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25 Reasons to Embrace Criticism

Dr. Daniel J. Benor — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 00:36:19 GMT

by Lori Deschene

 Criticism is something you can easily avoid by saying nothing, doing nothing, and being nothing.
- Aristotle

At the end of the day, when I feel completely exhausted, oftentimes it has nothing to do with all the things I’ve done.

It’s not a consequence of juggling multiple responsibilities and projects. It’s not my body’s way of punishing me for becoming a late-life jogger after a period of cardiovascular laziness. It’s not even about getting too little sleep.
When I’m exhausted, you can be sure I’ve bent over backwards trying to win everyone’s approval. I’ve obsessed over what people think of me, I’ve assigned speculative and usually inaccurate meanings to feedback I’ve received, and I’ve lost myself in negative thoughts about criticism and its merit.

I work at minimizing this type of behavior – and I’ve had success for the most part – but admittedly it’s not easy.
I remember back in college, taking a summer acting class, when I actually made the people around me uncomfortable with my defensiveness. This one time, the teacher was giving me feedback after a scene in front of the whole class. She couldn’t get through a single sentence without me offering some type of argument.
After a couple minutes of verbal sparring, one of my peers actually said, “Stop talking. You’re embarrassing yourself.”

Looking back, I cut myself a little slack. You’re vulnerable in the spotlight and the student’s reaction was kind of harsh. But I know I needed to hear it. Because I was desperately afraid of being judged, I took everything, from everyone as condemnation.

I realize criticism doesn’t always come gently from someone legitimately trying to help. A lot of the feedback we receive is unsolicited and doesn’t come from teachers—or maybe all of it does.

We can’t control what other people will say to us, whether they’ll approve or form opinions and share them. But we can control how we internalize it, respond to it, and learn from it, and when we release it and move on.

If you’ve been having a hard time dealing with criticism lately, it may help to remember the following:
The Benefits of Criticism:

Personal Growth
1. Looking for seeds of truth in criticism encourages humility. It’s not easy to take an honest look at yourself and your weaknesses, but you can only grow if you’re willing to try.
2. Learning from criticism allows you to improve. Almost every critique gives you a tool to more effectively create the tomorrow you visualize.
3. Criticism opens you up to new perspectives and new ideas you may not have considered. Whenever someone challenges you, they help expand your thinking.
4. Your critics give you an opportunity to practice active listening. This means you resist the urge to analyze in your head, planning your rebuttal, and simply consider what the other person is saying.
5. You have the chance to practice forgiveness when you come up against harsh critics. Most of us carry around stress and frustration that we unintentionally misdirect from time to time.

Emotional Benefits
6. It’s helpful to learn how to sit with the discomfort of an initial emotional reaction instead of immediately acting or retaliating. All too often we want to do something with our feelings—generally not a great idea!
7. Criticism gives you the chance to foster problem solving skills, which isn’t always easy when you’re feeling sensitive, self-critical, or annoyed with your critic.
8. Receiving criticism that hits a sensitive spot helps you explore unresolved issues. Maybe you’re sensitive about your intelligence because you’re holding onto something someone said to you years ago—something you need to release.
9. Interpreting someone else’s feedback is an opportunity for rational thinking—sometimes, despite a negative tone, criticism is incredibly useful.
10. Criticism encourages you to question your instinctive associations and feelings; praise is good, criticism is bad. If we recondition ourselves to see things in less black and white terms, there’s no stop to how far we can go!

Improved Relationships
11. Criticism presents an opportunity to choose peace over conflict. Oftentimes, when criticized our instinct is to fight, creating unnecessary drama. The people around us generally want to help us, not judge us.
12. Fielding criticism well helps you mitigate the need to be right. Nothing closes an open mind like ego—bad for your personal growth, and damaging for relationships.
13. Your critics give you an opportunity to challenge any people-pleasing tendencies. Relationships based on a constant need for approval can be draining for everyone involved. It’s liberating to let people think whatever they want—they’re going to do it anyway.
14. Criticism gives you the chance to teach people how to treat you. If someone delivers it poorly, you can take this opportunity to tell them, “I think you make some valid points, but I would receive them better if you didn’t raise your voice.”
15. Certain pieces of criticism teach you not to sweat the small stuff. In the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t matter that your boyfriend thinks you load the dishwasher “wrong.”

