On Adaptation
June 29, 2008 – Discussion about adapting to a new culture and a new way of life, particularly in a future of externally imposed adversity.
By Dave Eriqat
I suppose most people like their routines. I am probably more wed to my routines than most people, not so much because I can’t tolerate change or favor being in a rut, but because over the years I have systematically refined my lifestyle, shedding or minimizing those things I dislike and focusing on and perfecting those things I enjoy. As a result, I thoroughly enjoy my days even though they are mostly the same day after day.
One of my most treasured routines is spending my mornings reading articles online. I used to subscribe to dozens of magazines – good ones. But I could hardly keep up with them and, more importantly, the hundreds of pounds of paper involved every year in the printing of these magazines always struck me as immensely wasteful. When the Internet exploded in the late 1990s it was a godsend. I could read all the stuff I wanted with greater timeliness and virtually no waste and no clutter.
A few days ago, however, my Internet service was down most of the day, and it really made me realize not only how dependent on it I am today, but how fragile it is. The Internet is dependent on electricity, a working telephone system (or cable TV system), a working Internet infrastructure of routers, servers and cables, and of course, a working web site that I wish to visit. If any one of these things is broken – and they are all complex and prone to breaking down – the Internet doesn’t work. The other day it just so happened that my Internet service provider was having some kind of server problem and was unable to assign me an IP address. It was, in other words, one of the worst possible types of failure, totally blocking all my access to the Internet. It was as debilitating as if somebody had cut my telephone line.
Although I immediately felt incredibly isolated and frustrated, I found the experience instructive, a taste of things to come as energy prices climb and economies flounder. It’s going to be increasingly difficult to keep all the complex components on which the Internet depends working flawlessly. And the Internet is itself but a microcosm of the rest of our existence, with vital systems such as food provision and energy distribution being equally complex. Electricity to our homes will become increasingly expensive and unreliable. (I just noticed on my electric bill this month that electricity is 3% higher per kWh than last month; that’s over 36% annualized!) Water systems will suffer increasingly frequent breakdowns and lengthier repair times. Natural gas prices will soar and gas may even be unavailable at times. Internet service providers will have smaller (and probably less competent) staffs and take longer to effect repairs. Motor fuel prices will continue to rise and shortages may become routine.
Life as we’ve known it is going to be increasingly difficult to sustain, meaning we’re going to have to adapt to the new reality.
Welcome To The Future, Just Like The Past
For a while now, and especially since my involuntary Internet embargo, I’ve been envisioning ways of living without dependence on modern conveniences. I don’t believe that in the future everything is going to come to a halt, that we’re going to be abruptly cast back to the dark ages. I think we’re going to experience an unrelenting, protracted, grinding decay in our standard of living, as measured by our dependence on modern conveniences such as motor fuel, electricity and the Internet. These conveniences will continue to be available in the future, just not as reliably as in the past. By degrees the deteriorating reliability of these conveniences will creep up on us, to the point that they may eventually become so unreliable that it will be a “special treat” when they are working properly! Imagine people hurrying home to take advantage of functioning electricity or to take their car to the gas station before it runs out of its fresh but meager supply of motor fuel.
Before these difficulties are imposed on us, we might be well served to identify ways of living without dependence on these conveniences. Perhaps because I live in a town and a house that date from the nineteenth century, I keep asking myself how people lived in the mid-nineteenth century, before our dependence on electricity and oil arose, envisioning that ancient way of life as at least an intermediate term model for the future.
Remember, people then had little to no electricity, no dependence on oil, no refrigeration, no cars, no motorized farm implements, no pesticides, and yet life was pretty good. We can live like that again if necessary, and in fact, the admirable Amish are proof of that today.
