trying to find my blog
Monday, December 20, 2010
Sunday, February 07, 2010
Journeys
When a man is deeply unsatisfied with his life it seems his thoughts always turn toward journeys, pilgrimages, motion through time and space. "Black care can hardly catch the rider whose pace is fast enough." said a troubled Theodore Roosevelt.
How else does one explain men running away to sea. There's no need to explain it. Ishmael already did that for us in Moby Dick. Or what of the Chitaquas Pirsig gives us in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance? These inquiries into absolute values couldn't have been throroughly explored sitting at home on the couch.
I forsee a journey in my not too distant future. I hope it will be the beginning of my life.
How else does one explain men running away to sea. There's no need to explain it. Ishmael already did that for us in Moby Dick. Or what of the Chitaquas Pirsig gives us in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance? These inquiries into absolute values couldn't have been throroughly explored sitting at home on the couch.
I forsee a journey in my not too distant future. I hope it will be the beginning of my life.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Field Biologist at Waterfall
“Field Biologist”
I love the goddess
As she calls to me from the tumbling waters that are cold in January or the bathtub waters of August
I examine the little blessings she leaves along my path:
Mushrooms, trillium, bloodroot, hickory trees
I think that there is something special in the salamander that crawls under the decaying leaves of the forest floor
The bracket fungi that spring from the rotting logs that are returning the gift they had once been given;
I try to appreciate all the life, all the energy around me -
The constant recycling of nutrients -
Everything in the forest is being sustained and intellectually I take it all in,
Knowing the processes, having studied them.
But sometimes the sun weaves through the trees a certain brilliant light, seen through tears, humbling me with its beauty.
And that’s when I go deeper, to a place I have a hard time reaching:
Going from head to heart where the mind lets go and a new force of nature opens eyes that so often stay closed
And somewhere the biological activity comes together in a way I can only describe as “whole”.
Throwing all my field guides and training aside
The only thing I can identify is love.
I love the goddess
As she calls to me from the tumbling waters that are cold in January or the bathtub waters of August
I examine the little blessings she leaves along my path:
Mushrooms, trillium, bloodroot, hickory trees
I think that there is something special in the salamander that crawls under the decaying leaves of the forest floor
The bracket fungi that spring from the rotting logs that are returning the gift they had once been given;
I try to appreciate all the life, all the energy around me -
The constant recycling of nutrients -
Everything in the forest is being sustained and intellectually I take it all in,
Knowing the processes, having studied them.
But sometimes the sun weaves through the trees a certain brilliant light, seen through tears, humbling me with its beauty.
And that’s when I go deeper, to a place I have a hard time reaching:
Going from head to heart where the mind lets go and a new force of nature opens eyes that so often stay closed
And somewhere the biological activity comes together in a way I can only describe as “whole”.
Throwing all my field guides and training aside
The only thing I can identify is love.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Minamata Disease
Here's a brief paper I did for my Ecotox class. It was an interesting topic. I took the picture of the sunset there in sasebo and I can imagine such sunsets might be enjoyed around Minamata City despite the pall of the unfortunate heavy metal poisoning discussed in the paper below.
Introduction
In April 1956 a five-year-old girl was taken to a hospital in Minamata, Japan. She had difficulty walking, speaking, and was experiencing convulsions. Within a few days other patients were being seen and by October 1956 a total of 40 patients had been diagnosed with the mysterious disorder, fourteen of whom had died. Government officials investigating the outbreak of the disease found that affected individuals were often members of the same families, all of them living around Minamata Bay who ate diets high in fish and shellfish. Since all individuals affected by the disease (and animals eating table scraps) had been eating diets heavy in fish researches initially assumed some sort of food poisoning was to blame. But by early November researches from Kumamoto University had deduced that the victims were all suffering from heavy metal poisoning.
