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FeaturesFrom The Editorby Dawn FazendeI was born and raised in hurricane country. Every year in June my grandma, my mother and my aunts went through a ritual. Each would empty out a section of her pantry and load it up with supplies - bottles of water, extra cans of tuna and corn and string beans, candles and flashlight batteries, oil and wicks for the hurricane lamps, kerosene for the Coleman stove, matches, snacks for us kids. Several large loaves of Merritta bread were frozen in Aunt Lydia's freezer along with extra packages of hot dogs and buns. Blankets and sheets were folded into pallets in case family had to stay in one or the other's house during a storm. (Even so, every time a hurricane hit, we ended up at grandma's house because it was the oldest house and had weathered many a storm. In fact it's still standing unharmed after Katrina.) The men had their ritual as well. My grandpa, dad and uncles, would pull out all the plywood screwed over the windows in years past and make sure it was still sound. If not, they went off to the hardware store and replaced it. They bought roll after roll of duct tape to put on window panes to stop the glass from shattering if anything got thrown through the plywood. As a group they would go to one another's homes and check the rooves, gutters, shutters, fences, gas pipes, electric wires and meters. Next, on a specific weekend every year, they would pile us all up in a caravan of cars and drive over to our summer house in Waveland, Mississippi (now just a blot on the landscape after Katrina) and while we kids were jumping off our family pier into the Gulf of Mexico's warm waters under the watchful eyes of one or two aunts, the rest of the adults swarmed over that little house nailing down tin roof panels, clipping and pruning pine boughs, testing the concrete holding down the swing set, and basically doing all the same things they had done in the city — except put up food. No one in our family was ever over there during a hurricane. At 80 years old, the Waveland house was too new. After the season passed the rituals worked in reverse. Boards were put back in the rear of the garage, frozen bread was thawed, hot dogs were pulled out, the Coleman was lit and all perishables were consumed in mass quantities. To this day I still hate the taste of frozen and thawed white bread. Of course on the occasions when a hurricane did hit we always had a week or two prior notice — a novelty to my grandparents who talked about the days when it just "came up on you". We always had time to decide whose house was going to hold us all. We kids would arrive in our pajamas and got to sleep on the floor with all our cousins. As the eldest I was allowed to stay up longer and help the grownups light the lamps and crack the windows in front and back so the wind could not create a vacuum in the house and suck the roof off. Grandma had floor to ceiling windows. More than once I crawled across her living room floor to peek out at the wind trough the storm shutters covering those windows. I found the whole thing rather exciting to tell the truth. After the storm, the fathers, again as a group, would venture out to check on their homes. If the coast was clear we all went home and lived off the supplies in pantry until the electricity and water came back on around the city. Within a day or two New Orleans was always up and running and we were back to our normal lives. Today there is another type of storm brewing. It's a humdinger from what I've been hearing, a catastrophic global event beyond compare. We are on the verge of a planetary adjustment, a change unlike anything experienced since the days of the great Ram 35,000 years ago. The event has begun and it is destined to bring about massive changes on the earth's surface. This coming event is powerful and dynamic. We need to prepare ourselves to be out of its way and to sustain ourselves when it passes. When it passes, it will be years before the earth settles down enough for us to be at ease. We have had plenty of warnings. Every prophet from Nostradamus to Elizabeth Claire has warned us of these days of great change. The children at Fatima were given a letter warning the pope to get the world ready. The ancient Mayans gave us a calendar with the date of the event clearly marked — December 21, 2012. Signs that this event is underway are all around us. Ice caps and glaciers are melting, raising sea levels globally. Thousands of species are disappearing. Fossil fuels are choking us — and our dear mother — to death. Nature must heal. Her time is upon us. So I am heeding the lesson of my childhood. I'm getting ready. I'm putting up food. I'm collecting medical supplies. I'm looking for land to build a house, with an underground shelter, far above sea level so troubled waters can wash right over me and settle elsewhere. I am planning to drill a hand pump-able well to reach clear safe unpollute-able underground water. Or I am going to store enough water to last me for two years. I'm collecting seeds of all kinds, saving all my clothing and blankets, and learning to can fresh grown produce. I am becoming a sovereign being on Mother Earth. If the prophets are wrong, if no change comes, I'll have a full pantry, a strong root cellar on my own land with my own house. My sovereignty will be intact. I also hope to have a few friends around to help celebrate the passing of storm season. In this issue we look at some of the changes well underway on our beloved planet. We look at some of the environmental disasters that occurred on her surface in the past. We examine ways to fill our pantries and weather the storm, like grandma and the adults around me taught me to do when I was a kid.
