http://thenewstalkers.com/malamuteman Mon, 09 Nov 2026 15:04:53 -0500 http://thenewstalkers.com/malamuteman/blog/2637/why-cant-we-wee-planet-earth-is-all-weve-got-or-ever-will-have http://thenewstalkers.com/malamuteman/blog/2637
A two-part Essay







Part One — Interstellar Travel
The human species has accomplished some amazing things. In the realm of technology, we have done far more than any other creature alive today or in the past. Some human accomplishments are really quite stupendous. Among these, traveling to the moon and returning safely to the Earth is one of our most phenomenal achievements. Understanding diseases and finding remedies for many of them is another tremendous achievement. Our unique human characteristics, mobility, dexterity, versatility, and most of all, reasoning power, have helped up do many things that make our lives easier, safer, and longer than they would otherwise be. It is very easy to understand why these characteristics are universally thought of as good qualities, highly desirable qualities. Within the context of our individual lives, those are stupendously valuable and helpful qualities.
There is a factor we commonly forget to consider which has a huge impact on what we can do, or will ever be able to do… scale. Both spatial and temporal scale. Most adult humans are between 3.5 and 6.5 feet tall, weighing between 100 and 300 pounds. We typically live less than 100 years. That is our spatial and temporal scale.
Over the course of billions of years, we evolved from relatively simple single-cell creatures to what we are now. What we are today is the result of innumerable tiny evolutionary changes tried and tested over many millennia. Some of those evolutionary changes were helpful to the long-term survival of our species, and many of them are still with us today. Other evolutionary changes were not especially helpful or even counter-productive. Those things are no longer part of what we are today.
Over the first few billion years, our ancestors were just single cell creatures. About 600 million years ago our ancestors stumbled on multicellular existence. Over many millions of years life on Earth evolved, becoming much more complex. All of the “successful” evolutionary changes came about because they optimized our chances for survival. Specifically, survival on a planet exerting 1 G gravitational force (32 ft/s2), with an atmosphere having 20% to 30% oxygen, 70% to 80% nitrogen, and a few other atmospheric trace elements, and residing at a distance from its star such that water is in a liquid state.
The nearest star to us, other than our own star, the sun, is Proxima Centauri. If we decide we want to see if that star has a planet having all the minimum necessary characteristics to support human life, we will have to travel there, because it is too far away from planet Earth for our perceptive abilities to discern those qualities. Here is where we get to the crux of my argument that “Planet Earth is all we’ve got, or ever will have.” Proxima Centauri is about 4.3 light years from Earth. That means, if we were somehow able to travel at the speed of light, it would take 4.3 years to get there. So far, the longest time a human has spent off of planet Earth is 438 days (1.2 years). A little more than one quarter of the time needed to travel to Proxima Centauri… at the speed of light. But of course, no human has ever traveled at the speed of light… not even close. The fastest any human has ever traveled (relative to planet Earth) is 24,791 mph, or 0.0037% of the speed of light. At that speed, it would take more than 100,000 years to get Alpha Centauri. If we could propel a manned spacecraft at the speed of the fasted unmanned spacecraft, it would still take more than 50,000 years to get to the nearest star outside our solar system. Even if we could propel a manned spacecraft much faster than that, it would still take thousands of years to get there. What will the progeny of the human that started that journey have to say about having been condemned to never ever see any of the beautiful things we humans are privileged to see, sunsets, green grass, wildlife, etc. Oh sure, that person will get to see things that you and I will never see. But as amazing as it may be to see those things, it would be unimaginably uniform… mind-warpingly boring.
Perhaps we will send humans to Mars someday. To accomplish that, those people would travel for about 6 months to get from Earth to Mars… then they would have to establish some sort of habitat that would support them for two years while they waited for the orbit of Earth to sync up with the orbit Mars so they would only have to travel for 6 months to get back to Earth… three years total… at a minimum… just to get to mars and back. Traveling to any other potentially human habitable place within our solar system would be even more of an extreme reach. For the record, while it may be “possible” for humans to survive on Mars, being confined for two years to whatever sort of habitat we could rig up on Mars sounds kinda grim to me. Traveling to any place outside our solar system would be many orders of magnitude more difficult than going to Mars. In fact, it is quite simply a preposterous idea.
All of that said, it seems we need to get used to the notion that planet Earth and perhaps our nearest neighboring planetary bodies is all we will ever set foot on. Please keep that in mind the next time you watch Star Trek, Star Wars, or Star Whatever. Those are fantasies. Fun to watch perhaps, but please don’t delude yourself into ever thinking they represent even a tiny shred of reality.
Part Two — Human Exploitation of Earthly Resources
With few exceptions, we humans are quietly obsessed with our mortality… our impermanence. Recently, I heard someone say, probably on TV (as I am not much of a reader), that in the not-too-distant future humans will look back and scoff at the notion held by earlier human generations that none of us will live forever. That notion is just as disconnected from reality as the earlier discussed notion of interstellar travel.
