How Easily Climate Change is Lost on “Rational People”

Image: “Red Tide” The production and distribution of carbon dioxide has never looked so beautiful -- or so disturbing. 

Video Screenshot by Michael Francco/CNET 

Source: http://www.cnet.com/news/hypnotic-nasa-video-makes-earths-carbon-dioxide-gorgeous/ 

Today I saw and re-posted a NASA video showing a year in the life of the planet’s carbon dioxide concentration, movement, etc. I didn’t say anything about it…just re-posted it because I thought it was interesting and telling. See for yourself:

Video: NASA | A Year in the Life of Eaeth’s CO2 

Source: YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1SgmFa0r04&feature=youtu.be 

No sooner did I post this video to my timeline, than a friend of mine chimed in with how “deceptive” the video was because map projections of this kind are distorted.

Image: A Miller cylindrical projection maps the globe onto a cylinder.   
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Map_projection

He then posted this image of a Goode homolosine projection overlaid on top of NASA’s map to show just how significant the distortion (and deception) was:

Image: More accurate map of the world overlaid NASA’s CO2 map

This is the kind of knee-jerk intellectual reaction which damns the whole global warming movement (and other long-range environmental, economic and socio-political threats), on the basis of distorted or deceptive messaging, as if the choice of map was made to specifically make global warming seem worse (and not the simple reason that such digital projections are able to show movement around the globe.

Okay, in all fairness maybe NASA should have used a Mollweide projection:

Image: Sea-surface freon levels measured by the Global Ocean Data Analysis Project. Projected using the Mollweide projection.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mollweide_projection#mediaviewer/File:GLODAP_sea-surf_CFC12_AYool.png

But from the perspective of anyone “on the fence” of climate change, what was probably just an arbitrary decision / choice based on available technology, satellite imagery, or software interpolation, becomes an instant conspiracy theory that potentially calls into question the whole problem of climate change! And of course, their mind quickly and easily pieces together that perfectly rational explanation.

In response to all this hoopla about distorted maps and secret NASA agendas to overblow the climate change issue, I posted the following image in response, with the explanation that atmospheric carbon is NOT the whole picture. The oceans are acting as a giant carbon sink, and the effect it is having on corals (the nurseries, incubators and hatcheries of the ocean food chain...OUR seafood chain) is absolutely DEVASTATING.

Image: “Ocean acidification is a reduction in surface ocean pH levels due to the increasing absorption of carbon dioxide. When CO2 dissolves in water, carbonic acid is formed. The saturation of carbonic acid decreases the ability of many marine organisms to build and maintain their shells and skeletal structures.” Source: http://ecocidealert.com/?tag=ocean-acidification

My point being this: THE MORE RED ON NASA’S MAP, THE BETTER!

To this, my friend replied that while my “desire for action is to be commended, it should not be built on deception.”

And this is how easy it is for the ego-intellect to dismiss anything. We see it all the time. Materialist scientists denying metaphysical phenomenon because there is no physical evidence to support it; doctors dismissing entire bodies of research because they do not value “anecdotal evidence;” Judges throwing out cases because someone forgot to “dot an i” or “cross a t” etc.

This tendency to dismiss that which doesn’t match exactly, or discounting the deeper broader essence of a situation based on some minor technical detail is called “A-Type” thinking by some, “perfectionism” by others, but at its core it’s obsession with accuracy… with “the facts” and “exactitude”…with “being right.” This obsession of ego-intellect is akin to a computer’s inability to surmise what a user wants it to do. Unless you know EXACTLY what buttons to push, when to push them, etc. you are stuck. Why? BECAUSE IT IS A DUMB MACHINE.

Wait a minute…do we sense a contradiction here?  Yes SENSE…feel…you know, those things that make us human?

How is it that the intellect most resembles a stupid machine when most asserts its “correctness?” The contradiction is real; is absolute. One cannot deny the inflexible mind is more machine-like in its processing. After all, like a machine, it can only “accept” inputs which “compute.”

Is this the path to deepening our connection with humanity? What about our connection with nature?

As my friend’s reaction to NASA’s video illustrated, his mind jumped to the inaccuracy of the map, and therefore loss of credibility of the information, questioning the reality of the situation being illustrated, etc. In short, the plight of the planet was “trumped” by the need for “accurate” depiction of said plight.

But humans exaggerate EVERYTHING. It’s called DRAMATIC EFFECT. We not only tell stories, we live them. And the reason we use drama, hyperbole, metaphor, symbolism, allegory, etc. is to put emphasis where it is needed…ON THE POINT…and to penetrate the machinations of ego-mind and try to reach their CONSCIENCE…their HEART.

To have an enhanced connection with humanity or nature requires something a computer or machine completely lacks…CONSCIOUSNESS. And, by the fact of observation, so too does ego-intellect completely lack consciousness. Conscience. We know this because of its obsession with correctness, with being right, and its limitations of understanding only those inputs which “compute,” exactly as a computer…which was made in the image of ego-intellect. Binary thinking: right or wrong, black or white, yes or no, us or them, on or off…1/0.

I’ll close today’s article with another video. I am curious what my friend would have to say about the subject matter and whether or not the cause being discussed is deceptive or not.

Video: ฉันไม่เคยรู้มาก่อน - มูลนิธิเพื่อสุนัขในซอย ( Soi Dog Foundation ) 

Source: YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luSggyByBMQ 

The bottom line is this: the point, the essence of life DOES NOT EXIST IN THE MIND…it is not an equation, or a computer program, or something which the intellect can put in a box and say “this is it to the exclusion of everything else.” The essence of nature, of humanity, is in a space the intellect cannot understand, but the consciousness can comprehend. It is this space that gives rise to beauty, compassion, love, altruism, generosity and all the good aspects of humanity…all the faculties completely at odds with the self-interested machinations of ego-intellect.