Ramtha Predictions Now Coming to Pass: Earth Changes — The Days That Are HerePrepared by Ramtha's School of Enlightenment for Mount Shasta Magazine The Days That Are Here"These times are the greatest of all times in your recorded history. "Though they are difficult and challenging times, you chose to live here during this time for the purpose of the fulfillment that it would bring you." "All of you have been promised for e'er so long that you would see God in your lifetime, yet lifetime after lifetime you never allowed yourselves to see it. In this lifetime, most of you will indeed." "You will see a magnificent kingdom emerge here, and civilizations will come forth that you had not even the slightest notion existed. And a new wind will blow, and love, peace, and joy in being will grace this blessed place, the emerald of your universe and the home of God." (Excerpt from: Ramtha, The White Book, Revised and Expanded Edition. Yelm: JZK Publishing, 2004.) Earth Changes"The Earth is going to change. It is going to change in many ways. The nature of the Earth and its magnetic field is shifting because the Earth is in agony. It is a living being. It has been destroyed by a cancer, and the cancer is civilization, ignorance, and religion. Religion, as I told you, is the emptying of the human being from their God and their divinity and giving to them the Earth under the guise of economics to destroy it." (Excerpt from: Ramtha, Assay IV, July 12, 1992. Copyright © 1992 JZ Knight) Melting of Arctic Ice and Waters Rising"Into that which is termed the melting of the polar caps, the hole in the stratum and the warming up in the next four years will be much quicker than your scientists will tell you. The melting of the great caps of snow is already occurring and will raise the water level to two hundred feet." (Excerpt from: Ramtha in Seattle, November 14, 1987. Copyright © 1987 JZ Knight) Greenland Ice Sheet on a Downward SlideScience Daily: October 22, 2006 "For the first time NASA scientists have analyzed data from direct, detailed satellite measurements to show that ice losses now far surpass ice gains in the shrinking Greenland ice sheet." Violent Hurricanes"In these days to come, one should leave that which is called the beaches and seek higher ground, seek dry ground, away from the oceans." "You will find storms that unleash a violence that you have never seen before. They are coming in profound fury because it is the only way that nature, in its endeavor to heal its wounds, can clean the air up and wash away the debris so that it can heal. Those are the things that are coming on your east and your west. And those storms are going to become more unpredictable. In the days to come, nature will heal its wounds so it can go on. It will get rid of that which is hurting it." (Excerpt from: Ramtha, Change — The Days to Come, May 17-18, 1986. Copyright © 1986 JZ Knight) Solar Flares"You are going to see huge spots on your sun with huge flares, the likes of which your scientists have never seen before. This is the cycle and the time of the sun and with it comes drastic weather changes that are now effectively working against you who are unprepared for it." (Excerpt from: Ramtha in Denver, May 17-18, 1986. Copyright © 1986 JZ Knight) NASA Issues Solar Storm WarningNASA issued a Solar Storm Warning that will reach its peak by 2010-2011. Dire State of the Oceans"Let me tell you, you can make change but there are some things that only geological time or supernatural help can take care of, and one of them is your oceans. You cannot clean up your oceans. What are you going to clean them up with? Do you have a vacuum cleaner that big? How about a sieve, do you have one that large? Do you have enough chemicals to throw into the seas to counteract what you have thrown in there? That would kill all the life and make it sterile. Then it will take another hundred million years to get lifeforms going as you know them today. What are you going to do? Do you fish-eaters still like to eat your fish? If you do, you are eating your dung." (Excerpt from: UFO Interdimensional Understanding: Making Contact, Yucca Valley Retreat. August 11-14, 1988. Copyright © 1988 JZ Knight) Beach Closings and AdvisoriesNatural Resources Defense Council: August 2, 2007 "Pollution-related closings and health advisories at U.S. beaches were more numerous than ever in 2005, according to NRDC's annual report