Time Efficiency
16. The more time you spend dwelling about what someone said, the less time you have to do something with it.
17. If you improve how you operate after receiving criticism, this will save time and energy in the future. When you think about from that perspective—criticism as a time saver—it’s hard not to appreciate it!
18. Fostering the ability to let go of your feelings and thoughts about being critiqued can help you let go in other areas of your life. Letting go of worries, regrets, stresses, fears, and even positive feelings helps you root yourself in the present moment. Mindfulness is always the most efficient use of time.
19. Criticism reinforces the power of personal space. Taking 10 minutes to process your emotions, perhaps by writing in a journal, will ensure you respond well. And responding the well the first time prevents one critical comment from dominating your day.
20. In some cases, criticism teaches you how to interact with a person, if they’re negative or hostile, for example. Knowing this can save you a lot of time and stress in the future.

Self Confidence
21. Learning to receive false criticism—feedback that has no constructive value—without losing your confidence is a must if you want to do big things in life. The more attention your work receives, the more criticism you’ll have to field.
22. When someone criticizes you, it shines a light on your own insecurities. If you secretly agree that you’re lazy, you should get to the root of that. Why do you believe that—and what can you do about it?
23. Learning to move forward after criticism, even if you don’t feel incredibly confident, ensures no isolated comment prevents you from seizing your dreams. Think of it as separating the wheat from the chaff; takes what’s useful, leave the rest, and keep going!
24. When someone else appraises your harshly, you have an opportunity to monitor your internal self-talk. Research indicates up to 80% of our thoughts are negative. Take this opportunity to monitor and change your thought processes so you don’t drain and sabotage yourself!
25. Receiving feedback well reminds you it’s OK to have flaws—imperfection is part of being human. If you can admit weakness and work on them without getting down on yourself, you’ll experience far more happiness, peace, enjoyment, and success.

We are all perfectly imperfect, and other people may notice that from time to time. We may even notice in it each other.

Somehow accepting that is a huge weight off my mind.

Source: Tiny Buddha 
Forwarded by Daily Good

Wholistic Musings:

This is such a wise series of observations!

Many people report such limiting beliefs and core beliefs about themselves. These can be released and replaced with positive beliefs by using WHEE

Blessings

Dan

The T-Mobile Welcome Back at Heathrow Airport

Dr. Daniel J. Benor — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 16:24:00 GMT

Watch arriving passengers be given a welcome home to remember at Heathrow Terminal 5. Big thanks to all our talented singers who feature in the ad. For updates, exclusive content and more info on our talented cast, join our new facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/tmobileuk

Forwarded by J. Warren Salmon, Ph.D. jsjwsalmon@gmail.com

Blessings

Dan

If the image does not appear on your screen above, please click on the link below.

Emoticons for internet communications

Dr. Daniel J. Benor — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 05:09:00 GMT

Have you ever had misunderstandings in email communications - where someone read your email and completely mistook your intentions, perhaps even taking offense or feeling hurt, when you had no intention of coming across in such ways?

Emoticons have been developed to help avoid such problems. These are little yellow faces with varieties of expressions - most commonly a smiley face, but including angry, surprised and other such emotional expressions.

it is even more common to see a smiling      or sad face in emails.

Here are a few suggestions for animal emoticons. I find that most people respond with warmth to them:





Good sources for images:

http://funpic.com

http://funnycatpix.com/pictures_2.htm

http://www.xmission.com/~emailbox/funnyphotos1.htm

http://www.funnydogsite.com/

Blessings

Dan Benor, MD
www.paintap.com

Bulgaria: landscape, social and inner travels

Dr. Daniel J. Benor — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 18:56:00 GMT

My impressions are strongly colored by the warm welcome I received from Mihaela and Simeon, my hosts in Bulgaria. These are extraordinary people who deeply connect with spiritual awareness and healing on many levels. They have been organizing seminars on various forms of healing for several years in Sofia, inviting teachers from England, Israel and other countries to share their wisdom in EFT, EMDR and related therapies.

It was fascinating to hear the story of the shift from Communist to democratic government. Under the old regime, everyone was cared for. Everyone had a home – however modest the accommodations, no one was out in the cold. Everyone had access to healthcare services and education. Although there were complaints about the quality of services, at least no one was without a roof over her or his head.