City Boy Goes Country
I grew up in big cities and spent the most enjoyable years of my life in San Francisco, where I entertained myself by going to theatres, dining in fine restaurants, getting drunk in tawdry bars, and frequently jetting off to other cities, such as Chicago, New York and Paris, France. Even back then I recognized the tenuousness of such a lifestyle, dependent as it was on cheap energy and abundant food. (I also didn’t have a car for most of that time and didn’t even have a driver’s license for several years, and it was great!)
Mississippi River swamp
Today I live in rural Kentucky and am in the process of adapting to a different way of life, not better or worse, simply different. Instead of going out to fancy restaurants I grow food in my backyard and cook at home, including making homemade bread. Instead of going to theatres I read books, preferably in the afternoons when I can read under the natural light of day. Instead of traveling I haul my kayak (on foot) down to the Mississippi River and spend a few hours in the cool serenity of the water wilderness. And believe me, when one paddles up the channels off the river, surrounded by dense woods, it is wilderness! A person with a poor sense of direction could truly get lost up in there, and there’s no land to light upon while waiting for help, only water and trees. But it is so relaxing to float quietly in the still water, under a cool, shady canopy of trees, hearing only the sounds of fish splashing in the water and bird calls echoing through the trees. After such an outing I come home not fatigued, but refreshed.
Considering Alternative Ways To Live
While floating on the river today I thought to myself that kayaking was an activity I could do even if everything else failed. If someday I have no electricity or running water, at least I can walk down to the river with my kayak and spend some enjoyable hours that way.
While carrying my kayak home today I ran into my neighbor, Kenneth, who offered me some Jalapeño peppers from his garden, which I eagerly accepted since they are a staple for me. I offered him some radishes from my garden in exchange, but he said he didn’t care for them. I didn’t feel bad about accepting his peppers in exchange for nothing because a few months ago I gave him and his wife, Donna, an old but valuable iron gazebo that was in my yard. That gazebo ought to be worth quite a bit of produce. I realized that this, too, was a model for the future: bartering, sharing, give and take, a system of trade involving tangible goods but no money. In addition to giving me tomatoes (last year) and peppers, my neighbor, who has an awe inspiring vegetable garden this year, has given me valuable gardening advice. If I have any questions about how to grow something or when to harvest it I just go ask Kenneth. In return, I have given my computer expertise to help other neighbors sort out their computer problems.
After parting company with my neighbor I planted some seedlings of my own that I had been nurturing in the house. Then I planted some more seeds to get them ready for the garden. (I’m a little behind the curve this year, but I’m still learning how to grow my own food.)
A few weeks ago I unpacked my classical music CDs which had been in boxes for years. It was so delightful to listen to them again that it reminded me how much I want to learn to play the piano. I’ve seen plenty of electronic pianos, some of which sound quite authentic and are not expensive (as little as $500). But then, in light of my thoughts about the future, it occurred to me that maybe I’d better get a real piano, one that doesn’t require electricity to operate. That way, if all else fails, at least I can play music. Unfortunately a real piano is considerably more expensive and much more difficult to move than an electronic one, so I haven’t done anything yet. I may just buy an electronic one with the understanding that in the future I’ll only be able to play it on days when we have electricity. I’ll be one of those people rushing home to take advantage of the electricity!
I’ve also been thinking about taking up painting and sculpture again. It would be a more productive activity than sitting on my butt for hours on end reading articles online. If the Internet does become less and less reliable it might be a blessing, as it would encourage me to engage in these other activities.
I also have pending plans to ride my bicycle twenty miles (each way) to the grocery store and liquor store, not because I have a burning desire to ride so far along a treacherous highway, but to see if it’s practical to shop so far away by bicycle. When I was younger I used to ride twenty miles each way to work, so I know it’s feasible. If bicycling twenty miles to grocery shop, say once a week, is practical then that’s one more adaptation I can make when necessary.