on beachwater quality...This year's report highlights another disturbing trend: Most municipalities have failed to identify and control sources of bacteria and other pollution tainting water near beaches. In 2005, 75 percent of closing and advisory days stemmed from monitoring that revealed high levels of bacteria associated with fecal contamination," quoting the Natural Resources Defense Council. Epidemic of Deadly Viruses"And while this is going on, the plagues are consuming the masses that proliferate themselves in the marketplace. The plagues are mutating at such a rapid rate that when you get it, three days later you are dead." "In the end it will be nature that will have rule and dominance, and that is already in the workings." (Excerpt from: Ramtha, September 16, 1993. Copyright © 1993 JZ Knight) Update on Multi-State Outbreak of E. coliCenter For Disease Control: October 6, 2006 "Among the ill persons, 102 (51%) were hospitalized and 31 (16%) developed a type of kidney failure called hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS)." "Three deaths in confirmed cases have been associated with the outbreak." Poisoned City Water"Very shortly you are going to hear about water contamination and you will hear about whole populaces infected with that which is termed strange viral diseases. "They will trace it to part of the water supply. They will point the finger and call it local contamination, but they will not do that until the local populace has been sufficiently infected." (Excerpt from: Ramtha, January 4, 1993. Copyright © 1993 JZ Knight) Contaminated City Water Killed Over 100 People"The United States has a reputation for high standards in its water systems; it wasn't until a parasite slipped through the cracks in Milwaukee and killed more than 100 people that water systems managers started to take a closer look at how they monitored their product." Put Up Food and Water"I said to my people to put up food and have a well so that you have plenty of water. You should learn to plant seeds, grow and harvest your own food without chemicals, and then prepare food storage for at least two years and more." (Excerpt from: Ramtha, April 14, 1993. Copyright © 1993 JZ Knight) Two Former Presidents Urge Americans to Get PreparedFormer Presidents Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush are airing in joint public-service commercials suggesting all American families prepare themselves for and be able to respond to emergencies, including natural disasters and potential terrorist attacks. More info (DHS). Visit here to see the emergency kit suggested by the former Presidents for every vehicle and home. Lessons from Mother Nature"Observe the ants. They are divine. Let them teach you something emotionally about being prepared. In nature when you live like this, liken unto the ant, you are living in harmony with that which is termed God and the enigma called life. I ask you this: How much food do you have in your pantries? How long will it last, two days, three weeks? If you have not provisions for two years, you are going to run perilously short." (Excerpt from: Change — The Days to Come, May 17-18, 1986. Copyright © 1986 JZ Knight) Sovereignty and Preparedness..."The important issue of preparedness I taught many years ago is that I asked for all of the people who would listen to put up food and to become sovereign and to have lots of water but to have it out of the ground, and to put up food for all of those concerned in your life, and to be sovereign — utterly sovereign — to save your clothing and to put it up, and to work towards a point that regardless of what would happen with the world you could continue to sustain yourself. Now that is not a new teaching. That happened many years ago in your time. But it is still important because the times that I spoke about are already here and are unfolding." (Excerpt from: Taking the Journey Inward, September 16, 1993. Copyright © 1993 JZ Knight) For information on preparedness and to learn the tools we need to see us through the days that are already here, please contact Ramtha's School of Enlightenment, P.O. Box 1210, Yelm, WA 98597, or call 1.800.347.0439, 1.360.458.5201, or visit us online at www.ramtha.com for a list of workshops and events near your location. Become a Remarkable Life!℠ Copyright © 2007 JZ Knight. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of JZ Knight and JZK, Inc.
