An Apparently Much-Needed BIOLOGY Lesson for the Alabama Supreme Court

 When a female human egg is fertilized by a male human sperm cell, the result is known as a zygote.  [The same is true with all other members of the biological Animal Kingdom.]  A zygote still is a single cell.  It has no brain, central nervous system, eyes, heart, etc.  [Yes, that should be obvious and known by everyone.  Given the Court's decision, however, thought I'd better make sure:]

When the fertilized egg divides into two identical cells, and those two divide, and on & on, the result is known as an embryo.  While an embryo, the group of cells appears no differently than does a group of cells from any number of other animals at the same stage of development.  It's a blob of undifferentiated cells.  It's not a child, not even close.  There's no brain, no developed systems found in a fetus, no sentience, no consciousness, nothing but a group of identical cells.  Yes, an embryo has the potential of becoming a human life; but it's not yet such.

Approximately eleven weeks after the last menstrual period in the mother, an embryo begins the phase of cell differentiation.  Body systems develop with specific organs.  The eventual result is known as a fetus.  The differences between an embryo and a fetus are monumental and relevant to ethics.

When an embryo is frozen (which happens in the IVF*** process weeks prior to the beginning of the change to a fetus) cell differentiation doesn't begin until after unfreezing.

[***IVF = in vitro fertilization]

To treat/view an embryo as a child is absurd.  To make things worse, one of the justifications for the decision was a citation from the Christian Holy Bible.  I was unaware of Alabama being a theocracy, or at least, acting like one.  There's no way that's appropriate...or even legal I would guess.

By the way, when you do a Google Search for questions regarding an "embryo", about one-third or more of the answers deal with a FETUS, not an embryo.  So it seems some Tech Whiz "Kids" who write algorithms for this Search topic, also need this Biology lesson.

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Not only my opinion.  Be Well

p.s.  In case anyone is wondering, I have an academic background in Biology and taught the subject at both the High School and Community College levels for years.

Attention: Main Street, City & County Comprehensive Planners, and Anyone Truly Interested in Sustainability

Here's why 2-4% annual Growth (which, by the way, is exponential) is harmful, and a framework for the sustainable alternative---

https://steadystate.org/envisioning-a-steady-state-comprehensive-plan/

It's somewhat of a long read, but worth it.  If nothing else, study the informative graphics and you'll get much of the central theme.

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Not only my opinion.  Be Well

"France's Start-Up Nation is a Neoliberal Hell"

 https://techwontsave.us/episode/206_frances_start_up_nation_is_a_neoliberal_hell_w_nastasia_hadjadji?emci=10369721-2fd0-ee11-85f9-002248223794&emdi=fdc8a869-ebd0-ee11-85f9-002248223794&ceid=6171896

The neoliberal Macron, elected in 2017, has more or less teamed up with portions of the neoliberal High Tech Industry to transform France into something akin to a "start-up" corporation.  [It began as only efforts to attract High Tech investment, but morphed into working toward the instituting of a full-blown Corporatocracy.]  For details, copy & paste on a new page (or do a Search for the title) the link above.

In the name of "efficiency", the team (so to speak) is working to privatize public services and basically dismantle or drastically reduce France's social safety net.  That's the common objective and function of neoliberal policies instituted by Establishments in most "democratic" countries all around the world.  

What boggles the mind is this:  in the past several/many years, neoliberalism and the associated corporate globalization have shown themselves to be an abject failure relative to benefits to Main Street.  The failure has been ecological, social, and economic, never mind psychological and political.  If you're in the top twenty percent (or so) of income earners, then the whole thing has been great for you.  The rest of us have not fared so well.

Except in my country, the USA, most of the world has recognized the harm done by privatization, deregulation, austerity for Main Street, job insecurity, reduced retirement benefits, monopolization in High Tech, stagnant wages, and the like.  So, it's no wonder to me why Main Street in France and elsewhere has been protesting neoliberal policies and the continuing transfer of wealth to the Upper Crust.

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Not only my opinion.  Take Care

Why the factory farming of animals (and animal lab experimentation) is an obscenity

 https://tamerlaine.org/factory-farming-in-pictures

1.  Family farms, shrinking in number, still outnumber factory or "industrial" farms by far.  BUT, the total number of animals on factory farms is greater than the total on family farms.  A single factory dairy farm can have anywhere from 700 to 25,000 milk cows...on ONE "farm".  Dairy cattle!  These cows are never on pasture.  They live in giant warehouses and/or crowded feedlots.  There are about 9.4 million milk cows in the USA; the majority of them are never grazing on pasture their entire lives.  [NOTE:  in China & a few other countries, there are factory dairy farms with up to 100,000 milk cows on each one.]