Investigators examined the effluent from the nearby Chisso Chemical plant and found it contained many heavy metals including lead, mercury, selenium, and arsenic. To further analyze the specific pollutant causing the disease researchers took hair samples from residents of Minamata suffering from symptoms and those that were symptom-free. They found that patients being treated for the disease had mercury levels of up to 705 ppm whereas subjects with no symptoms had mercury levels around 190 ppm. The mercury levels for the general population outside the Minamata area was around four ppm.
Physiological Impacts
Methylmercury ([CH3Hg]+) such as that found in people affected by Minamata disease is a heavy metal toxin that was once produced as a byproduct of industrial processes such as chemical production as was the case with the Chisso Chemical plant. Free mercury can also be methylated in the environment. It is associated with aquatic systems where methylmercury is produced by the anaerobic organisms.
Methylmercury causes sickness in people by combining with cysteine, an amino acid which readily binds with the poison, carrying it throughout the body. It can lead to blindness, deafness, loss of motor control, and reduced mental capacity. Fetuses subjected to methylmercury poisoning can be born with mental retardation, cerebral palsy, and microcephaly (small head).
In a study published in Environmental Research in 1999, researchers surveyed residents of a town (Town A) located next to Minamata City. As a control they also surveyed residents of another small town (Town B) located on the Ariake Sea but not associated with the methylmercury poisoning around Minamata. Residents of both towns were asked about general health complaints ranging from hearing loss, to arthritis, to loss of touch sensation. Forty years after the first reports of methylmercury poisoning residents of Town A had a significantly higher complaints across all categories of factor analysis than the residents of Town B (Fukuda et al. 1999).
Legacy
Over 2200 residents of Minamata, Japan have been certified as having Minmata Disease. As 2001 1,784 of them had died. A 1973 arbitration ruling ordered Chisso Chemical Company to pay approximately $60,000 to persons certified as having Minamata disease and $66,000 to the families of people who had died from the disease. Another 10,000 have shown symptoms of methylmercury poisoning and received financial reimbursement from the Chisso Chemical Company as well. Though the discharge of heavy metals into the Yatusushiro Sea stopped years ago, the study cited above shows many people still suffer from the lingering effects of the pollution both in their bodies and in the sea which provides the fish that are the staple of their diet.
Despite the public awareness that the Minamata disaster brought to methylmercury poisoning subsequent devastating pollutions have occurred. In 1965 another outbreak of Minamata disease occurred in Niigata, Japan and has affected nearly seven hundred people to date. In the early 1970’s Iraqis ate wheat and meat from cows that had been feed grain treated with methylmercury as a preservative. Over 6,500 cases of poisoning were reported and at least 459 deaths were associated with this event known as the Basra Grain Disater.
Sources:
"Basra poison grain disaster." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 27 May. 2009. Web. 29 Jan. 2010.
"Methylmercury." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 28 Jan. 2010. Web. 29 Jan. 2010.
"Minamata disease." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 3 Jan. 2010. Web. 29 Jan. 2010.
Fukuda, Yoshiharu, Ushijima, K., Kitano, T., Sakamoto, M., Futatsuka, M., 1999. An analysis of subjective complaints in a population living in a methylmercury-polluted area. Environmental Research Sec a 81, 100-107.
Introduction
In April 1956 a five-year-old girl was taken to a hospital in Minamata, Japan. She had difficulty walking, speaking, and was experiencing convulsions. Within a few days other patients were being seen and by October 1956 a total of 40 patients had been diagnosed with the mysterious disorder, fourteen of whom had died. Government officials investigating the outbreak of the disease found that affected individuals were often members of the same families, all of them living around Minamata Bay who ate diets high in fish and shellfish. Since all individuals affected by the disease (and animals eating table scraps) had been eating diets heavy in fish researches initially assumed some sort of food poisoning was to blame. But by early November researches from Kumamoto University had deduced that the victims were all suffering from heavy metal poisoning.