Is a 'Sixth' Extinction Looming?By Ed Stoddard, ReutersKRUGER NATIONAL PARK, South Africa — Seemingly oblivious to the large group of crocodiles resting on a nearby sandbank, four rare black storks sun themselves in South Africa's Kruger National Park. But the real danger to these elusive birds, which resemble colorful sentinels with their striking red beaks and legs set against glossy black feathers, is not the razor-sharp teeth of the crocodiles who lie just a few yards away. It is the teeth of chainsaws thousands of miles to the north, where old growth forests — habitat vital to the bird's survival — are being mowed down. The black stork is one of many species which scientists fear could follow the dinosaurs down the road to extinction because of human activities such as logging, farming and building dams. Many credible scientists fear that the sixth mass extinction in the planet's long history is unfolding — a doomsday scenario dismissed as alarmist by some. A recent U.N. report, prepared ahead of a summit next month in Johannesburg on the environment and poverty, warned that 12 percent, or 1,183 bird species, and 1,130, or nearly a quarter of all mammal species, are regarded as globally threatened. A Sixth Extinction Mass extinctions have occurred five times in the four billion year history of life. They are loosely defined as moments in geological history when half or more of all marine species — which today are preserved in fossils — die off in a short period of time. (Terrestrial life is also not believed to fare well during these periods). According to one book on the subject, "The Sixth Extinction," by Richard Leakey and Roger Lewin, the grim reaper first visited Earth on this vast scale 450 million years ago. The second mass extinction took place 100 million years later, giving rise to coal forests. In the Triassic period 250 and 200 million years ago, two mass extinctions snuffed out countless species. Then, 65 million years ago, scientists believe the dinosaurs were killed off when a giant meteorite collided with Earth. Scientists say the sixth extinction will have been brought about entirely by people. "In the next 50 to 100 years there is a good possibility that there could be a mass extinction of species which is human-induced," said Dr. Susan Lieberman, director of the Species Program for the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). "We are heading for a crisis. And we have to act now if we are going to avert this," she told Reuters. Leakey and Lewin estimate that perhaps 50 percent of all species will become extinct in the next 100 years. Others take a more measured view but agree that a crisis is looming. Bjorn Lomborg argues in his controversial recent book, "The Skeptical Environmentalist," that we could lose about 0.7 percent of the planet's species over the next five decades — an estimate far below many but one which he says is "not trivial." Most scientists concede that the number of recorded extinctions to date is far less than the "so many lost each day" estimates cited in the more alarmist literature. The Committee on Recently Extinct Organisms says at least 70 species of fish, birds and mammals have disappeared since 1970. The WWF says 81 freshwater species of fish are recorded to have become extinct in the last 100 years. The majority, 50, were endemic to Africa's Lake Victoria and vanished because of the introduction there of the voracious Nile perch. Biologists say that countless species which have never been discovered — notably in tropical rain forests and marine ecosystems — have probably become extinct already. Black Storks and Wild Dogs The black stork and wild dog, two species in Kruger which nobody disputes are endangered, sum up the threats to many. The black stork's global population is about 7,000 to 9,500 nesting pairs, according to Latvian ornithologist Maris Strazds. The biggest population, about 4,500 to 6,000, is found in Europe, mostly in Poland, Belarus and Latvia. Unlike their more gregarious and numerous cousin the white stork, which often nests on farmhouses in Eastern Europe, the shy and reclusive black stork prefers to decamp far from the madding crowd in the quiet of old growth forests which are being targeted for exploitation. "Latvian black storks nest in pine trees which are on average around 200 years old. And trees of that age are very much in the sights of loggers," said Strazds, whose name is Latvian for thrush. Strazds said laws mandate a 50 acres logging ban around their nests, but land owners often simply cut their trees down and plead ignorance to the presence of the birds. "The Latvian black stork population is bound to fall to some 500 pairs (from about 900 pairs) because of logging...but if we do not observe nest protection rules, it could fall rapidly to 20-odd pairs in two decades or so," he said. Habitat destruction by people is probably the primary cause of species decline. The U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that forests, which cover around a third of the world's land surface, have diminished by 2.4 percent since 1990. The biggest losses have been in Africa, where 130 million acres or 0.7 percent of its forest cover has vanished in the past decade. Luckily for Kruger's black storks, their home habitat is at least protected. Another Kruger resident, the wild dog, highlights the age-old persecution of predators by farmers. Also known as the "painted wolf" because of the splashes of vivid color across its coat, the wild dog is the second rarest carnivore in Africa after the Ethiopian wolf. A highly social animal that