The weaknesses of the Communist system were evident in the shortages of food and commercial goods. While the theory of all working for the common good of all was a high ideal intended to inspire people to contribute their energies and time, in practice this did not work. Management and productivity, particularly in the agricultural and business sectors, were far from optimal. The repressiveness of the Communist regime is well known and needs no comment.

People got by with garden plots where they grew their own vegetables. This was a major source of food supplement, which helped tide people over their transition from the old regime to the new.

Today, the free market of a democratic government offers many more opportunities to live more luxuriously for those with initiative and some capital resources. However, cities are increasingly crowded with people who are following the allures of promises of a good life presented in the media; seeking a better lifestyle than they can achieve on farms. Housing is expensive, and medical care is expensive and strained to provide adequate services.

In this atmosphere, complementary therapies are a true blessing. WHEE is particularly helpful modality because it offers self-care for pain, stress and distress wherever and whenever needed. My WHEE workshop was well received, with an extra day added to the Practitioner Level 1 training to allow for translations.

Mihaela and Simeon were wonderful tour guides on a two-day exploration of a bit of the countryside East of Sofia. I was particularly taken with the little village where we stayed at a country inn. Here, as in other parts of Bulgaria, I found the food fresh and delicious (See details in previous blog entry.) People in the village live largely on the income provided by holiday visitors. They take care to maintain the quaintness of their architecture, requiring all buildings to have large slates on the roof and stone rather than paved streets.

In my inner travels, I found it easy to relate to the workshop participants as people and as healthcare professionals. WHEE and other wholistic healing approaches are particularly welcome in Bulgaria - in the context of the generally lower psychological awareness. General public awareness is more on levels I was used to seeing 40-50 years ago in the US. In parallel with this limited awareness is the continued prevalence of psychoanalytic approaches, with a growing but still limited awareness of more rapidly effective methods.

In contrast, Mihaela and Simeon in particular, and many of the workshop participants were delightfully, deeply aware of spiritual dimensions of life and our discussions were consistently stimulating and interesting. This is all the more remarkable for my hosts being in their 30's.

A WHEE visit to Bulgaria - observations on the outer world

Dr. Daniel J. Benor — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 00:26:00 GMT

I was pleased to be invited to teach workshops on Spiritual Awareness and Healing and a WHEE Level 1 Practitioner Workshop in Sofia a week ago. I'm just about over my jet lag after my return.

My Bulgarian hosts, Mihaela and Simeon at the Institute for Integral Development, were a delight to work with and to visit with. We found ourselves very much in tune with each other in our wholistic understandings of life and healing interventions. More on this in my next blog.

Here, I want to share some of the physical context of my visit and observations on helpful lessons from visiting a distinctly different culture.

Sofia has absorbed several hundred thousands of people from the countryside since the transition from Communism to Democracy. The city is a hodge-podge mixture of old and new buildings, vehicles and cultural traditions. I was left with strong impressions about:

Healthy, tasty food available everywhere. Bulgaria has not joined the rest of the world in using chemical fertilizers, so its produce is close to organic in quality - though not identified by them as such. It was a delight to have yogurt in many dishes as well as in a popular local drink that has cucumbers shredded into it. The fresh cheeses were delicious. Here's a suggestion to replace nachos or french fries served in North America with the plastic orange goop that passes for cheese:

Shredded fresh white cheese on french fries.

Several technological innovations I'd like to see in North America:

A hotel room lighting system that requires insertion of your electronic door key card to activate. When you leave your room, you remove your card to take it with you and all the lights are shut off.

Parking meters are number coded so that you can enter the code in your cell phone and pay your parking fee electronically. If you're in a museum, a restaurant or a business meeting you can add minutes or hours through your cell phone.

In the city of Plovdiv the traffic lights have a count-down for cars (as well as pedestrians), helping people to anticipate when the lights will change.

On the down side, people still smoke in restaurants... Heavily! There are no no-smoking sections. Traffic in Sofia is very heavy from early AM to late PM.

Bulgarian uses the Cyrillic alphabet. Challenging to read street and store signs!

But occasional Rosetta signs provide clues...

(Another clue is that you might order food to eat here)

(Some English in the bottom lines)

More to follow.

Blessings

Dan
http://benorwholisticblog.com/

Notes from teaching WHEE at St George's University Medical School in Grenada

Dr. Daniel J. Benor — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 02:30:00 GMT

It was a great pleasure teaching WHEE at the Complementary Medicine Selective Conference at St. George's University School of Medicine in Grenada. Several hundred students from this enormous medical school attended the conference, and dozens attended the workshops.

