Fahrenheit 451 -- coming near you!

The passing of Ray Bradbury this past week was a wake up call for me.  Firstly, it was a reminder to re-read two of his notable works, Fahrenheit 451 and the Martian Chronicles.  He wrote other great stuff too, but those stick out.  He was one of an old breed of writer, the kind that wrote every day, with pen and paper or old fasioned typewriter.  He loved science fiction and was apparently quite a collector of memorabilia, and, to those who had to clear out his house, excessively.

While the L.A. Times had a nice article on Bradbury, the grocery store checkout line literary offerings had other headliners.  Prince William and Kate Middleton are still the beautiful royal couple.  The Kings are having a great time with their newly won Stanley Cup, and deservedly so. Aliens do in fact run Wal-Mart and Jennifer Aniston is breaking up and falling in love, often on the same front page. Ah, the tabloids.

My attention fell on a publication that was tucked away on the bottom rack.  Its heading was far more eye catching and frightening than the two-headed Martian claiming to be able to save the banking system. Global change.  According to a really well written piece in the Economist, global change will mean much more than bumping the SPF up on your sunscreen.  It means the destruction of certain eco-climates and the critters that live in them.  It means that trade and business around the globe will change.  And it means more storms, with more wet and more dry periods.  

In southern California, this is a real problem.  After a couple of winters with some good rains, we have accumulated a lot brush growth in the hills and canyons.  Now this year we have had a fraction of our normal precipitation, so there is the perfect combination for a hellish fire season.

People falsely think that since they are far away from these brushy areas that they have nothing to worry about.  But that is the funny thing about fires -- they don't see street signs or county lines.  They go wherever the wind takes their flying embers and just as readily burn houses as easily as trees and brush.

Everyone should take some time to evaluate their own surroundings and make their homes as fire proof as possible.  Clear shrubs from around the house.  Trim and haul away old dead limbs from trees, especially palms and eucalyptus.  Old shake shingle roofs are like natural tinder...get rid of them.  Plant vegetation that is fire resistent.  Contact your closest fire station and ask them what is best for your neighborhood.

The loss of any of one's possessions is heartbreaking, but you can do something to prevent that.  Don't let foolishness take away something precious.  In fact, doing nothing is like tossing a book in the fire yourself.  Paper does burn at 451 degrees, but in house fires where the temperature far exceeds that, almost everything else is going to burn too.

Just the Tip of the Iceberg

The Los Angeles Times just published an article that is, on one hand, not surprising, yet alarming on the other.  Entitled “Earth may be near tipping point” by Times writer Bettina Boxall, the article warns inhabitants of Planet Earth that things are rapidly going south.  While some nay-sayers have staunchly decried “global warming” as something cooked up by the scientific community to drum up research dollars (yes, I have heard that!), we simply cannot continue our Grasshopper attitude and sing away while the earth rapidly reaches homogeneity – and the end of life as we know it.

The signs are here.  The original paper, published in the prestigious journal Nature last week, has a laundry list of them that even the non-scientists can see:  Documented rising temperatures, increase in severe weather, ocean temperatures rising (causing a change in pH and salinity), human population booming.  It took a couple million years for the earth’s human population to reach one billion in 1804 and took 125 years to double by 1927.  We reached three billion in 1960, then doubled to 6 billion in only 40 years.  It was a mere 10 years before another billion came along, and, at this rate, we will continue to add another billion to our total every dozen years or so.

Human impact is undeniable.  Just look around your own neighborhood.  Do you see more houses and less parks and open space?  Do you read about more air and water pollution?  Do you see more cars on the road?  Do you have more extreme heat or cold or severe storms?  Do you experience more power outages?  Of course you do.  We all do. 

Far away more is happening. The ocean’s warming is causing the polar ice caps to melt. We’ve all seen those heart-breaking scenes of polar bears losing their breeding grounds and their numbers dwindle, but what most people don’t realize is that the caps don’t just melt like one big ice cube.  It fractures and breaks off in big chunks.  The increased presence of ice bergs is becoming a really big issue.  More and larger chunks are floating in places and at times that have never been documented before.  Fishing, shipping and cruising industries have all started to feel the effect.

You’ve heard the phrase: Think Globally, Act Locally, so start now because we can see the tip of this iceberg.  We KNOW that what lies below can be huge and hold dangerous consequences.  Realizing this global crisis, start acting locally.  Contact local businesses about generating less waste and using less electricity.  Really, do restaurants need to be 60 degrees inside?  Tell companies to stop wasting space and resources on large and elaborate packaging And don’t buy stuff that does come that way.  Support public transportation and fuel efficiency.

Emergency Preparedness is obviously my work’s focus, but this is all related.  Preparing for future emergencies is really the same as preparing for life in general.  What you do today can affect how well you move into the future.  We just need to look out for the ice bergs.

Resources:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0607-global-tipping-20120607,0,4125302.story

http://www.nature.com/nature/index.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_population

The Transit of Venus

It evokes a great mental image.  Especially if you have no idea what it really is, it sounds extraordinary.  Venus is that neighboring planet, the place of fictional unearthly maidens and UFO passengers.  Add “transit” and it suddenly becomes even more mysterious -- something fleeting, moving, un-catchable.  What it truly is, is even more captivating, which is the “transit” of Venus as it passes in front of the sun, an event that happens once only every 120 years!   The complete “transit” is a pair of events, 8 years apart.  The first part of this pair occurred 8 years ago in 2004, and its concluding transit will take place tomorrow, June 5, for North America, and June 6 for European, Asian, Australian and eastern African locations.

Professional and back-yard star gazers alike have been really excited over this event.  Knowing its rare and fleeting image, they have been preparing for months and even years to take a glance at Venus’s starlit performance.  Special filters have been purchased and telescopes positioned.  Flyers and other informational publications abound.  There is almost a carnival-like atmosphere as “She comes to town!”

Preparing for events is a funny thing.  An event, such as the Transit, is exotic, wonderful and a once-in-a-lifetime experience.  People willingly plan, prepare and practice for the event.  However, using these same skills and practices for not-so-wonderful events (AKA, disasters and crisis situations) are difficult, at best, for any but those who treat preparedness on the same footing as buying shoes.

Actually, there are some similarities.  Like the Transit of Venus, major earthquakes in Southern California occur a century or more apart.  Each requires planning to satisfactorily experience.  However, any similarity stops when we come to the timing of the event.  Earthquakes happen—statistically—every so many years.  Specifically, and of interest to those of us in Southern California, the segment of the San Andreas fault, running from Tejon Pass to the Salton Sea, was predicted to rupture with a 7 to 8 magnitude shaker within 20 years – in 1984!

There is no planning for an exact date for an earthquake, only that “someday” it will occur.  No chance to hand out flyers and make some salsa for the event.  It just happens whenever it happens.  For that reason, it is best to plan now for the Transit of Andreas.  We never know when she will come by.

ALSO NOTEWORTHY:  Shirley Hazzard wrote an extraordinary novel also called “The Transit of Venus.”  It’s a beautifully written novel about the journey of two young women who leave Australia for post-war England. I highly recommend it.