hunts in packs, its numbers have been reduced to an estimated 5,000 — mostly in parts of southern Africa and Tanzania — mainly because of shooting and poisoning by farmers worried about their livestock. But even in a conservation stronghold such as Kruger, its numbers are dwindling. "The number of wild dogs here is down to under 200 now from over 400 a few years ago, and we really don't know why," said Kruger zoologist Gus Mills. This is a cause for concern because, given their reputation with farmers and their small numbers, it seems doubtful they could survive for long outside protected or very remote areas. Other Threats There are other threats to species besides habitat loss and persecution, including global warming and pollution. Humanity's soaring population, especially in developing countries, is seen as putting added pressure on land and scarce resources, to the detriment of the other species we share the planet with. The WWF's most recent Living Planet Index (LPI), based on population trends of hundreds of species of birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and fish, has fallen 37 percent over the past 30 years. "...Current human consumptive pressure is unsustainable," it says. Conservationists hope historians do not look back five decades from now and see it as a missed opportunity to avert what could be the greatest loss of life on the planet since the death of the dinosaurs. (Additional reporting by Martins Gravitis in Riga)
What Happened 12,000 Years Ago That Killed So Many Animals?By Linda Moulton HoweNovember 13, 2002 Seattle, Washington — Tonight at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Anthropology and Archaeology, scientists gathered to discuss what killed off so many large mammals of North and South America at the end of the last ice age about 12,000 years ago, the end of the Pleistocene. At least 35 genera of animals in North America alone were wiped out, including the huge saber-toothed cat, woolly rhinos, woolly mammoths, mastodons, giant skunks, giant rabbits, camels and horses. Using modern DNA analysis, bodies and bones found freeze-dried are being explored for signs of unusual disease. Did a deadly virus or bacteria infect and kill the animals? Or did a growing human population throughout the world exterminate species after species in its search for food and hides? One anthropologist who does not think either disease or humans are responsible for the extinctions is Dr. Donald Grayson, Professor of Anthropology, University of Washington in Seattle. He thinks it was global climate change, specifically rapid warming, that caused some kind of wide scale trauma that certain animal and plant species could not survive. If global climate change, why did an animal like the woolly mammoth, that had lived for hundreds of thousands of years through previous climate changes, suddenly die out? Why did so many other smaller animals prevail? What exactly happened to end the ice age and begin the warming trend that has lasted for 12,000 years and is now accelerating under the influence of human civilization's greenhouse gas emissions? Just how vulnerable to extinction is earth life when this planet undergoes rapid climate change? Interview: Donald Grayson, Ph.D., Prof. of Anthropology, Univ. of Washington, Seattle, Washington: "If you look at the radiocarbon dates we have for the extinctions, we can show that only about 15 of 35 extinct species even survived after 12,000 years ago. The rest were completely gone before the 12,000 year mark. Also, if you look at the radiocarbon record for extinctions in Europe, it turns out that different animals became extinct towards the end of the ice age at different times and in different places. It could well be exactly the same thing was happening in North America. In other words, not all these extinctions happened all at once. If that's the case, then the kinds of explanations that we need to look at are going to be quite different. In fact, one of the amazing things about this big debate over the extinctions is that people have chosen their explanations based on the assumption that there was a major wave of extinctions at 11,000. But that wave, while it may have occurred, has never definitively been demonstrated to actually have existed. Is there anything in the physical evidence, whether it's in permafrost or ice in which these animals have been found preserved, that would give insight about what might have happened if there was some sudden event that caused the devastation of several species? Donald Grayson: There are 3 major causes that are being debated for these extinctions in North America and some of these causes are also looked at in Old World Europe as well:
The well-preserved remains of now-extinct mammals that are now available can be used to test probably any of these hypotheses. If disease of some unusual nature is not found, then could climate volatility have caused the destruction of so many animals? And if so, could it happen now when we are challenged by global warming and its future consequences? Donald Grayson: You bet. If you look around the landscape today and see populations of animals going extinct, it is hard today to be able to specify exactly what aspects of change in their environment drove those extinctions. That means that if it was climate at the end of the Pleistocene that caused these extinctions, it can be very difficult to determine precisely what aspects of climate change it was. And we also know, and this has become very obvious in the last 15 to 20 years, that different animals respond to climate change in