Investigators examined the effluent from the nearby Chisso Chemical plant and found it contained many heavy metals including lead, mercury, selenium, and arsenic. To further analyze the specific pollutant causing the disease researchers took hair samples from residents of Minamata suffering from symptoms and those that were symptom-free. They found that patients being treated for the disease had mercury levels of up to 705 ppm whereas subjects with no symptoms had mercury levels around 190 ppm. The mercury levels for the general population outside the Minamata area was around four ppm.
Physiological Impacts
Methylmercury ([CH3Hg]+) such as that found in people affected by Minamata disease is a heavy metal toxin that was once produced as a byproduct of industrial processes such as chemical production as was the case with the Chisso Chemical plant. Free mercury can also be methylated in the environment. It is associated with aquatic systems where methylmercury is produced by the anaerobic organisms.
Methylmercury causes sickness in people by combining with cysteine, an amino acid which readily binds with the poison, carrying it throughout the body. It can lead to blindness, deafness, loss of motor control, and reduced mental capacity. Fetuses subjected to methylmercury poisoning can be born with mental retardation, cerebral palsy, and microcephaly (small head).
In a study published in Environmental Research in 1999, researchers surveyed residents of a town (Town A) located next to Minamata City. As a control they also surveyed residents of another small town (Town B) located on the Ariake Sea but not associated with the methylmercury poisoning around Minamata. Residents of both towns were asked about general health complaints ranging from hearing loss, to arthritis, to loss of touch sensation. Forty years after the first reports of methylmercury poisoning residents of Town A had a significantly higher complaints across all categories of factor analysis than the residents of Town B (Fukuda et al. 1999).
Legacy
Over 2200 residents of Minamata, Japan have been certified as having Minmata Disease. As 2001 1,784 of them had died. A 1973 arbitration ruling ordered Chisso Chemical Company to pay approximately $60,000 to persons certified as having Minamata disease and $66,000 to the families of people who had died from the disease. Another 10,000 have shown symptoms of methylmercury poisoning and received financial reimbursement from the Chisso Chemical Company as well. Though the discharge of heavy metals into the Yatusushiro Sea stopped years ago, the study cited above shows many people still suffer from the lingering effects of the pollution both in their bodies and in the sea which provides the fish that are the staple of their diet.
Despite the public awareness that the Minamata disaster brought to methylmercury poisoning subsequent devastating pollutions have occurred. In 1965 another outbreak of Minamata disease occurred in Niigata, Japan and has affected nearly seven hundred people to date. In the early 1970’s Iraqis ate wheat and meat from cows that had been feed grain treated with methylmercury as a preservative. Over 6,500 cases of poisoning were reported and at least 459 deaths were associated with this event known as the Basra Grain Disater.
Sources:
"Basra poison grain disaster." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 27 May. 2009. Web. 29 Jan. 2010.
"Methylmercury." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 28 Jan. 2010. Web. 29 Jan. 2010.
"Minamata disease." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 3 Jan. 2010. Web. 29 Jan. 2010.
Fukuda, Yoshiharu, Ushijima, K., Kitano, T., Sakamoto, M., Futatsuka, M., 1999. An analysis of subjective complaints in a population living in a methylmercury-polluted area. Environmental Research Sec a 81, 100-107.
Saturday, January 09, 2010
Espey Cave
In the fall of the year when the bronzed girls in golden sweaters stand under the translucent bows of the golden ginkgo as the wind sheers away an entire season of leaves in the afternoon I am tempted to stand in the sun and stare into its autumnal radiance. It is the last glow of warmth before the years settles down into the cool grey rain of winter in middle Tennessee. It isn’t a bad way to end a nice afternoon, soaking up the rays on a solid bed of golden leaves. Perhaps it was a celebration of the life that the sun represents and all the light of the world that comes with a good day.
Earlier, before the clouds had burned off, when there was still a chill to the air the girl in the golden sweater and I had made our way east across the super highway that is 70S coming out of Murfreesboro, to highway 64, then down an unmarked road I guessed was the right one, to a road that lead up onto a high ridge and then down a winding country lane to a dead end.
