War...war never changes

The atomic bomb blast in Hiroshima, Japan, on 6 August 1945. Photograph: Peace Memorial Museum/EPA


Today is the 64th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and the funeral of Harry Patch, the last man to have fought in the trenches in WWI.

The significance of these two events is that they represent the passing into the mists of history profound moments of the last century. There is now no one alive who was physically present in the trenches of WWI. Soon enough there will be no one left who can remember Hiroshima or Nagasaki first hand.

Now we enter a new battle, the battle for how we choose to remember these events. In reality this battle started as soon as the events themselves happened. However, once we no longer have eye witnesses it becomes all the more important.

In the case of Hiroshima especially, footage of the actual carnage was suppressed for decades, lest the Americans find out what it was they actually did. That battle has largely succeeded. In a poll released earlier this week 2 thirds of Americans think that bombing Hirsohima and Nagasaki was the right thing to do. This obfuscation of history has only one intended affect, to allow us to do it again.

Interestingly, for all the attention paid to "our heroes" in the trenches. Harry Patch didn't want to be remembered as a soldier, but as the man of peace he was for the last 90 years of his life. In his own words "War isn't worth a single man's life".

The Quiet American

I was delighted last night to see the release of the journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling. This was as close to a win-win situation that we could have hoped for. At least, their release was secured with no downside, other than to have graced North Korea with a visit by a high level official. It is not at all clear who initiated this negotiation (from what I am hearing it was the North Korean's idea), however it is clear that the preparation for this meeting has been going on for months.

Importantly though, they have been going on quietly.

This whole incident surprised the media, who it seems are still trying to get to terms with the sudden good news. The usual suspects are trying to tarnish the reputation of anything that this administration is responsible for. However, this situation was handled in much the same way as the American shipping captain taken hostage by the Somali pirates. Quiet, behind the scenes diplomacy, with an appropriate amount of force when necessary. It is too difficult at this point to say who deserves the most credit, but to a large extent it doesn't matter. It was handled brilliantly. I could get used to this quiet form of foreign policy.

Much better than just bombing people.

Breathing some air into Darwin's dilemma

There is a great article on the dawn of the animals in the July 2009 edition of the New Scientist discussing why it is that we don't see many fossils before the Cambrian explosion, but a staggering variety afterwords.

The main point is that between 2.5 billion to 900 million years ago oxygen was only available in the atmosphere or in the top few meters of the ocean. The majority of life consisted of anoxic (non-oxygen using) bacteria. These circumstances constricted eukaryotic life to soft-bodied, sponge-like forms since anything thicker would have trouble getting oxygen. Furthermore, because of the difference in oxygen levels between the air and the sea, oxidative weathering on land would pour sulphur into the oceans. Bacteria would then turn this sulphur into hydrogen sulphide, a deadly gas for eukaryotes. This all changed somewhere between 900 million to 500 million years ago when ice ages stopped the delivery of sulphur to the oceans, allowing eukaryotic life a chance to flourish.

This is all pre-amble to what I personally think is the most salient point. That these super ice ages, so critical to the establishment of eukaryotic (and multicellular life), was triggered by the very beginnings of that life in the first place. This article and a book (that I haven't read but am going to have to pick up) called Darwin's Lost World, suggest that these ice ages were triggered by carbon dioxide being sucked out of the atmosphere by nascent animal life.

If this is true, it casts a whole new light on how life impacts the earth and vice-versa. Early animals changed the entire chemical composition, as well as the atmosphere and climate of our planet in order to further their own proliferation. For most of recorded history, either through religion, folk-tales or superstitions we always assume we are at the mercy of the elements. If this is the case, then it is actually the elements that are at the mercy of life.

Sort of puts a whole new angle on the climate change debate...

A most humble beginning

This is just a rough draft so far. I have started this blog as a way to make my random musings into a more coherent collection of ideas, in addition to being a diary of sorts.

We shall see how this evolves...