Have you ever contemplated what it would be like to live forever? To me, that notion offers unimaginably extreme boredom. Yes, the prospect of dying is probably at least somewhat scary for most of us. But for me, an eternity of boredom would be far worse than disappearing from existence all together… which, thankfully, seems far more likely to me than eternal life.
As I said at the beginning of this two-part essay, “The human species has accomplished some amazing things.” Somewhere around two or three hundred thousand years ago the first humans descended from our pre-human ancestors. As short as 200,000 years is compared to the span of time life has existed on planet Earth, it is still a very long time by comparison to one human life span. It is also a very long time by comparison to the age of technology. One could argue that the age of technology began with the advent of stone tools or the harnessing of fire. For the purposes of this essay, I am marking the beginning of the age of technology at the advent of the first steam engine, in the early part of the 18th century. Technology didn’t   really   get rolling until the mid-19th century with the trans-continental railroad, less than 200 years ago. It was also around the same time that human population growth took off.
It took at least two hundred thousand years for the world-wide human population to grow from   essentially   zero to one billion. In fact, most of that first billion emerged in the last 70,000 years or so. That was, averaged over 70,000 years, about 14 thousand humans added to the planet every year, reaching one billion around 1,800 AD. Then it took just another 123 years (until 1923) to grow from one billion to two billion. That is more than 8 million humans added to the planet every year during the 1800s and the first part of the 20th century. That growth rate is about 600 times faster than it had been for all of human history prior to 1800 AD. I was born in 1950, when the world human population was 2.5 billion. Today, 71 years after I was born, there are more than 7.5 billion humans on planet Earth. Three humans on the planet today for every human alive on the planet the day I was born.
The growth rate of the human population by itself seems utterly unsustainable. But making our problems even worse is human consumption of resources and production waste. Oh, let’s not forget about recent production of very long-lasting toxic and nuclear waste.
I have a degree in mechanical engineering, which does not provide any background directly related to the sustainability of present-day human population numbers and activities. Even so, readily available data makes it clear to my engineering mind that current human activity is not sustainable. Even more troubling to me is the undisputable fact that humans are having a devastating impact on the other species with whom we share this incredibly rare life-sustaining planet.
The title of this article asks, “Why can’t we see planet Earth is all we’ve got, or ever will have?” Additionally, I am inclined to ask, “Why can’t we see we have already crossed the sustainability Rubicon?” I ponder these questions quite a bit, and here’s how I answer them.
Regarding, “Why can’t we see planet Earth is all we’ve got, or ever will have?” We are all born into the world at different times. As we grow up, we learn about the world in which we live. Of course, we hear about wars, poverty, pollution, and other problems of our era. But we also learn about inventions that seem quite good, the wheel, clocks, the printing press, airplanes, medicines. and many others. We are very clever creatures, and our cleverness has made our lives easier, safer, longer, and better in many ways.
Even so, there is a problem. We tend to focus our attention on the benefits brought to us by modern technology, ignoring or minimizing whatever downside may also come with those benefits. We suffer from the frog in hot water problem. Early technology brought us many benefits. Like the frog’s appreciation of lukewarm water, we were very happy to have the obvious benefits bestowed on us by technology. Those benefits were so good it was perfectly natural for us to seek more. Little by little we gradually improved our lives and the lives of our progeny. At the same time whatever downside came along with the benefits were dismissed as just another thing we would “figure out” someday. Now that some of us are raising the alarm about the unsustainability of human activity, the notion of moving backward with technology is decried as a preposterous idea. “Get out of the warm water and go back to the cold rainy forest floor… no way!” the frog scoffs. “Give up my cellphone, my car, my TV… electricity? What a joke!!!!! You can’t be serious!” say the humans.
Somewhere around 1970, I started beating the drum on the topics of overpopulation and excessive resource exploitation. I suggested failing to address these issues would lead to catastrophe. More recently, I’ve concluded our situation is much worse than I once thought. Like everyone else, I was seduced by the notion that everything seemed to be work pretty well when I arrived on the planet in 1950.







In recent years I came across a graph showing the history of worldwide human population. This graph clearly illustrates the untenable nature of our numbers. Similarly, excessive resource consumption and pollution are driven not only by the very rapid increase in human population, but also by a similar rapid increase in the exploitation of resources. I have expressed this notion many times with the following very simple language…
There are too many of us doing too much stuff.
Now... There is no easy way out of this mess.