“Where to from here?” she asked.
“Down,” I said, pointing down the hill. We stumbled and slid down a sixty degree slope of dry fallen leaves under a canopy of oak, hickory, and maple. At the bottom of the quick but steep descent we walked down a narrow creek bed, not really knowing where we were supposed to go but having some idea of what we were looking for.
At length the narrowness of the enclosing hillsides opened up and we could see the creek was about to plunge off of a precipice. Somewhere down there, about fifty nearly vertical feet down was what we had come to see. We couldn’t see it yet but geologically it just made sense. Sliding down rocks and falling through tangled undergrowth we made it too the bottom and were greeted by the face of the bluff we’d just scrambled down. But we followed the gurgle of running water there found another, much high wall of rock but at the bottom of which was an opening roughly fifteen feet high and thirty feet wide.
This was Espey Cave and it is one of over 8,000 in Tennessee, a land of karst geology where the myriad streams cut across the open plateaus and down the hillsides, seamlessly disappearing into underground caverns where the cold gentleness of running water carves the rocks for eons leaving behind miles of small tunnels and scores of grand underground rooms. The air is damp and consistently refreshing, summer or winter; where, except the water the silence if complete and the darkness is total.
It is in these caves that creatures who have no Platonian inkling of the light of day live their lives in submerged darkness. Creatures such as the Tennessee cave salamander, cave crayfish, the [some kind of fish]. Not all species live in every cave, some are confined to only one cave in Arkansas or Tennessee but sill they hold in common their odd little lives in these subterranean worlds where the darkness has deprived them of eyesight as well as eyes and their bodies have grown translucent and pale for lack of pigmentation.
These creatures which have adapted so wonderfully to their niche environment live off the richness of bat guano, left behind by the mobile little flying mammals that reside on the walls and ceilings of the caves by day and venture into the comparative brightness of the upper world at night.
These fragile ecosystems are at the mercy of the world above as good ol’ boys throw beer cans and old refrigerators down sinkholes thinking they will one day make solid ground out of these slowly dissolving ground if only they throw in enough junk. And run off from agriculture, highways, and drainage ditches from the world above flow into these cave systems wreaking havoc on fragile ecosystems which remain hidden and unknown to most of the world as it flies by at seventy miles an hour.
We walk across gravel until the floor of the cave is only a small channel of rushing water, at which point we climb up onto a ledge and scramble farther back around a bend where the light of the upper world leaves us and we are left at the mercy of a small flashlight no bigger than my index finger. Here the cave opens up again and we continue back to a wall where the splits off to the left and right. In all this Espey Cave goes back for six miles and drops two hundred feet below the surface. But our light is already flickering.
We sit down on a flat rock and turn out the light to let it recharge. We share a cigarette in a darkness more complete that can ever be known in the upper world where even at night the stars provide a glaring degree of illumination unknown to the creatures of this underworld. This darkness is safe and anonymous, caves are good places to talk and make confessions. The cherry glow of the cigarette ash takes on a ceremonious glow in a living cave which can feel like the vaults of a great cathedral when the conversation turns to the right subjects.
Afterwards I build a small cairn on the rock where we had sat, a little shrine that will be washed away some great rain event of the oncoming winter. Then we walk out.
Back in day light we scramble up, sometimes climbing hand-over-hand but always up until we reach ground we can walk on. Up and up through old red- and yellow chinkapin oaks and yellow hickory trees.
Four hundred vertical feet later we pause at the top of the ridge and look out across the early November Tennessee landscape, breathing heavy in the crackling air. The leaves have really been coming off the trees in the past few days opening up the view across the gorges to other distant ridges. But there is still color, and heat, the golden yellows of autumn. If there is a heaven I can only imagine it is this, this all infusing light, and when we first see it maybe we’ll feel like we’ve just come out of a cave.
Earlier, before the clouds had burned off, when there was still a chill to the air the girl in the golden sweater and I had made our way east across the super highway that is 70S coming out of Murfreesboro, to highway 64, then down an unmarked road I guessed was the right one, to a road that lead up onto a high ridge and then down a winding country lane to a dead end.
