are called volcanic, involve immense energy and are hard to start. The latter are named tectonic; their energy is comparatively insignificant and they can be caused by the slightest shock or tremor. The frequent slides in the Culebra are displacements of this kind.

War and The Earthquake

Theoretically, it may be said that one might think of a tectonic earthquake and cause it to occur as a result of the thought, for just preceding the release the mass may be in the most delicate balance. There is a popular error in regard to the energy of such displacements. In a case recently reported as quite extraordinary, extending as it did over a vast territory, the energy was estimated at 65,000,000,000,000 foot tons. Assuming even that the whole work was performed in one minute it would only be equivalent to that of 7,500,000 horse-power during one year, which seems much, but is little for a terrestrial upheaval. The energy of the sun's rays falling on the same area is a thousand times greater.

The explosions of mines, torpedoes, mortars and guns develop reactive forces on the ground which are measured in hundreds or even thousands of tons and make themselves felt all over the globe. Their effect, however, may be enormously magnified by resonance. The earth is a sphere of a rigidity slightly greater than that of steel and vibrates once in about one hour and forty-nine minutes.

If, as might well be possible, the concussions happen to be properly timed their combined action could start tectonic adjustments in any part of the earth, and the Italian calamity may thus have been the result of explosions in France. That man can produce such terrestrial convulsions is beyond any doubt, and the time may be near when it will be done for purposes good or apt.