different ways. That means that if we are going to figure out what aspects of climate caused these extinctions, then we need to look at the animals one at a time. For an example of wide variations in the time line of extinctions, there is a small rabbit from the southern parts of North America. Paul Martin, argues that the small rabbit was driven to death by human hunters around 11,000 years ago. But we can't even show that this animal survived the late glacial maximum 18,000 to 22,000 years ago! So, there are a lot of chronological mysteries here as well. I think it is a mistake to assume that everything did go extinct at around 11,000. But even if it did, 11,000 years ago was a time of major climate change. You see extinctions not only in North America, that people have been blamed for, but also in Europe where people have never been blamed for it. A huge animal called the Irish Elk went extinct in Ireland at about the same time as the North American extinctions happened, even though in Ireland there were no people at all. So, whether there were people present or not as with the Irish Elk or whether people had been preying on an animal for tens of thousands of years like reindeer in southern France these extinctions occurred. What you are implying is that something about 12,000 years ago did happen that affected the planet's Northern Hemisphere. Why do you think the climate's warming could have caused the disappearance of so many different species throughout North America? Donald Grayson: I have no idea. There have been a number of arguments made and none seem to explain not only the extinctions in North America, but also the roughly contemporary extinctions in the Old World. And there were also extinctions in South America and Australia. The extinctions in Australia seemed to be 15,000 to 20,000 years earlier. Some are now arguing that the Australian extinctions may have occurred as early as 46,000 years ago. So, there are mysteries all over the place! None of these things have been well explained. Donald Grayson: There were 35 genera of animals that went extinct in North America, but there were also lots of things that survived as well. Reindeer survived. Musk ox survived. Elk survived. Bisons survived. Lots and lots of small animals survived. Only one kind of tree is known to have gone extinct. So, lots and lots of things survived. The extinction event, if we can call it an event, was selective in what it removed. Why would so many large animals have been wiped out? Donald Grayson: It's the large things that tend to be most prone to extinction just in general. There are lots of reasons for that. Large animals tend to reproduce more slowly, they have fewer offspring per given period of time. They make heavier demands on their environment than do small things. So, for instance, toward the end of the ice age in North America, there was a small animal called the Yellow Cheek Bull. The Yellow Cheek Bull today lives in the Arctic and sub-Arctic, way far north. During the ice age, it was found as far south as Tennessee. Towards the end of the Pleistocene, its southern populations disappeared. But it did just fine in terms of the longevity of the species itself. It is still very much around. That's the kind of pattern you expect to see in climate change. Large mammals reproduce slowly and because they make such heavy demands on their environment, they don't have the same ability to track and change with environmental change as the small mammals. But the mystery is that there were a lot of species that went extinct in a small period of time and you and other scientists would like to understand what exactly happened that would cause catastrophic destruction? Donald Grayson: You bet. We can show that 15 of these animals went extinct between 10 and 12 thousand years ago. That is a huge loss. So even if there were 15 losses in that period of time, we are talking about a major extinction event. One thing worth remembering is that the cause of these extinctions has been a scientific issue since the early 1800s. That is, we are now entering the 3rd century of debate over the causes of these things. Darwin, in 1859, when he was talking about extinctions in general said what I think is still an appropriate thing to say. He said, 'There is no reason to be surprised that we can't explain extinctions of this sort because in fact we are hard put to explain extinctions any time, no matter when they appear." He pointed out the fact that during some periods of time, some animals appear to be more abundant and during some other periods of time, they tend to be less abundant. It is very difficult to look around the landscape today and understand why a particular animal has in recent times in front of our very eyes disappeared from the landscape. It seems very relevant as we enter the 21st century. Donald Grayson: No question. There is now an accelerating extinction rate of species that some scientists say we haven't seen since 65 million years ago, the end of the dinosaurs. The extinctions are linked to global warming and loss of biodiversity as civilization spreads. So, to understand what might have happened at the end of the last ice age might give us some insight about where we could be headed in this warming century. Donald Grayson: I agree entirely. And I'll come back to reindeer. When reindeer went extinct in France 11-12 thousand years ago, several things were happening. There was general atmospheric warming, so reindeer were living on a much warmer landscape and there was vegetation change. If you look at the far north today, one of the animals