]]> Sat, 09 Jul 2022 20:52:38 -0400 http://thenewstalkers.com/malamuteman/blog/2627/if-that-doesnt-light-a-fire-under-your-lazy-ass http://thenewstalkers.com/malamuteman/blog/2627










In 2016, you weren’t very excited about Hilary… but you knew there was no way that clown Trump would win, so you just sat that one out…You and way too many other people. Then Trump did get elected.
Trump, with McConnell’s help, seated 3 right-wing ideologues on the supreme court. Today, those righties, along with a couple seated by GWB, completely ended all federal protection for a woman’s rights over her own body.
If that doesn’t light a fire under your lazy ass, you can kiss American democracy goodbye right now…










]]> Sat, 25 Jun 2022 11:32:46 -0400 http://thenewstalkers.com/malamuteman/blog/2623/grace-in-the-galapagos http://thenewstalkers.com/malamuteman/blog/2623
Seven days aboard the M/V Grace — A Wildlife Adventure






Even though I begin this article with where it all began for us, Quasar & The Grace, I had to throw in this little teaser with a few wildlife images, since, not to take anything away from the Grace which is wonderful in its own right, the wildlife were the stars of the show.





The M/V Grace   — The honeymoon yacht for Princess Grace (Grace Kelly) and Prince Rainier… and our home base for seven days of fun and adventure in the Galapagos Islands. Quasar & The Grace
After we decided on the Galapagos for our first adventure following two years of Covid sequestration, our first task was to find a good company to help us put together this adventure. We researched several companies and eventually chose Quasar. Among the factors that drew us to Quasar was it’s   top rating by Travel and Leisure   and the fact that one of the boats they use was once the   honeymoon yacht of Princess Grace (Grace Kelly) and Prince Rainier of Monaco . Boy, did we nail it on the choice of Quasar! The accommodations, the service, and the character of this yacht could not have been better. Sixteen passengers with a dozen or more crew who attend to every detail, and two naturalist guides who know everything about these islands, including the history, zoology, botany, geology, and more.
Diane & Paul Schicke from Quasar helped us book this adventure and patiently answered nine zillion of my pedantic questions in the process.
One last detail… My wife and I are in our 70s. I have several physical issues. I am so very grateful to all the Quasar staff, and especially to Scarlet, who graciously assisted me with all my special needs.
Originally, I was going to show all these images in the order that I took them. But about half way through putting this article together I decided to abandon that idea because it was all getting too complicated, so the chronology is somewhat scrambled. There will be a little more about the crew and guides at the end of this article, and various other written bits of info along the way, but now I’d like to introduce the stars of this show… The wildlife…
Starting on the northern shoreline of Santa Cruz Island.






Blue-footed Booby





Lava Lizard





Sally Lightfoot Crab





Blue Heron





Whimbrel   (best guess)





Black-necked Stilt   — The image on the left is only fair quality, but I wanted to show the one-legged stance.





Marine Iguana   — Notice the seaweed elegantly draped over its forehead… such a nice touch. One of only a hundred billion or so iguanas that we saw.





Another Blue Heron





Best Guess — Lava Heron … but I don’t think the leg color is right.

Flamingo





The Grace , pangas readied and waiting to bring us back to the boat after our first shore adventure. All of the preceding images were taken on just the first day on the northern shoreline of Santa Cruz island… which was really only a half day, since the first half of the day was spent traveling from Quito to the Galapagos.
For anyone considering an adventure on this boat, here is a little info about the cabins and other areas. The fanciest staterooms are on the top deck, I think there are just two on that deck. We never saw them in person, but based on how nice our somewhat less fancy stateroom was, I am sure they are fantastic. After all, one of them was Princess Grace’s honeymoon suite. Our room was on the lowest deck. It was cabin C2, and I am pretty sure it was the nicest and most spacious room on that level… and from my many steamship experiences I will say it is very luxurious and spacious. We didn’t have big windows like the suites on the top deck, just port holes. But that was fine with us. When we weren’t sleeping or changing cloths, we spent pretty much all our waking time in the indoor and outdoor lounges on the upper decks.
Another note about the images in this article. All of them were taken with a Panasonic DMC-ZS60 which comes with a Leica lens ( more info about this camera here ). I have two Nikons and several lenses, but for its size this camera is hard to beat. The entire things fits in my t-shirt pocket. It has 30:1 zoom. I’m sure the folks with the DSLRs and humongous lenses got some excellent photos, but, if I do say so myself, I think I got some pretty good images with my dinky little camera. To be completely honest about this camera, it does have one downside. It has five bazillion features…   way   to many. I have many times gotten myself into a completely untenable mode. The saving grace is that it has a feature that will restore the default settings.
Moving on to Genovesa Island…
Genovesa Island is also know as bird island… Well, duh!!!! If there was just one more bird on this island, I’m sure it would sink into the ocean. The birds are so habituated to humans that they don’t bat an eye. They seem to think of us as just another island inhabitant.