2.  Hogs on factory farms live their entire lives indoors, most of them in steel bar crates, not roaming around in a big indoor arena.  Sows live in gestating crates barely longer and taller than the animal...their entire lives (which usually is only a few years).  [See the photo at the link above.  Not counting dogs, hogs are the most intelligent of all farm animals.  In general, they can do simple math better than a 3-yr-old human.  Like all livestock, they are social creatures, & have emotions.]

3.  Poultry on factory farms are never outdoors anymore.  They're raised in crowded crates in giant sheds, several packed into each crate, & crates stacked upon each other.

4.  Lab animals--- I can't even go there--- many of the experiments are cruel beyond belief, done in universities with full Government funding.  Mice, cats, dogs, primates, and a few other mammals are subjected to inordinate suffering.  Sentient beings treated like nonliving objects.  There are a few corporations which do nothing but raise "crops" of these creatures, thousands of future victims for sale.  It seems many humans pretend all animals except us are too dumb to be aware of their own suffering.  I guess such thinking soothes their consciences.

In most of these factory operations, cleaning of animal wastes is done automatically, which means it's incomplete.  Because of the massive numbers of animals, infected/sick ones often get overlooked and die without medical treatment.

The philosopher, Kant, once wrote (paraphrased):  we can judge the character of people by their treatment of animals.

Factory farming (especially of animals) is an obscenity.  It's a gross insult to civil society, sentient beings, and Nature.  We are capable of far better behavior.  Studies have shown that "small farms can feed the world".  Google it.  [You'll find arguments and studies supporting both sides of the question.  The disagreement largely revolves around the definition of the term, "small farm".]

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Not only my opinion.  Be Well

Excerpt from: "Choices & Change on the Path to a Sustainable Existence..."

 Here's part of Chapter 2 (Soil, Not Oil) from my second short book.

[The book is available here:  https://www.amazon.com/Choices-Change-Path-Sustainable-Existence/dp/B0CSSVWB3N? ] ---

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Introduction

Dirt is almost totally without any life in it. Soil is a living ecosystem which, in conjunction with water, air, sunlight, and the chlorophyll in green plants, makes animal life possible on Earth. It’s a more valuable natural resource than petroleum. Partly because few people seem to recognize or appreciate that view, we are in a worldwide soil crisis. [Dr. Vandana Shiva, a renowned agroecologist, has an informative and beautiful book out titled, Soil Not Oil.]

Though not recognized as such at the time, the crisis began with the first agricultural Green Revolution in the late 1950’s and throughout the 1960’s. Because planners were concerned about human population outpacing food production, plant breeders started developing new, high-yielding varieties of cereal grains, particularly wheat and rice. The newly developed crops were high-yielding because they managed to pull more nutrients (e.g., nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium) out of the soil as compared to older varieties.

In addition to new crop varieties, science developed pesticides and farmers applied them to their fields in earnest, especially in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. Tons of DDT were dumped onto fields, thus controlling plant-eating insects. Food production began to rise.

Apparently, few people were concerned about any potential impact of poisons on soil microbes, worms, fungi, and other life forms necessary for soil health.

At the same time, the petrochemical industry developed artificial (synthetic) fertilizers. By about the early 1970’s, worldwide food production began to increase at an unprecedented rate. Such was the start of the second Green Revolution. Due to massive application of both synthetic fertilizers and irrigation water, it lasted to about 1985 or so. Annual grain production increased by 160%.

When the Green Revolution began, the start of a long period of soil degradation also began. For quite awhile, it was unrecognized. The widespread use of DDT on crops (and thus, on soil as well) began not long after WWII, well before the Green Revolution. It was banned in the USA in 1972. The primary reason for the ban was the harm it caused populations of raptors, or birds of prey. The harm to soil generally was unknown at the time. In agriculture, other poisons took the place of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT). Herbicides also contributed to the ongoing degradation of soil. So, too, did the massive use of synthetic fertilizers. To understand WHY and HOW petrochemicals (in this case, synthetic fertilizers and synthetic pesticides) cause the degradation of a most valuable resource, let’s look at soil in a bit more detail.

Like all others, soil is a highly complex natural ecosystem. Most ecologists would agree that a healthy, natural ecosystem is more complex than anything ever built by humans. Anything. So, the first thing to keep in mind is: soil is a living system with more complexity than any machine or system made by us. That complex, living system is the basis of our food supply. Almost all our plant and animal food products ultimately come from the soil. Instead of essentially poisoning it with artificial petrochemicals, we should be revering it and treating it with the utmost care. [See Pal, R. 2006 in References.]

