Adventures @ Starbelle

Summer has officially departed time wise with the autumnal equinox, but the temperature and sunny blue skies of California don't recognize the seasonal switch. It is still in the 90's at the end of this month and I love waking up to a clear sky every morning.

Much happened this last month that I wanted to put in this blog but I decided the 350.org event, Moving Planet, was most important to promote and whatever I had to say could be said later. That Saturday I walked, but then I always walk or bike or take mass transit. It just felt better to walk that day because I knew people were consciously walking or riding their bikes all over the world to be able to breathe better longer.

International World Peace Day came and went but the USA decided to postpone a missile test that day which shows we do want peace instead of these never ending wars. I still believe we are defenders and peacekeepers, and that those in the world who want to stay free look to our big country as the shield and sword to protect any freedoms we cherish. Soon we will be officially done in Iraq. We will leave huge amounts of military stuff for the Iraqis who will buy and inherit our things we needed to war there. Thousands of US citizens will be gone leaving a fortress behind full of diplomats and personnel and maybe we will have some troops stationed in friendly Kuwait. But it will be over, at last. Home of Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham and his tribe, and Nana, the Whore of Babylon, we have helped restore the Garden of Eden wetlands and put back some treasures in the Iraq museum. But I doubt if I will ever see the Tiger and Euphrates Rivers that were the Cradle of Civilization, the beginnings of modern humankind. I will always be fascinated by the history of that area such as the Library of Nineveh, but forbidden like the first inhabitants, Adam and his Eve of ever seeing this lost Garden.

So many things have been happening but for me the most important that have stayed at the top of my list have been the announcement of the world population increasing to 7 billion people next month and the arrival of pods of blue whales to the California coast this month to feast on krill.

More on the population next month but the blue whale, oh I wish I could see them. These magnificent animals are the largest of our kind, mammals, on earth and were once nearly extinct. But thanks to environmentalists, concerned people and legislators, they have been saved! They arrived around the Channel Islands National Marine Life Sanctuary a few weeks ago and may even come up to the Monterey Bay NMLS as the water temperatures change and the krill moves on. I have always wanted to see one and now more than ever. I found out a distant relative, Sir Robert Sibbald, a physician in Scotland during the late 1600's was also a naturalist and illustrator who recorded all the flora and fauna he could find in Scotland. He named the blue whale, Sibbaldus, which is not commonly used today but still listed. The genetic codes and DNA of Sir Robert has obviously been a profound influence in my career direction!

I hope the seasonal changes are pleasant as we slip towards winter darkness. I have learned to take krill oil from my brothers and sisters, the blue whales which should help me through this year's winter of climate change, along with a flu shot. Still as I am looking out at sunny skies and temps in the 90's, it's hard to think about stormy skies with cold rains and always the darkness.