The Weeds Are With You, but will they always be as plentiful and healthy? That’s a a concern at weedom as we contemplate so many seemingly aimless and unbalanced activities that have been associated with protecting the planet.
It’s been a full year since the first post on Jan 31, 2023, bringing assurance that the weeds were waiting, their tiny forms close to the ground, as they withstood the travails of winter.
Pretty many readers are local and know a fair amount about what happens at weedom, which exists as part of a larger beef farm. So far there is 1 primary writer supplying the verbiage, which is me, Weedom1. This Stack is not really about me, and I’m not the only nerd getting things done around here. So it’s not really the royal “we” that you see in most of the posts :-D
As many of you know, I escaped from healthcare shortly before starting this newsletter, as an effort to help people interact with the wonderful world of weeds, and form a relationship that benefits their own health as well as the survival of the plants. People will work hard to preserve any plant once they learn that it’s good for something. I believe that (among normal people) this follows for most other natural resources too.
Normally I will initially consider most theories and ideas to be possibly true until I’m told that they can’t be questioned. Then the rebel in me starts walking off in the opposite direction. This has happened with respect to the health care practice, and with respect to the ever shifting Climate Change narrative. Many current ideas and practices in both fields seem not to comport with observable reality.
When we had a series of terrifically cold winters, I considered the theories that it could get colder to be possible. The Sun has observable changes in activity. But when I was suddenly told that the earth was going to burn up in 10 years, because of human activity, I was instantly sceptical. The various doomsday predictions did not fit historical patterns of cooling and warming that had occurred before humans were plentiful and long before they were burning petroleum, natural gas, etc. It didn’t help that industries could purchase ‘carbon offsets’ for the benefit of people who flew in private jets, and that the United States was supposed to be on a stringent effort to reduce CO2 output, but these standards were not applied to India, nor China, which was bringing new, coal fired plants online on a weekly basis. In January 2006, Al Gore was promoting his upcoming movie, An Inconvenient Truth, and he was predicting that planet Earth would fry in about 10 years. In 2016, when we, and our planet did not burn up according to Al Gore’s prognostications, this was cause for a celebration which reached viral status.
Minnesotans for Global Warming recorded a parody song and video in 2010 addressing the issue, and conveying wishes for their very cold state to become so blessed.
Sometimes I get worked up at the suggestion that CO2, carbon dioxide, is a poison gas, which causes the Earth to heat up. The early EPA was pressing for auto manufacturers to make sure that cars and power plants operated more efficiently, and emitted more CO2 and less partially burned pollutants. This was actually sensible, and the reason the USA air quality is so nice compared to India and China. Those countries are now in the middle of their industrial revolutions.
Plants need CO2 to live and grow. It’s what they use for energy and construction, via photosynthetic processes. Animals produce this needed CO2, and so do man made combustion processes, which are often dwarfed by natural ones such as volcanoes and forest fires. CO2 makes up 400 ppb, or 0.04% of atmospheric gas. With all our “efforts”, we humans have not been able to increase this number much. Studies and calculations indicate that this gas does not contribute much to warming, and that the effect is non-linear. Other gasses and water vapor impinge upon its effects such that even doubling the atmospheric CO2 cannot increase the temperature perceptibly.
The true ‘warming gas’ is water vapor, and this is knowable by direct observation. Clouds are an insulater which hold in the earth’s heat, and you’ll notice this most in the winter, in temperate zones. Cloudy nights don’t get as cold as clear nights. You’ll observe the warmth conserving effect of the water blanket by comparing day and night temperature differences inland vs. on the beach. It doesn’t cool down very much at night on an island. In the desert, the day vs night temperature differences are huge. Humidity, clouds, water vapor account for much of this very obvious effect. The difference between the yearly high and yearly low temp of a subtropical island might be 50 degrees. Where I live, the difference is 100 degrees and has reached extremes of almost 150 degrees in my lifetime. Even northern islands such as the UK have a more narrow yearly, high and low temperature range. Water, H2O, is the “warming” gas. In 2022 the Tonga volcanic eruption sent more water and ash higher in into the atmosphere than any other volcano recorded in satellite history. You will see many outside news reports assuring that its effect was minimal, and not a significant factor in “climate change”, but this very simply defies observable reality.
