June 13, 2009 by mike.

So, Lettvin, Maturana et al make it clear that the frog’s eye does not tell the frog’s brain what exists in the world around the frog, the frog’s eye tells the frog’s brain about where it thinks food exists.  Darwin’s natural selection process has helped the frog develop its senses and neurological system in ways that have produced a frog who is not capable of seeing the world, but is tuned to seeing food before it.

Think about that a bit and ask yourself how natural selection has affected what a human being actually sees?   What does a human being’s eye tell a human being’s brain?

Can we sense slow-moving threats to our existence or do we rely on a “nervous” system that has developed to help us avoid being eaten by quick-moving threats?  Can we evolve in our ability to process information and make sensible long-term decisions that are truly good for us and our offspring or are we doomed to the distractibility available through things that go bump in the night, terrorists lurking in the shadows?

Posted in Connect the Dots, Small Foot Print, Global Warming | Print | 1 Comment »

June 13, 2009 by mike.

Thanks to Common Dreams for the article.

clipped from www.commondreams.org Report Finds Climate Change a Detectable Driver of Migration Some 200 million people could be on the move due to climate change by 2050 ATLANTA, Georgia - June 10 - Unless aggressive measures are taken to halt global warming, the consequences for human migration and displacement could reach a scope and scale that vastly exceed anything that has occurred before, according to a report released today during climate change talks in Germany. Climate change is already contributing to migration and displacement, the report from CARE, U.N. University and Columbia University found. All major estimates project that the trend will rise to tens of millions of migrants in coming years. Within the next few decades, the consequences of climate change for human security efforts could be devastating, according to the report entitled, In Search of Shelter: Mapping the Effects of Climate Change on Human Migration and Displacement.

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