
Here’s an interesting image that I came up with the help of good old Photoshop. The top image is a close-up of a leaf; your basic plant life, with its veins and cells. The bottom image is the same image after some color transformation and contrast modification. Note how it looks a lot like a map of a modern suburban development, with main roadways and side streets and cul-de-sacs. The modern philosophy is to get away from the classic boxy grid of straight-line streets and let the roadways “cooperate” with the natural terrain.
What’s the point? Why, the point comes from chaos theory, from the classic insights derived from fractals. Fractals are those crazy drawings which look pretty much the same no matter how far you zoom in on them. The overall patterns keep repeating themselves whether you are looking at the whole, or at a tiny magnified piece of the whole. Despite the change of scale, some things stay the same. So, we see that an aerial view of a suburban development, and a microscope view of a tree leaf (which may well have come from that suburban development), show patterns that repeat themselves.
Very interesting! I’m not sure just how far you could continue this trend; at the extreme micro end, everything blurs into quantum fuzziness; and at the extreme macro end, it’s clumps and “filaments” of galaxies and vast regions of space with no “normal matter” at all (although there’s still zero-point energy and dark energy, perhaps also dark matter). Perhaps, however, there is still some sort of pattern, a more abstract pattern that is harder (or impossible) to visualize, that holds at all magnifications levels throughout the universe.
I hope that some super-bright physicists and mathematicians are working on that.
Speaking of green, here’s an interesting article from our friends “across the pond” about the recreational travel habits of those who are most concerned about global warming and its environmental effects.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/sep/24/ethicalliving.recycling
It’s about a recent research study showing that people who make the most intentional effort to “live green” (by recycling, buying a Prius or riding a bike to the store, cutting or eliminating meat consumption, using mini-fluorescent light bulbs, etc.) are most likely to take frequent long-distance flights. And their carbon share from those airline flights well exceeds the savings they achieve by their other life-style changes.
Obviously, green-living is still mostly a pass time for the affluent. And the affluent are more likely to require airline travel in their careers. But they are also more likely to fly for vacation purposes. Just a few long-distance flights can swamp out the yearly benefits of living green at home. This supports the allegations of hypocrisy and ultimate futility that are lodged against Al Gore and those who imitate his manner of showing concern about global warming.
My take on all of this: It’s still a good thing for people to become more aware and more concerned about global warming, and the more “little things” that are done, the better. But yes, a person cannot rest on his or her environmental laurels after ridding their homes of incandescent light bulbs and non-hybrid vehicles. Global warming is a huge monster of an issue, and most people are not fully aware of just how big the problem is and how damaging our western lifestyles are. (And how catastrophic it will be if the masses in the developing world adopt our lifestyles, as they are increasingly doing in China and India). As this study shows, even the people who have become concerned aren’t being completely honest about their overall “carbon footprint”, and what sacrifices might be required to reduce it to “sustainable” levels.
I have heard Al Gore’s response to this criticism; he makes up for all the CO2 created by his huge house, his big cars and his frequent jet-setting by giving lavish donations to activist organizations that buy carbon-credits in the market (thus increasing the number and scale of carbon-offset projects like forest restoration and power plant modernization). I think that’s good; I make similar donations, but on a much smaller scale (sorry, but my income and net worth don’t match Mr. Gore’s). But the bigger problem remains: if humankind is going » continue reading …