Animals (including humans) and plants live in a balance, supplying each other with their respectively needed energy and nutrients. Disrupting those relationships will upend the natural balance, which is vital for maintenance of the soil, and all life on earth.
Very bad decisions are being made using “climate change” as an excuse. Because this term has suffused the entire educational apparatus, all of the humans who are separated from nature will not have directly observed the phenomena which contradict the narrative that human activity is primarily the cause. I believe that people who begin wandering in the weeds, and observing natural patterns will reach new conclusions.
Meanwhile, our governments and corporate beneficiaries have found short term sources of profit, to the detriment of all.
We’re disrupting whales and other marine life with wind farms, which are a less reliable and resource heavy manner of producing energy. Recycling of wind farm parts is not easy, and their placement is governed by “not in my neighborhood” policy rather than judicious planning. A scant few years ago, environmentalists recognized that human construction and transport activity had effects upon life in the sea, but the currently “correct” recitation is that windfarms, noisy in both construction and operation, are blameless.
People are burying trees! to sequester carbon, depriving animals of shelter, depriving bacteria, fungi and plants of nutrients, and denuding the soil, causing it to further wash away. CO2 gas is also being stored underground for future use in energy production. No, not because it is a pollutant, but because there’s money to be made in the foreseeable future. Nowadays, grants and government help and stealing farmland through eminent domain claims are possible when people incorrectly perceive CO2 as a harmful, climate change gas.
Mining operations are stripping vast acreage of land and robbing fresh water supplies to produce lithium, cobalt and other materials needed for car batteries, in a market that is now failing because they are unaffordable, and the technology for recycling the vehicles and batteries lags far behind the government subsidized production. Little can be heard from the people in arid regions of the affected South American countries, nor in the cobalt mines of Africa.
People have been driven to ritualistic recycling behavior, the excesses of which have filled many countries in Asia with huge dumps of plastic and other waste from the West, which they were paid to take. Plastic bag bans are fueling the production of countless “reusable” plastic containers which people collect and throw away, and which at least for the short term is being associated with net increase of plastic use. Specialized composting containers with gamma seal lids are being manufactured for kitchen waste collection. Reusing the abundant food grade plastic buckets could have prevented this waste, but nobody wants to clean them. (When you start any recycling, metal remains top shelf, top benefit. Then look for what you know is actually being reused! )
Electric cars bolstered by government subsidies, are produced in excessive quantities, go obsolete quickly, and are dumped in huge graveyards, such as this one in China, and the toxic batteries are left to contaminate the land, likely permanently. This would not have been such a huge problem had the market been allowed to develop and grow naturally.
I implore weedom readers not to spin their wheels to enrich the elites who have been made more fabulously wealthy by the climate change narrative. Without the CO2 phobia, people are much more free to engage in more effective, individual means of conservation and really do something for the planet.
Here are just a few suggestions for individuals that really work to conserve natural resources: First and foremost: Don’t spray the weeds! 😎
Do you have a motor vehicle? Don’t dump it. Fix it! Maintain it so it runs correctly. Buy second hand. Plan your trips to save some fuel. Walking more saves the planet. Using a vehicle for its full lifetime saves the planet too. Same goes for your appliances. Just say no to crappy refrigerators (with LG linear compressors, e.g.) that break way too soon. Buy the “dumbest” appliances so they last longer. Buy and paint old appliances that still work. Get the manual online so you can order all the parts. Make your own coffee! Cook your own food more often. Get a water filter and drink out of the tap. Buy local food or produce some of your own if you can. Turn off the ‘entertainment’ and turn on the how-to videos. (We most recently did that 4 days ago to fix our commercial coffee maker, and now it runs great.) The more you know your neighbors, the more you can recycle and re-use all kinds of stuff in a truly effective manner that doesn’t pollute Asia as well as the West. I invite readers to add their own favorite suggestions and supply links to their favorite resources which aid their personal conservation efforts. I’ll put a few links to our most used parts suppliers in comments.
