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Thread: The Sahara: How it 'feeds' the world.

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    Scotland Avalon Member Ewan's Avatar
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    Default The Sahara: How it 'feeds' the world.

    We're not talking feeding humans here, but life.

    The first video depicts how important Saharan dust is to life in the ocean around Sth. America, and through the Phytoplankton so much more life on Earth. It then leads on to the importance of this same airborne dust to the Amazon.



    In the second video, continuing how the Saharan dusts help to revitalise the green vastness of the Amazon.



    The first video claims the Amazon is 55 million years old, given that the Sahara was once green I can't help but wonder if the Earth needs deserts, and these change their locations over time based on local environmental weather conditions. For the Amazon to have 'lived' so long there must have always been a process of replenishment from without?

    It also adds weight to my thinking that the best way to revitalise soils is to use rock dust from quarries.

    Glaciers rip mountains apart and scar the lands for miles and miles, a lot of that stone is ground into dust and deposited far away in soils.

    Volcanoes explode in fury spitting various elements into the air and spreading rich deposits locally. Volcanic soils are so rich in nutrients for plant life.

    Earth is a living system, and it is fascinating.

    (But ignore all that, we need to make money - don't you understand money makes the world go round!
    Cut those trees, mine those resources, create artificial fertilisers that actually hurt the soils, throw your chemical debris wherever it is cheapest for you to get rid of it - we need money, money, money.

    *u**i** idiots!
    )

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    Scotland Avalon Member Ewan's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Sahara: How it 'feeds' the world.

    Musing further on a bigger/wider picture.

    Earth is a diverse environment and that is probably what makes it such a rich habitation for so much life. Nature, or someone equally clever, succeeded in creating a very successful organism when it came up with early humans.

    We are such an adaptable species there are few areas of Earth we cannot inhabit. Forget that we can break bones from slight falls and microscopic organisms can lay waste to thousands of us. We are survivors. Adaptable survivors. In that respect we are probably the most resilient lifeform on Earth.

    How did we become so stupid?

    I don't think we always were. I believe the various, widely scattered, indigenous tribes of different geographical regions know more, and understand better, the subject of planet Earth than we do. Yet we, (generalisation), think of them as backward, ignorant. We were all like that once, and probably a lot richer for it.

    Did psychopaths exist 40,000 years ago? Was the Neanderthal the spiritual human that got laid to rest by a more narrow-minded Cro-Magnon variety? Was there some devious alteration of human DNA by outside influence, or can the mind itself subtly change DNA?

    ====================================================================

    Look at that, I've gone completely off-topic in my own thread. I understand as a library or repositiry of information we don't want to do that but I can't seem to help it. One thought leads to another and in isolation, individually, the thoughts have no grounding. They are all interconnected in an organic fashion that flow form one another, perhaps that is how I found it so difficult at school to concentrate on one topic. It didn't matter the topic, well, perhaps apart from maths. Any point mentioned could raise dozens of different spin-offs that might have seemed unrelated, but they were definitely related to each other by me.

    Talk about Earth as an environment, or our place on it, up to you. If a Mod wishes to alter the title, be my guest.

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    Default Re: The Sahara: How it 'feeds' the world.

    My island gets coated in Sahara dust for months out of the year, everything has a fine layer of dust on it, I have a mild "allergy" like reaction usually (a touch of a stuffy nose at times) to it; some people have it worse.

    We watch it via satilite as it moves across the Atlantic,, it's pretty crazy.

    I could see it being a factor in why this tiny rock is such a good agricultural area.
    Hard times create strong men, Strong men create good times, Good times create weak men, Weak men create hard times.
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    Scotland Avalon Member Ewan's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Sahara: How it 'feeds' the world.

    From Video 1 in the OP, the complete series in one video.




    Earth System 0. Earth from Space (Intro)
    Earth System 1. Hurricanes
    Earth System 2. Vapour in the Atmosphere
    Earth System 3. Antarctica: the Polar Jet & the Antarctic Brine
    Earth System 4. The Molten Rock
    Earth System 5. Phytoplankton: the Sahara & the Amazon
    Earth System 6. Wild Fires
    Earth System 7. The power of the Sun
    Earth System 8. The Human Race

    (Video put together for the MSc in Environmental Technology at Imperial College London)
    Last edited by Ewan; 3rd April 2018 at 19:29. Reason: formatting

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    Default Re: The Sahara: How it 'feeds' the world.

    You know, Ewan, i dont think that humanity is too stupid. Our real stupidity is allowing ourselves to be manipulated by fear mongering religions and political/business leaders that are controlled by insidious secret societies. If we continue to question the 'official' narrative of things then we should start stearing ourselves in the right direction.

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    Default Re: The Sahara: How it 'feeds' the world.

    Quote Posted by Justplain (here)
    You know, Ewan, i dont think that humanity is too stupid. Our real stupidity is allowing ourselves to be manipulated by fear mongering religions and political/business leaders that are controlled by insidious secret societies. If we continue to question the 'official' narrative of things then we should start stearing ourselves in the right direction.
    How about something like planned education - teaching the "accepted" reality, teaching that one must write a thesis to get a degree worthy of the cloistered ROF (royal old farts, called REGENTS)

    That is how the system is kept going, just keep teaching accepted syllabus.. BTW I was one of the cloistered ass-holes, teaching electronics many moons ago. Teach the kids the accepted reality, the way to evoke rabble rousing... the kids don't know any better what their teachers or prof's are saying is biased.. no frikin clue.. I got out of that mindset very quickly...

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    Default Re: The Sahara: How it 'feeds' the world.