Finally, although during prior eras of personal affluence I never hesitated to spend huge sums of money on new things to replace old or broken things, I now think twice about behaving that way, seeking first to repair or restore things. In the last few months I’ve refurbished two light fixtures and am in the process of refurbishing my ten-plus year old bicycle. Part of my new attitude stems from my greatly reduced (almost nonexistent) income, but it’s also an exercise in mental preparation for the future when it will be too costly to simply replace things, if they are even available for purchase. Ironically, now middle aged I’m returning to the mindset of frugality I harbored as a child, as did my parents, and their parents.
Conclusion
What these little vignettes illustrate is that the future weighs on my mind constantly. Everything I do today is viewed though a lens to the future. Will what I do today be possible tomorrow? If not, what else can I do instead? What will it be like to give up browsing the Internet, using my computer, listening to music, watching movies on DVD, playing video games or driving my car in a carefree fashion? Would I be willing to live in a communal household? Would I be willing to invite someone into my house to live with me? If so, how would we distribute the household duties?
Life involves adapting to changing circumstances; the alternative to adaptation is extinction or death. Sometimes the circumstances change at our behest, and we welcome such change. Sometimes, however, change is imposed on us, and we dread and resist such change. The point of this meandering core dump is that although I love my lifestyle as it is right now, I recognize that it may not be possible to maintain it. I’m considering today how to adapt to future changes before they are imposed on me. At the very least, such mental exercises will spare me from being caught off guard, left bewildered and uncertain how to cope. At best, I will gracefully adapt to a new way of living, scarcely missing a beat because I’ll already be there.
What Are Chemtrails?
June 21, 2008 – In the face of deafening “official” silence about chemtrails, this essay attempts to logically analyze the composition of and rationales behind chemtrails.
By Dave Eriqat
Until a few years ago I had never heard the term “chemtrail.” I had long noticed these trails in the sky, but didn’t pay much attention to them, simply categorizing them as ordinary contrails, the vapor exhaust trails left by jet engines. But take a look at this photograph which I took above my house on November 28, 2007.
Chemtrails blanket sky above my house on November 28, 2007
Do these trails look like ordinary jet contrails? If so, why to they form a neat grid pattern? Why do the trails not evaporate like normal contrails, but instead spread out for hours and hours until they blanket the sky? What if I said that I live in the middle of nowhere, not within 100 miles of any major airport? I now see chemtrails above my house every week, often before a storm, as if the perpetrators are using the approaching storm clouds to conceal their chemtrails or perhaps are relying on the imminent rainfall to wash the chemicals being sprayed down to ground level.
When I first read about chemtrails and the supposedly nefarious intentions behind them, I mostly dismissed such discussion as the ramblings of “tin foil hat” wearers. But when I began to ask myself the above questions, I found I had no answer. Hence the title of this post: “What Are Chemtrails?”
One of the most peculiar aspects – unprecedented, really – is the complete and seemingly conspiratorial silence of all the “authorities” about the matter. I have never witnessed such a thorough official silence about anything in my life. Even during the incipient stages of the AIDS epidemic, when nobody knew anything and everybody was asking “What’s going on?”, the authorities were quick to offer plenty of speculative hypotheses. But not so with chemtrails. Are the authorities incurious? Or do they know the purpose behind chemtrails and understand that they must maintain absolute silence on the matter? Oddly enough, the silence of the authorities is more troubling than their usual dissembling would be. At least if they were to offer an explanation, there’s a good chance that it could then be ruled out as the explanation, thus reducing the field of possible explanations. Look at the Iraq war. Every one of the half dozen or so justifications for invading Iraq eventually proved specious. By process of elimination – eliminating the specious justifications – we can conclude that the real reasons for invading Iraq were those never mentioned by the authorities, that is, oil, Israel, or hegemony (all three of which, by the way, are slowly proving to be correct). We could apply the same analysis in our examination of chemtrails, if only the authorities would give us some information to work with. But they remain steadfast in their silence.
So I ask again, what are chemtrails? I will list the explanations I think are plausible, along with an analysis of the likelihood of each explanation being correct, in an attempt to logically isolate the most likely explanation. I welcome comments and insight by others who are interested in this “phenomenon.”