that is of great concern in the far north under conditions of global warming is in fact reindeer. And I think it is critically important for us to be able to understand what happened in the past, why reindeer went extinct in the deeper past so as to be better able to predict what might happen to them under conditions of global warming in the future. Essentially with reindeer what happened is that their southern boundary moved northwards. So, while they are no longer found in France, they are found in Scandinavia and all across the far north. The question you can validly ask: if global warming proceeds far enough, and the southern boundary of the reindeer continues to move further north, how further north is it going to go? Is it going to go too far north for them to survive? Which is the same issue with polar bears now as well. Donald Grayson: You bet. How close could we be to those kinds of extinctions now as earth warms so quickly? Donald Grayson: Sure, how close we are, I don't think anybody knows. That we could be coming close is the reason for the tremendous concern over global warming among biologists who are interested in the welfare of the earth's biodiversity. When does Homo sapiens become threatened in its own survival on a planet in which climate could change so rapidly? Donald Grayson: I don't have an answer to that and I don't know anybody who does have an answer to that. But it's a good question. People are pretty plastic in their behavior and their adaptations. That doesn't mean we are necessarily in for a fun time, but no one has the answer to what is going to happen to us. Do you see any specific connection between climate change and the ice age extinction of so many species? Donald Grayson: Assuming that Ross MacPhee's disease argument is wrong, he may not be, but it's hard for me to see a disease vector causing extinction of so many large mammals at the same time and causing the re-arrangement of so many small mammals on the landscape that happened at the end of the Pleistocene in North America. Further, there is no reason to believe that people were the cause of these extinctions. Then we are only left with one possible explanation and that's climate change. The real challenge for the future is figuring out what aspects of climate change caused these extinctions. And to do that, I'm convinced we're going to have to analyze data one animal at a time." © 2002 by Linda Moulton Howe, Reporter and Editor. All Rights Reserved. earthfiles.com
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Alternative Electricity for your Remote Home
If you are a soverign entity, utility lines are probably not available at your remote home-site. You are a candidate for natural electricity sources. Safe and free energy already on your site, from sunlight, wind, or falling water, can produce home electricity for most electrical needs, without the cost of extending power lines, and with no monthly power bill.
SOLAR ELECTRIC MODULES convert sunlight directly into electricity with no moving parts, no maintenance, no fuel, and no pollution. This is the most environmentally friendly way to produce power. Solar electric modules last decades, and offer a 20 to 25-year warranty on power. Best of all, you will help show the world a better way.
SMALL HYDRO POWER brings water downhill in a 2" to 4" plastic pipe, to jet through a nozzle and spin an alternator 24 hours a day. You get more power for less cost than from any other source. You need a stream flowing over 10 gallons per minute, and elevation drop of 20 to 100 feet.
WIND POWER can be effective, but only on a site with average wind speed over 10 mph. Wind can work along with solar generation to provide more uniform power input.
Having an ENGINE GENERATOR as backup provides total security for extended bad weather.
An Independent natural power system typically produces just 10% to 25% of the electricity consumed by a utility powered American home. That is about 1 to 5 or at most 10 kilowatt hours of electricity on a sunny day.
Rather than major life-style changes, we learn to consume a small percentage of the power others use. Here is how:
The amount of power a solar electric system collects depends on the natural energy resources at your location and on how much equipment you install to gather that energy. How much benefit you receive from that energy depends on careful selection of lights and appliances that use about 1/4 as much power, for radical energy efficiency, and on your conservation habits. This means using special lights, refrigerators, and freezers that use about 1/4 as much power as typical models do. It means using natural gas or propane for major heat production in cooking, water heating, clothes drier, and home heating. (It's best to include passive solar home design and wood heat where possible).
What You Can Do
Most household appliances and lights use only a little electricity, easily supplied by the sun, wind and, micro-hydro. Solar electric homes convert most of their power to 120 volt AC to use as needed for household appliances and lights. Most common are lights, water pump, TV-VCR-Satellite, computer, stereo, vacuum cleaner, kitchen appliances sewing machine, power tools and office equipment. Even high wattage appliances like microwave oven, hair drier, toaster and clothes washer consume little power because their actual running time is short. Various water pumps, including deep well pumps up to 1/2 horsepower, are used. Special design electric refrigerators and freezers save energy in a solar home; gas and small DC powered refrigerators are also used.