Fifty or more years ago, a good topsoil consisted of 25% air, 25% water, 45% minerals, and 5% humus. The last item, humus, is partially decayed organic matter. It’s derived primarily from dead plants, plant parts (such as fallen leaves, twigs broken off, tree bark, etc.), dead animals and microbes, and animal wastes. Humus is crucial to soil fertility. It provides not only macronutrients such as Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), & Potassium (K), and the secondary nutrients Calcium (Ca),   Magnesium (Mg), and Sulfur (S), but also the micronutrients Zinc (Zn), Manganese (Mn), Iron (Fe), Chloride (a form of Chlorine, Cl), Copper (Cu), Molybdenum (Mo), and Boron (B). When industrial farmers use the main synthetic fertilizer made from petroleum, all the soil gets is macronutients. Over time, the soil slowly is degraded. Today’s soil contains humus hovering around 1%, and that’s only a part of what makes up the Soil Crisis.

Other Aspects of Soil Important to Humans

• About 25% of the world’s land biodiversity is found in soil. One result of that: biodiverse soil bacteria provide us with new antibiotics. Also, biodiversity overall makes a soil ecosystem healthier and more resistant to environmental stresses such as disease in soil plants and animals, drought, and other damage to soil food webs.

• Soil filters water. For the most part, large groundwater aquifers are located inside “solid” rock. Rock has many tiny crevices, cracks, and microscopic pores which allow water molecules to enter. They accumulate there over thousands and thousands of years. Before ever getting to underlying bedrock, soil filters the water as it travels downward. That’s why water from a drilled well generally is “pure”.

• Soil is an important carbon sink. It sequesters carbon dioxide, thus keeping excess CO2 out of our atmosphere.

• The mineral portion of soil is composed of various combinations of sand, silt, and clay. Individual clay particles are so tiny they can be seen only with a high-powered microscope. As such, they exist in what’s known as a colloid, or in colloidal form. In that state, they have a net negative electrical charge. This means they attract positively charged mineral nutrients such as calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium, etc. The nutrients thus are prevented from leaching down into the lower depths of the subsoil, out of reach of many plant roots.

• Humus also exists in colloidal form. It, too, holds nutrients in the topsoil where they can be absorbed by plant roots. The colloids making up both inorganic clay and organic humus are the most chemically active parts of any soil. They are crucial to soil fertility. Humus is a great source of nutrition for plants, and by releasing the nutrients slowly during decomposition, the plant roots are not “burned” when the nutrients are absorbed. The petrochemical fertilizer, ammonium nitrate, sometimes does damage to plant roots by quickly overwhelming and “burning” them.

• Green land plants get most of their water and nutrients (other than glucose, which they make themselves) from soil. Such plants not only are the basis of our food web, but also a significant source of the oxygen we require to live.

Petrochemicals, a major cause of soil degradation, damage or destroy soil biodiversity by killing many different types of microbes which are necessary to soil health. [See Pal, R. 2006 and Goudie, Andrew S. 2019 in References.] Bacteria, the most numerous of the soil microbes, work to decompose plant and animal matter. Thus they promote nutrient cycling. So do fungi and actinomycetes. Some bacteria can pull nitrogen out of the air and “fix” it into certain plants known as legumes (e.g., alfalfa, clover, and beans). Actinomycetes resemble both bacteria and fungi, and they aid in decomposition of organic matter, thus also contributing to the cycling of nutrients in the soil ecosystem. In addition to decomposition, fungi help bind soil particles into aggregates, and so aid in resistance to wind and water erosion.

Mycorrhizal fungi in soil are especially important to green plants. “Mycorrhizal” refers to a plant’s root system. These fungi live on the roots of plants in a mostly symbiotic (mutually beneficial) manner. Their hyphae – fungal feeding tubes – allow the host plant’s roots to take in more water and nutrients than they otherwise could. The practices of industrial farming – with their use of synthetic fertilizers and herbicides – are destroying these valuable fungi. Thus, over time, crop yields ultimately will be reduced because of soil degradation.

Factory farming also exacerbates wind and water erosion of soil, thus contributing even more to soil degradation.

BOTTOM LINE: the use of petrochemicals on farms, and all the rest of industrial agriculture, must be phased out. Farming and food supply chains must return to a smaller scale in order to regenerate our soil and cease the poisoning of food ecosystems. Organic farming, sometimes called regenerative agriculture, permaculture, or agroecology, is the best choice forward.