Beneficial Weather Modification (Doubtful)
What benefits could be achieved through weather modification? If one buys into the global warming theory, then chemtrails might be a program to modify the weather to induce global cooling in order to offset global warming. However, judging from the U.S. Government’s recalcitrant attitude toward protecting the environment or the health of the U.S. (or any other) population, I rather doubt that it’s trying to modify the weather for the benefit of mankind or the environment. In addition, wouldn’t such efforts necessitate spraying chemtrails over the oceans which cover 70% of the planet? So far it seems as if chemtrails are only sprayed over land where people live. I would be curious to know if anybody has witnessed chemtrails over the oceans or any unpopulated land regions.
I suppose it’s possible that the weather is being modified to somehow help corporate profits, maybe by increasing crop yields for corporate agricultural concerns. But if that’s the plan, it doesn’t appear to be working, considering that global grain stocks are declining and food costs are rising.
Harmful Weather Modification (Likely)
Given the U.S. Government’s lengthy history of perverting every technology into a weapon, it seems more likely that if the weather is being modified it’s not for benevolent purposes, but rather for malevolent ones. The problem is, however, that chemtrails are not being sprayed on our putative “enemies,” but on us, the citizens of this nation! Of course, I have long felt that we the people are regarded as enemies by the U.S. Government, so it’s entirely plausible that it is engaged in an active war against us at this very moment and we are oblivious to it.
How might weather modification be used as a weapon? Aside from immediate climate catastrophes such as torrential rainfall, record snowfall or drought, altering the weather will most likely reduce crop yields. After all, farms evolve to take maximum advantage of the environment in which they reside. If that environment is altered, chances are that the farm will no longer be optimally suited for the new environment, thus reducing its productivity. For example, consider a rice farm in Arkansas that takes advantage of that state’s abundant water resources. Now consider what happens if suddenly the weather patterns over that state are altered and there is less water available. The rice farm will not produce as much rice. Or consider a state like Iowa, which grows corn. Given the terrain and rainfall, Iowa might be a perfect locale in which to grow corn. But what happens if the weather is altered and suddenly there is too much rainfall? Then the corn crop will diminish. The point is that in each locale the crops grown are ideally suited for the given environment (that maximizes yield), so any change in that environment is likely to reduce crop yields (that is, until the farm adapts to the new environment, but that takes time).
Aside from the potential for malnutrition or starvation concomitant with reduced crop yields, it just so happens that reducing yields drives up prices, which is certainly not an unwelcome consequence to those who produce food, which in the U.S. are largely politically well-connected corporations. But continuing on with the issue of malnutrition, there certainly seems to be a plan afoot to induce disease in the American public. Food quality is being steadily degraded (pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, genetic modification, irradiation); access to beneficial food supplements, such as vitamins and herbs is increasingly threatened; pharmaceutical drugs of dubious benefit are increasingly being pushed onto and into an unsuspecting, naive and trusting public. So reducing the availability of food and inducing malnutrition is totally consistent with the other deliberate threats to our health.
One more benefit (to the government) of reducing crop yields is to intensify the feeling of fear and crisis among the masses, which will then justify the government stepping in and offering a “solution,” which will end up being just another excuse to impose more controls on us. We know that this government, in particular, has thrived on instilling fear among the masses.
Disease Or Pest Eradication (Doubtful)
Are chemtrails intended to eradicate pests, such as harmful flies or mosquitoes? It seems unlikely considering that the chemicals are being sprayed at such high altitudes in the atmosphere. If the spraying were intended to kill harmful pests, it would be more efficacious if done at much lower altitudes. In fact, whenever the government has conducted pest eradication spraying programs in the past it has been done at much lower altitudes. And what diseases might chemtrails be intended to eradicate? I can think of none.
