Notions Of Change

A Solar Eclipse

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We packed into an RV, friends—old and new—heading to nearby Wyoming to see the full solar eclipse. I have to say that particular United State of flatness and endless brown has never done anything for me from an aesthetic perspective. Ever. Until this experience.

My roommate planned things out beautifully and determined that we would find a flat place with no one around to view a total solar eclipse from. Mission accomplished:

We settled in for the night, mostly prepped for the excitement the next morning.

After breakfast, I didn’t even notice when the moon started its journey to overlap the sun because it wasn’t visible in the sky—except if you used your solar glasses. I’m embarrassed to say I spent so much energy over the next hour or so nervously trying to capture the experience with my camera that changes sunk in only gradually.

It was the cold that really was noticeable, even before our eyes detected that the light was waning. Over the course of our viewing, the temperature dropped around twenty degrees, which is startling in such a short period of time. Earth receives so much energy from the Sun and our star’s effects are never more clear than during such an eclipse. Later the light took on an almost old, parched quality, much like our surrounding landscape. Even near totality, the amount of light and warmth coming from the Sun was staggering.

And suddenly it was twilight all around, a 360° “sunset.”

Picture taken by Dale Hopkins.

I was so focused on the photography that I nearly forgot to look at the totality with my eyes.

It was so much more stunning than any special effect because I was there to witness the universe show a little more of her glory for a few moments. It was an almost spiritual experience. (We could even see Baily’s Beads in our photos, an effect created by the light shining through the moon’s valleys and mountains along its edges!)

And then the sun began to show again, and the sky lit up from a swift dawn to midday, and the soil smelled like warm summer once more . . . and it was over. There was no “again” for the eclipse or its viewers.

Over the traffic-stacked drive home, I made a pact with myself to travel much farther to see the next totality in seven years. For that one, I’ll be present and less focused on documenting the experience through photographs. Promise.

Allan Savory—Halting Desertification

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I don’t know what to do about climate change. Don’t stop reading! I promise this won’t be yet another depressing article about something many of us feel powerless to stop.

Increasing numbers have noticed environmental differences and much of the public’s focus has been on trying to establish the cause. There are some folks who argue that it’s manmade and irreversible now, and others who assert that the irregular weather patterns are part of the earth’s natural, cyclical phases over eons. To me, the why of it is moot. It’s clear that big changes are underway either way.

My concern is how life, with its many human and non-human members, is going to cope with the altered environment, and as such, I am always delighted to see viable, reasonable solutions offered for the some of the challenges that we may face. Check out the TED Talk by Allan Savory below. Clean water, sustainable food production, desertification, and preserving biodiversity are already pressing issues. His proposal tackles all of these:

Forget Mars, Take Me to Venus

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I love to dream. Maybe that’s because potential is everywhere. The possibilities seem endless, although how one can conceivably see everything during the course of one lifetime still eludes me. So I have to visit things with heart and soul, rather than with body. What does that mean?

Well, take this article on the feasibility of colonizing Venus rather than Mars. I LOVE this stuff. The basic gist of the essay is that it may make more sense to colonize Venus, rather than Mars. This could be accomplished by, get this, building a floating city. Star Wars style.

Venus—Image processing by R. Nunes
Venus—Image processing by R. Nunes

The surface of Venus is an uninhabitable mix of corrosive chemicals and annihilating pressure. Fifty kilometers above, however, the atmosphere provides protection from solar radiation, milder temperatures, and the pressure is nearly equivalent to Earth’s, unlike on Mars. Dense levels of carbon dioxide in the upper reaches of Venus’ toxic atmosphere would keep an air-filled blimp city afloat. Several sections of the colony could be dedicated arboretums, atmospheric and human byproduct carbon dioxide consumed by the trees while they pump fresh oxygen out. A city of trees in the clouds.Continue Reading

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