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The excerpt above shows how reliance on Technology can backfire if planners and policy makers are not thinking comprehensively.  I see the same thing taking shape today with geoengineers addressing symptoms rather than root causes of our ongoing Crisis.

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Not only my opinion.  Be Well, and BE AWARE

The Mother of All Feedback Loops re Human Society

A short while ago, I posted the following as a small part of a new book description---

"the complex feedback loop involving constant economic growth, which requires more energy, which then creates more complexity in society, which then requires more energy, which then creates even more complexity, etc. is ruining our habitat;".

This essay is an expanded view of that concept.

In our past (and ongoing) pursuit of infinite economic growth, we've created a System, a "Superorganism" according to the ecologist, Nate Hagens.  This System is so large, so filled with complexity, and so out-of-control that a) it can't be fully described, and b) it can't be reined-in, and c) it's ruining the ecosphere.  It's the ultimate Rat-Race.  It's a primary cause of our ecological overshoot.  It's a runaway machine with no one at the helm.  It's literally killing us, not only with pollutants, but also with food insecurity, the stress of job insecurity, inadequate health care facilities, wars, inequality and inequity, declining democracy, and the like.  About twenty percent (maybe less) of Earth's human population are managing to stay afloat in the ongoing energy binge; the rest of us are in a slow descent to subsistence living.

[The twenty-six richest people on Earth own as much wealth as HALF the entire world's population combined.  In a civil society, that's an obscenity.  It's most likely also why the Rich and Powerful (perhaps with a few exceptions) want the runaway System to continue.  They appear to not be long-term, comprehensive, holistic thinkers.]

The ever-increasing complexity is causing significant problems in the arenas of:  global supply chains, manufacturing, transportation, consumption, extraction of natural resources, generation and distribution of electricity, health care equity, income inequality, institutional functioning, and more.  As society becomes more complex, the need for more and more energy increases.

Even a High School biology student could tell you with a high degree of certainty that such a scenario is unsustainable on a planet with finite resources.  Unfortunately, it appears most (not all) of the Powers-That-Be are relying on ideology, not science, to navigate through this current Crisis.  They appear to believe the benefits of our 150-year energy binge are the norm, but fail to see the Mother of All Feedback Loops, and the negative externalities of fossil fuel use.  They also don't seem to grasp the looming minerals problem relative to our necessary transition to Green Energy.  Never mind the soil crisis and the impending food supply shortage.

According to the mining engineer and geologist, Simon Michaux, in about only five years there will be serious problems regarding necessary minerals for Green energy.  In about ten years, agriculture also will be having significant problems.  It all revolves around energy.

If we don't voluntarily reduce our energy use, we'll be forced to by lack of cheap, easily available, and abundant fossil fuels AND lack of cheap, easily available and necessary minerals (about 70 of them) for renewables.  Less energy use will lessen eco-overshoot by leaps and bounds.  It also will slow down the Rat-Race by lessening societal complexity.  This all can happen if we phase out of infinite economic GROWTH, and phase into economic development in a steady state economy.  [See https://steadystate.org/ ]

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Not only my opinion.  Be Well, and Be Aware

Quote: "...whether God-given, biologically endowed, or just taken for granted."

This masterfully written essay clearly shows aggregate humanity is on a most destructive path re nonhuman animals.  [ https://greattransition.org/gti-forum/solidarity-animals-crist ]  Despite that bad news, the author inspires to the Nth degree.  At least read the first three paragraphs.  Judith Crist is a wordsmith of the highest order.  Reading her article is well worth the time.

Crist goes on to unravel/unpack the paradox of our love of animals existing simultaneously with the structural violence we impose upon them.  Then, too, she brilliantly recounts the history and heritage of John Rodman's "Differential

Imperative" - how we, in order to soothe our conscience, assign inordinate value to the difference between us and other animals.  [I say "other animals" because we're part of the biological Animal Kingdom; obviously, we aren't plants or microorganisms:]

Next, Crist relays how indigenous societies have (in general) treated nonhuman animals with respect, compassion, and the dignity they deserve while using them for human purposes.  A much needed lesson for us all.

Finally, she explains how mistreatment and misuse of animals has spilled over to include human-to-human interaction, and our degradation of the ecosphere.  Someday we'll all learn:  "everything is connected to everything else" ~ Barry Commoner, 1971 (another masterful wordsmith).

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Not only my opinion.  Take Care