Whether I was in research, teaching or health care, my work product fell like the rain on any persons who wished access, whether or not we agreed with each other’s opinions or way of living. Weedom is the same way, offering useful information to anyone who wants it, and never forcing anyone to accept it. (I think that’s what the Creator wants, because that’s the way the Creator operates.)
As of the New Year, weedom has over 500 subscribers, and the newsletter will continue to be fully open access to all subscribers. Paid subscription is an option for those who want to promote it that way, and all others who share us with their friends and family equally help the mission of weedom to get everyone lost in the weeds for their good health and nutrition.
Where We Dig
1. A stealth effort to bury wood for carbon removal has just raised millions | MIT Technology Review. Accessed January 29, 2024. https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/12/15/1065016/a-stealth-effort-to-bury-wood-for-carbon-removal-has-just-raised-millions/
2. Morrison C. Carbon Dioxide Causes Much Less Warming Than is Commonly Believed, New Paper Finds. The Daily Sceptic. Published January 29, 2024. Accessed January 29, 2024. https://dailysceptic.org/2024/01/29/new-paper-argues-carbon-dioxide-causes-much-less-warming-than-is-commonly-believed/
3. China’s Abandoned, Obsolete Electric Cars Are Piling Up in Cities. Bloomberg.com. https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2023-china-ev-graveyards/. Accessed January 31, 2024.
4. Electric Vehicles Are Less Reliable Than Conventional Cars. Consumer Reports. Published November 29, 2023. Accessed January 29, 2024. https://www.consumerreports.org/cars/car-reliability-owner-satisfaction/electric-vehicles-are-less-reliable-than-conventional-cars-a1047214174/
5. New Journal of Climate Study Reduces Doubled CO2 Climate Sensitivity By 40%, To 0.72°C. Accessed January 29, 2024. https://notrickszone.com/2024/01/22/new-journal-of-climate-study-reduces-doubled-co2-climate-sensitivity-by-40-to-0-72c/
6. Mogul F. Offshore Wind May Help The Planet — But Will It Hurt Whales? NPR. https://www.npr.org/2019/12/05/782694371/offshore-wind-may-help-the-planet-but-will-it-hurt-whales. Published December 5, 2019. Accessed January 31, 2024.
7. Putting CO2 to Use – Analysis. IEA. Accessed January 31, 2024. https://www.iea.org/reports/putting-co2-to-use
8. Report by feds, anglers cites offshore wind impacts on fish. AP News. Published March 31, 2023. Accessed January 31, 2024. https://apnews.com/article/offshore-wind-fishing-turbines-whales-noaa-90535220198d3dcf5adef0dde0b363b3
9. Summit Carbon files more than 80 eminent domain lawsuits against South Dakota landowners. Accessed January 31, 2024. https://www.mitchellrepublic.com/news/south-dakota/summit-carbon-files-more-than-80-eminent-domain-lawsuits-against-south-dakota-landowners
10. Chen YT, Huang Y, Merlis TM. The Global Patterns of Instantaneous CO2 Forcing at the Top of the Atmosphere and the Surface. Journal of Climate. 2023;36(18):6331-6347. doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-22-0708.1
11. Tonga Volcanic Eruption & Tsunami 2022 | NASA Applied Sciences. Published January 15, 2022. Accessed January 31, 2024. http://appliedsciences.nasa.gov/what-we-do/disasters/disasters-activations/tonga-volcanic-eruption-tsunami-2022
12. What is photosynthesis? | Live Science. Accessed January 29, 2024. https://www.livescience.com/51720-photosynthesis.html
13. Whatever Happened to Carbon Capture? - Our World. Accessed January 29, 2024. https://ourworld.unu.edu/en/whatever-happened-to-carbon-capture
Wonderful stack, thank you. You are so right, cloud cover makes it so much warmer at night!
Be careful! Those of us with common sense stand in the way of progressivism!!