    Quote Posted by Bob (here)
    Quote Posted by Justplain (here)
    You know, Ewan, i dont think that humanity is too stupid. Our real stupidity is allowing ourselves to be manipulated by fear mongering religions and political/business leaders that are controlled by insidious secret societies. If we continue to question the 'official' narrative of things then we should start stearing ourselves in the right direction.
    How about something like planned education - teaching the "accepted" reality, teaching that one must write a thesis to get a degree worthy of the cloistered ROF (royal old farts, called REGENTS)
    I think a more accurate term than religion is "belief systems"

    I think it's important to realize that even science is a belief system at this point... a lot of atheist types have never read a single study or truely understood the proccesses involved in the "facts" that they regurgitate....

    Humans are like water in the sense that with out adversity, we will seek the easiest path to our goal (for water it's gravity's influence,, for humans....... well apparently it can be what ever INJECTED influence that isn't scrutinized / is accepted via athority figures (a logical fallacy))

    The less deeply self reflective we are, the more easily guided we are (hey, what does social media do to us again?? oh ya, rampant narcissism and shallow un-empathetic thinking.... AKA little to no self reflection/introspection)


    True, thought out self reflection is more and more rare these days... especially when belief is skewed so horribly to these minor fringe elements that by their nature have to be extreme to get attention.

    Quote Posted by Bob (here)
    That is how the system is kept going, just keep teaching accepted syllabus.. BTW I was one of the cloistered ass-holes, teaching electronics many moons ago. Teach the kids the accepted reality, the way to evoke rabble rousing... the kids don't know any better what their teachers or prof's are saying is biased.. no frikin clue.. I got out of that mindset very quickly...
    People like that made me who I am, and saved me from paying more than 2 years of college

    so, thanks.... former you

    (Apparently, if this mental disorder stuff pans out, I'm not allowed to own guns since I meet the metrics for Oppositional Defiant Disorder)

    But uh... yeah... topic....

    I hate dusting, and sahara dust is the FINEST most... INVASIVE dust I've ever seen, I imagine it's a factor in the rapid deterioration of my electronics as well....
    Last edited by TargeT; 4th April 2018 at 02:01.
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    Default Re: The Sahara: How it 'feeds' the world.

    Quote Posted by Ewan (here)
    Musing further on a bigger/wider picture.

    Earth is a diverse environment and that is probably what makes it such a rich habitation for so much life. Nature, or someone equally clever, succeeded in creating a very successful organism when it came up with early humans.

    We are such an adaptable species there are few areas of Earth we cannot inhabit. Forget that we can break bones from slight falls and microscopic organisms can lay waste to thousands of us. We are survivors. Adaptable survivors. In that respect we are probably the most resilient lifeform on Earth.

    How did we become so stupid?

    I don't think we always were. I believe the various, widely scattered, indigenous tribes of different geographical regions know more, and understand better, the subject of planet Earth than we do. Yet we, (generalisation), think of them as backward, ignorant. We were all like that once, and probably a lot richer for it.

    Did psychopaths exist 40,000 years ago? Was the Neanderthal the spiritual human that got laid to rest by a more narrow-minded Cro-Magnon variety? Was there some devious alteration of human DNA by outside influence, or can the mind itself subtly change DNA?

    ====================================================================

    Look at that, I've gone completely off-topic in my own thread. I understand as a library or repositiry of information we don't want to do that but I can't seem to help it. One thought leads to another and in isolation, individually, the thoughts have no grounding. They are all interconnected in an organic fashion that flow form one another, perhaps that is how I found it so difficult at school to concentrate on one topic. It didn't matter the topic, well, perhaps apart from maths. Any point mentioned could raise dozens of different spin-offs that might have seemed unrelated, but they were definitely related to each other by me.

    Talk about Earth as an environment, or our place on it, up to you. If a Mod wishes to alter the title, be my guest.
    Ewan, those off topic musings are the stuff of life. They lead us to the cosmos, to life, to our hearts and to each other. How in the world could that ever be off topic? Your post is beautiful, stunning, poetical, scientific, philosophical and just perfect. Thank you.
    "The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what we share with someone when we are uncool." From the movie "Almost Famous""l "Let yourself stand cool and composed before a million universes." Walt Whitman

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    Default Re: The Sahara: How it 'feeds' the world.

    Oh for sure TargeT - we older folk working in the "world" these days were all taught old school, with technically accurate data to be technicians, to manipulate what we are taught to do our assigned jobs to deal with a particular accepted reality/technology. We are compartmentalized and predictable.. That is one of my points.

    Most certainly knowing what bolt to turn, what screw to manipulate to get the carburetor set to optimum is most certainly part of the plan - what irks me is the subtle innuendos added, the mindset of the prof's besides the syllabus... At that point we have bias, not from experience, but from the profs... then we approach "reality" expecting the prof's beliefs to be what it actually is.. And we then have participation in "student movements", or protests... we got "more" than we were expecting - programming.. I won't teach the programming any more is my point.. Nor will I when having researched on my own, found out that established "this is the way it is" really isn't.. As Val was sayin, LIFE.. not off topic at all.. If one finds out it's different than the established opinion, speak about it..

    Ya - topic... I most certainly can find plenty of upper atmosphere dust raining down at times.. Over in Egypt, I recall a most amazing totally going ORANGE during mid day.. I thought it was the tangerines I ate were highly laced with artificial coloring.. Haboob..



    This one tho is closer to what it was like:
    Last edited by Bob; 4th April 2018 at 02:37.

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    Default Re: The Sahara: How it 'feeds' the world.

    ...


    Sahara Sandstorm © ESA - Alexander Gerst




    "La réalité est un rêve que l'on fait atterrir" San Antonio AKA F. Dard

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