“Where to from here?” she asked.
“Down,” I said, pointing down the hill. We stumbled and slid down a sixty degree slope of dry fallen leaves under a canopy of oak, hickory, and maple. At the bottom of the quick but steep descent we walked down a narrow creek bed, not really knowing where we were supposed to go but having some idea of what we were looking for.
At length the narrowness of the enclosing hillsides opened up and we could see the creek was about to plunge off of a precipice. Somewhere down there, about fifty nearly vertical feet down was what we had come to see. We couldn’t see it yet but geologically it just made sense. Sliding down rocks and falling through tangled undergrowth we made it too the bottom and were greeted by the face of the bluff we’d just scrambled down. But we followed the gurgle of running water there found another, much high wall of rock but at the bottom of which was an opening roughly fifteen feet high and thirty feet wide.
This was Espey Cave and it is one of over 8,000 in Tennessee, a land of karst geology where the myriad streams cut across the open plateaus and down the hillsides, seamlessly disappearing into underground caverns where the cold gentleness of running water carves the rocks for eons leaving behind miles of small tunnels and scores of grand underground rooms. The air is damp and consistently refreshing, summer or winter; where, except the water the silence if complete and the darkness is total.
It is in these caves that creatures who have no Platonian inkling of the light of day live their lives in submerged darkness. Creatures such as the Tennessee cave salamander, cave crayfish, the [some kind of fish]. Not all species live in every cave, some are confined to only one cave in Arkansas or Tennessee but sill they hold in common their odd little lives in these subterranean worlds where the darkness has deprived them of eyesight as well as eyes and their bodies have grown translucent and pale for lack of pigmentation.
These creatures which have adapted so wonderfully to their niche environment live off the richness of bat guano, left behind by the mobile little flying mammals that reside on the walls and ceilings of the caves by day and venture into the comparative brightness of the upper world at night.
These fragile ecosystems are at the mercy of the world above as good ol’ boys throw beer cans and old refrigerators down sinkholes thinking they will one day make solid ground out of these slowly dissolving ground if only they throw in enough junk. And run off from agriculture, highways, and drainage ditches from the world above flow into these cave systems wreaking havoc on fragile ecosystems which remain hidden and unknown to most of the world as it flies by at seventy miles an hour.
We walk across gravel until the floor of the cave is only a small channel of rushing water, at which point we climb up onto a ledge and scramble farther back around a bend where the light of the upper world leaves us and we are left at the mercy of a small flashlight no bigger than my index finger. Here the cave opens up again and we continue back to a wall where the splits off to the left and right. In all this Espey Cave goes back for six miles and drops two hundred feet below the surface. But our light is already flickering.
We sit down on a flat rock and turn out the light to let it recharge. We share a cigarette in a darkness more complete that can ever be known in the upper world where even at night the stars provide a glaring degree of illumination unknown to the creatures of this underworld. This darkness is safe and anonymous, caves are good places to talk and make confessions. The cherry glow of the cigarette ash takes on a ceremonious glow in a living cave which can feel like the vaults of a great cathedral when the conversation turns to the right subjects.
Afterwards I build a small cairn on the rock where we had sat, a little shrine that will be washed away some great rain event of the oncoming winter. Then we walk out.
Back in day light we scramble up, sometimes climbing hand-over-hand but always up until we reach ground we can walk on. Up and up through old red- and yellow chinkapin oaks and yellow hickory trees.
Four hundred vertical feet later we pause at the top of the ridge and look out across the early November Tennessee landscape, breathing heavy in the crackling air. The leaves have really been coming off the trees in the past few days opening up the view across the gorges to other distant ridges. But there is still color, and heat, the golden yellows of autumn. If there is a heaven I can only imagine it is this, this all infusing light, and when we first see it maybe we’ll feel like we’ve just come out of a cave.
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