At one time just five kilowatt hours per day ran our business, shop, and home. The business used three or four computers all day, lights for 5 workers, photocopy machine, postage machine, phone, fax, and paging system, business communication radio, electrical workbench, one room evaporative cooler, a small window air conditioner, and central vacuum system. The home included lights, microwave oven, range hood, juicer, refrigerators, freezer, TV, satellite, VCR, 2 stereos, clothes washer, deep well pump, compost toilet fan, vacuum cleaner, fans, electric lawn mower, electric roto-tiller & electric weed eater, plus a mechanical shop building full of power tools.
What You Can Not Do
No Major Electric Heat Producing Appliances: Electric heat, electric hot water, electric cook stove, electric heated clothes drier, and air conditioner account for 80 percent of typical monthly electric bills. It is absolutely not practical to operate major heating appliances with electricity. These use from twenty to one hundred times the power your TV uses. Other fuels produce heat at a much lower cost. Use wood or propane fueled furnaces; propane cook stoves and water heaters; use gas fired clothes dryers (or just a rope in the sun). Building homes with passive solar heat design saves heating fuel for the rest of our life. Read our energy efficient appliance section for more information on ways to use less power.
Avoid Most Large Refrigerators and Freezers: Standard, non-Energy Star rated refrigerators have poor insulation and run long hours every day. Most still use well over 1.5 kilowatt hours per day, over 450 kilowatt hours per year. Careful shopping can turn up a few models using less power. Special electric refrigerators and freezers designed for solar powered homes use much less power, and are shown in our Refrigeration section. These highly insulated units can save 50% of the energy consumed by most ordinary refrigerators. Your savings in total cost of your power generating equipment are greater than the added cost of efficient appliances. Propane refrigerators are another good option.
Air Conditioning: is too energy intensive to be practical, other than a window unit in a very large solar power system. Evaporative cooling- swamp coolers work well in non-humid areas.
Design For Low Energy Needs
Lights and appliances are carefully selected for lowest power consumption, so you can get the most benefits from the fixed amount of power available. When visiting a well designed solar electric home, you might not even notice the difference until someone tells you.
Install extra wall switches to cut off power from phantom electric loads, that is, things like stereo, TV, garage door openers, and office equipment which consume power full time, even when not used. Wire doorbells, wireless phones, and motion sensor lights to low voltage DC electricity from the battery, so they use little or no power when idling. Use motion sensor and timer switches for outdoor lights. Use heating systems that distribute heat without needing pumps or blowers. Cooling is evaporative instead of air conditioning. Learn how to operate your home to get the most benefit from the fewest kilowatt-hours.
1. Design the whole house (water, heat, power) for low energy use. Use propane or other fuels, never electricity, for all major heating appliances. This means the furnace and room heaters, kitchen range or stove, water heater, and clothes dryer should use propane, oil, natural gas, wood, thermal solar, whatever; but NOT electricity. Also choose convection furnaces or vented heaters that require no electricity to operate or distribute their heat. Use evaporative coolers instead of air conditioning.
2. Carefully select very special low energy lights and appliances. Solar electric homes use special electric refrigerators and freezers that do the job using only 1/4 as much power. (Some use gas refrigerators). Prices are more than conventional appliances, but savings in the cost of the energy system are greater than the appliance cost because fewer solar modules and batteries are required. Many of these special appliances and lights are available from the BackwoodsSolar.com catalog.
3. Eliminate waste of energy due to appliances, and to human carelessness. Use timer switches for outdoor lights and maybe in children's rooms, and shut off lights when they are not directly being used. Learn where your energy is going and see if each load is necessary. For example, even when switched off, some appliances draw power all the time, (Stereo, TV, VCR, some office equipment, garage door openers etc). These particular items, called phantom loads, should be disconnected completely by a wall switch or switched outlet strip, when not in use. Backwoods' wiring planning page has more tips on setting up the house to need less energy.
After meeting those three measures, a practical and affordable solar electric system (or wind, or micro-hydro or a combination) can provide electricity for your home.
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