Moreover, these chemtrail spraying programs are conducted over urban and rural areas. I’ve witnessed chemtrails being sprayed over major cities, such as San Diego, as well as over my house in rural Kentucky. So what pests or diseases are equally problematic in urban and rural areas, thousands of miles apart? Again, I can think of none.
Research (Doubtful)
Are chemtrails some kind of research program? This is highly doubtful considering the widespread and purposeful nature of this program. A research program would probably be small, localized and lightly funded. Chemtrail spraying, on the other hand, is widespread (all over the U.S. and Europe) and very expensive. Flying jet aircraft back and forth across the sky (I’ve witnessed as many as four jets operating simultaneously in my area) for hours on end has to be expensive, especially when conducted day after day, all over the nation, if not the globe. I mean, this has to be extremely expensive – we’re talking billions of dollars annually. That’s no research program. The photo below shows a jet laying down one of these chemtrails. If you look closely you will see a white speck; that is the jet. On this day I witnessed two jets flying parallel, laying down the grid in one direction, and two other jets flying parallel to one another, laying down the perpendicular grid. Also notice how hazy the sky looks. That’s not from clouds. The haziness is the result of the chemtrails spreading out for hours.
Jet laying down chemtrail above my house on November 28, 2007
To Cause Disease (Likely)
The final possible explanation for what’s behind chemtrail spraying is to cause disease among the population. I already mentioned that it might be intended to reduce crop yields in order to drive up food prices, induce malnutrition and heighten anxiety among the population.
But chemtrails might also be intended to induce disease in the population more directly. Several intrepid researchers have observed that chemtrails seem to contain extremely high concentrations (many times higher than what even the government deems safe) of barium and aluminum. Not being an expert in such matters, I have no idea what harm these metals might cause to the body, but I doubt they’re healthful and I certainly wouldn’t want to breathe air filled with such material (in fact, on days when I see chemtrails in the air, I hunker down indoors). In particular, aluminum has been implicated as a possible factor in Alzheimer’s disease.
Why might the U.S. Government seek to induce disease in the population? Again, to heighten anxiety. Or to create sick customers for pharmaceutical firms. Of course, this meshes well with my earlier hypothesis about the deliberate degradation of our food and the efforts to interfere with our taking care of our health, as well as the spread of fluoridated water and mandatory vaccinations. I have no doubt that the pharmaceutical companies would love for all of us to be popping several expensive pills a day to treat all of our diseases, rather than to simply eat good, wholesome food.
Who Is Behind It?
We ought to ask, “Who is doing this spraying?” Some naive people might dismiss the whole topic of chemtrails by saying, “Those are just ordinary exhaust trails of commercial airliners taking off from airports.” Well, as I stated, the closest airport to me that can accommodate commercial airliners is 120 miles away (Memphis). There’s no reason for such energetic jet activity in my region. In addition, since when do jets on approach to, or taking off from airports fly in neat grid patterns? Wouldn’t all such contrails be pretty much lined up with the airport’s runways? Also, I have observed ordinary jet contrails plenty of times and they quickly evaporate and disappear; chemtrails don’t. They linger in the air and spread out until they make the sky look hazy and overcast. Why would commercial jets be dispensing a substance that lingers in the air like that? It’s my conclusion that these chemtrails (in the U.S.) are being dispensed by U.S. Government airplanes or airplanes under contract to the U.S. Government, and are not a benign byproduct dispensed by commercial airplanes.
Conclusion
If chemtrails were benign would not the “authorities” attempt to diffuse consternation over them by explaining their benign purpose? If chemtrails were indeed beneficial, would not the authorities be publicly patting themselves on the back, taking credit for the wonderful benefits they’re bringing to mankind? The silence is deafening.
Chemtrail spraying is widespread, purposeful, well coordinated and expensive. The most plausible explanations are malevolent ones that seek to reduce food supplies or directly induce disease in people.
My photos are not very good. If you want to see many, many more photos of chemtrails from all over the world, check out this site: http://imageevent.com/firesat/strangedaysstrangeskies/
See Also
