Being out of synch with society is one way to identify iconoclasts.
Being out of synch with a jury of my peers is something I value, though it seems to preclude all those traits identified with career-ladder climbers.
Being out of synch with majority perspectives lends me a contented smile. However it’s not something I leverage and monetize. For much and more on the phenomenon of contentedness, I recommend the works of Hariod Brawn.
Arcane topics of personal interest elicit mighty yawns, eye-rolls and eye-flinches among my fellow sapiens. This realization makes me most mindful and grateful for the readers who lend me their attention span, I am curious about the value systems of those who choose the seldom trod path for a living. I also suffer from “fear of not learning something.”
Now, let me test your patience with some more evidence supporting the existence of THE ANTHROPOCENE, something that elicits yawns, eye-rolls and eye-flinches among the masses of asses who would rather shrug shoulders, move bowels and move on.
What are the odds of each of us actually being present on this planet as it prepares to shrug off the shoulder shruggers? Staggering or no?
Consider the sheer number of homo sapiens presently residing on this orb.
Now consider that our population is increasing at an increasing rate, and now stands at 7.x billion, 97% of these guys consume 70.x billion edible and appetizing fellow Earth inhabitants per annum. Each of those non homo sapiens possesses a highly developed central nervous system, each has two eyes. There’s a market for every part of an animal, from fur to marrow, nose to tail. See my piece Inverting Pork Rectums for a Living for more. By the way, that article was inspired by William Brigg, statistician to the stars.
Here’s the thing about veganism methinks: it removes a complicity with this butchering of 70.x billion this year and 70.x butchering of brand new beasts readied for butchering next year. By the way, I’ve an issue calling the slaughtered “beasts” and the slaughterers “consumers.”
Did you know that only a few rodents survived the firestorm that accompanied Meteor Meets Planet. We are the descendants of those rodents.
In 1915 a chemist named Fritz Haber discovered a process for isolating nitrogen atoms from the atmosphere and combining them with hydrogen for the mass production of fertilizers, explosives and pesticides.
Not surprisingly Haber received Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1918. Nobel knew a little chemistry himself.
Haber also invented Zyklon gas, a pesticide. IG Farben removed the odor from the hydrogen cyanide product so that the exterminated in German death camps would not be alerted until it was too late.
Ironically Fritz Haber’s achievement of increasing population ultimately brings the concluding moment of the Anthropocene closer.
You may have read news items on the massive decimation of flying insects in the last few decades. I am old enough to remember wiping the windshield clean of accumulated flying bugs every hundred miles or so on Summer drives. Today your wipers clear dust and debris only. You could put off cleaning bugs from the grill until they built up by the thousands. I recall seeing massive tanks along the Ohio River at Cincinnati — mostly labelled Sohio and Monsanto.
Rex Tillerson began his career with Exxon at the same time that Exxon scientists discovered that their product would tip the scales in favor of runaway global warming.
Most hardware stores in my neighborhood stock massive aisles of their über money-maker Roundup® — don’t buy into their propaganda. Merely a suggestion of course.
Ending on a positive tone — vegans and proponents of sustainable living have much in common. Go team!
Discover veganism, another mere suggestion 🙂
Thanks for reading
billziegler1947 
It’s difficult to take a complete break from blog reading when such great content is still churning out. Yours is a one-stop shop, Bill. Inverted rectums? First time I’ve learned of such a thing, but it doesn’t surprise me. The math of such (Briggs link) didn’t surprise me either but made me sad, sad for the beasts and the consumers (I too believe those terms should be switched).
If you’ve not read ‘The Sixth Extinction’ by Kolbert it’s worth a cover-to-cover.
Keep the posts coming. I have you set for email delivery again so I won’t miss one! 😀
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Hi Shannon, Thank you for brightening my morning with your kind and encouraging words. When you are outnumbered by non-vegans 33 to 1 it’s easy to become discouraged by seeming futility.
Thanks also for recommending Kolbert’s book, you are a reliable source and your words go a long way 🙂 Look for me to write about “The Sixth Extinction” real soon now.
Hogs and kisses to you guys 🙂
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Confirmation bias acknowledged and accepted. Now … if we could just fiddle with that 33:1 ratio a bit, we might be able to actually enjoy all the wonderful perks every Earthling is afforded!
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I suspect Vegans, Vegetarians and proponents of sustainable living should work together more,, be more receptive to each other instead of trying to convince each other of the rightness of their opinion. I know you understand this as well, I wish more did.
Sometimes standing in line at the local food co-op is like mandatory indoctrination sessions.
I don’t even want to know about inverted pork rectums, yecch.
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Hi Robert, Thanks for reading and for your kind comment. You are absolutely right about the need to work together with as many fellow travelers as possible. I believe in joining with others in solidarity, even if you disagree with them on many other issues. Creating enemies by edict solves nothing and poisons the soil.
Those “mandatory indoctrination sessions” are indeed wearying. I’ve belonged to more than several organizations that eventually fell apart because they demanded loyalty oaths that required lockstep compliance — crap drains no sewer.
Wishing you a grand Thursday 🙂
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Hello Bill, this is Shannon’s husband Scott. As you might guess, Shannon and I are completely aligned on just about everything from Birding to Veganism (although she still doesn’t get my math and physics “hobby”). I read your post and some things you might find interesting regarding the above topics are:
Regarding population –
“Limits to Growth” by Donella and Dennis Meadows, .pdf available on-line here:
Click to access Limits-to-Growth-digital-scan-version.pdf
Also, series of short lectures on Youtube by Al Bartlett:
Mass extinctions – a good book I read this summer while researching the End Permian Mass Extinction event – “The Ends of the World” by Peter Brannan.
Check them out if you have the time/inclination.
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Hi Scott, Very good to make your acquaintance, to share your interest in math/physics and to join with you guys in a joie de vivre that includes veganism. The Brannen book is available at out local library (just checked), so I shall pick it up in the morning. My son has also recommended the Kolbert volume, as has Shannon. Which one would you recommend that I read first?
It’s late in the day, so I shall postpone the website and youtube links until tomorrow. Thanks in advance.
Speaking of math, I was the only student in my high school chemistry class who used a slide rule — I triple-checked my answers while everyone else was doing long division. One interesting about slide rules too: you can view the entire logarithmic scale in one sweeping glance. In that way it is analogous to using a fold-up road map to view the entire route while seeing details anywhere on the map.
Wishing you guys a vegan-laden weekend!
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Found both books at the library this morning, not surprisingly they were next to each other on the shelf. Reading about the 5 previous events first — much coverage on our geography: Cincinnati. Fossils really are all over the place here 🙂
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