Nazca Boobies   tending to their rather spartan nest.





Female Frigatebird   on her nest

Male Frigatebird , “Hey Baby, check this out. Pretty sexy, huh. Wanna make some babies?”





Red-footed Booby





Oh yeah… here are some red feet to go with that   Booby   image above… Different bird, but you get the idea. And now, a little anthropomorphism…







“Me hungry… Feed me!”   — The focus is a little off, but the image is too cute to pass up.





“I’ll scratch your back if you’ll scratch mine.”





ZZZZZZZzzzzzz…





Mmmmm… Oh… Sooo good…





Oh… this rock is soooo comfy…





Mama, that big creature is so close… Make it go away…





Do you mind??? She is not dressed…





We found this   extremely rare variety of Hammerhead Shark   had taken over our bed.

After a long day of very interesting and exciting adventures, I struck up a conversation with this fellow who says he is applying for a a job as a naturalist/guide on the next Quasar tour. Okay… now I’ve lost track of which day it is… Oh well… Onward…
The next day was actually quite interesting, but after bird island, the photo opportunities may seem kinda sparse. Anyway… Here are a few…






Galapagos Hawk





Galapagos Finch   — There are many variations, so I am not sure exactly which one this is.





Oystercatcher





Prickly Pear Cactus   ( maybe?? )

Prickly Pear Cactus





I’m not 100% sure, but after looking at several images online, I think this might be a   Galapagos Black Widow !!!





On the way back to the boat,   this fellow   jumped up on the trail marker to point us the correct direction.





After an exciting day of exploration, I decided to join my new friend, Iguana IPA, to watch the   sunset . One thing I forgot to mention earlier… We completely abandoned taking any underwater photos. Our underwater camera was untenably complicated, and about the size of a sugar cube. But if you decide to go on this amazing adventure, be sure to bring along a decent underwater camera. Several of our fellow adventurers had perfectly good underwater cameras that looked more or less like my pocket size Panasonic. The underwater scenes are every bit as spectacular as the above water scenes.


One of our naturalist guides, Roberto, our panga driver, and Ellen On day 10 we went out for an exploratory panga ride. To be perfectly honest, it started out kinda hum-drum. After a while Roberto told the panga driver to take us back to the Grace. On the way back, off in the distance, Roberto noticed something. He told the panga driver to turn the panga around. Shortly after getting it turned around we could see there was a pod of large creatures coming our way… and fast. I think they might have been Orcas or something similar, but they didn’t look exactly the the Orcas we have in the Northwest. Anyway, Roberto told the panga driver to “punch it” (or something similar in Spanish). We were absolutely flying along, and these large creatures caught up, surrounded us for a while, and then gradually left us in the dust… well, I guess it was actually sea-spray. It was truly amazing, and a wild ride. The following are some of the photos I managed to capture. Most of them are kinda blurry cuz, well like I said, it was wild and fast moving. But I am showing you what I managed to get, cuz it was absolutely a once-in-a-lifetime experience.






Just coming up behind us.











Now they are all around us, including right next to us.











Now they are starting to pull away from us.





As I said, it didn’t take long for them to leave us in the sea-spray.





A very cute sealion pup and its mother… We came across this very cute sealion pup and its mother… actually, they were either either sealions or fur seals, I’m not sure which. Roberto said the pup could be only a day old or so.






At one point a large bird was approaching and momma moved away from the pup to shoo the bird away. The pup started freaking out when momma wasn’t right by its side. So momma hustled right back to comfort it.












Great Blue Heron — This bird managed to snag two iguanas. This iguana put up a good fight for quite a while, but eventually, down the gullet it went.







The iguanas came in small, medium, and large…











And there were really a lot of iguanas… In fact, staying on the designated trail required carefully stepping through a vast mine-field of iguanas. Near the end of this amazing adventure we went through this wonderful mangrove swamp where we saw many amazing and beautiful creatures.






























Carlos, one of our naturalist/guides, and one of our panga drivers. Well, that kinda wraps it up. I tried to take a group photo of the entire crew on our last night, but my camera was being uncooperative. I do want to reiterate how much we appreciate the fabulous service provided to us by all the crew. the guides, and the captain.






Many thanks to Roberto and Carlos, our excellent naturalist guides.]]> Wed, 22 Jun 2022 11:04:34 -0400