This is not your ordinary medical school:

There is a rigorous and demanding preparatory course for students who do not have the academic background for medical school but who are highly motivated to become doctors. If they pass the course, they are admitted to the regular medical school program. If they fail, their registration fees are refunded!

Grenada is a small island and does not have the clinical facilities for the hundreds of students in each class to continue into their clinical years. Graduates of the basic sciences courses proceed to their clinical years at affiliated medical schools in the US.

This is the good news. The bad news is that the Complementary Medicine Selective Conference is but a small part of a normal medical school curriculum. I was reminded of my own experiences in medical school in the 1960's. In many ways, little has changed since then. The academic pressures are so enormous that students are constantly stressed out to the max. There is little that they can do about their anxieties about the enormous burdens of studies, exams, finances, living in a foreign country, and an inhumane educational system.

I handled my own med student stresses by taking a year off between my second and third year in school on an NIMH Research Fellowship in Psychiatry. I had no words at that time to describe my stressful experiences, which were (and today continue to be) the expected, accepted norm for medical students.

It is very satisfying to be able to offer this generation of students the benefits of WHEE, which rapidly reduce anxieties and stress reactions and enable us to install positive thoughts and feelings to replace the negative ones we have released.

More on student stress in a following blog entry.

Blessings

Dan
http://benorwholisticblog.com/

Clarification re the current 'invaders'

Dr. Daniel J. Benor — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 22:45:00 GMT

To clarify my last entry:

The invaders I refer to are the ones on our TV; the ones who might perhaps more accurately be called corporate infiltrators – in our government, healthcare, education systems; and the ones in our banking system, for starters.

Blessings

Dan

Dealing with aggression

Dr. Daniel J. Benor — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 16:32:00 GMT

Hi Rachel and Dennis,

I really like and agree with all of your observations, Dennis.

One subtle piece that I feel is relevant is the coming together of all consciousness on the planet to deal with the invaders. I believe it is this sort of coming together that can be helpful here, too. With love.

Sometimes, however, abuse and violence cannot be stopped without counter-force. Holding to a place of spirituality, love and healing when using counter-force is a real challenge. Aikido is a good example of this.

Blessings

Dan

On 8/10/10 11:31 AM, "Rachel Finney" wrote:

I received this a while back from Dennis, but forgot to send it out. Thoughtful perspective...

From Dennis Gaumond’s newsletter, Understanding the Shift

AVATAR

By Dennis Gaumond

While the movie, 'Avatar' was in theatres, I was in Costa Rica, so I just recently got around to seeing what all the fuss was about. I must say it is a remarkable movie - visually beautiful, very compelling - I give it five stars. I'm sure it will set a new standard in movie-making, much like 'Star Wars' did back in the Seventies.

I feel moved to comment on a couple of things about the movie that I didn't like so much. The first is something that I call the 'Tarzan Syndrome'. Hollywood loves to put out themes where the world is in jeopardy and one man rises to the top to save the day. That messiah figure is always a white, Anglo-Saxon male, even if the story takes place in a foreign land. In the case of Tarzan, a child of white aristocratic descent is raised in Africa and soon becomes 'king of the jungle', despite the fact that black people have been living there for millennia. In the movie, 'Samurai', Tom Cruise quickly rises to become top gun in the Samurai world, despite the fact that all the other Samurai warriors have been living and training in this tradition for their entire lives. 'Avatar' continues in this Hollywood tradition - the hero/saviour is a white guy living in a cloned blue-body.

'Avatar' is similar to many Hollywood themes, including 'Star Wars' - there is a conflict between good and evil. In 'Avatar' we have corporate greed threatening the lives of a beautiful indigenous race living in harmony with nature - a metaphor for what has happened and continues to happen here on Earth. The movie succeeds in pointing out the problem, but like most Hollywood movies, falls far short in presenting the solution to the problem. Again the solution we are offered is war. The good guys find a way to defeat the bad guys in spectacular battle scenes - the hero and the villain meet in the final scenes to duke it out, etc.

Wouldn't it be refreshing if the movie offered a different solution? Wouldn't it be great if the movie gave us the spectacle of war, which the box office feels is necessary, but then the war effort fails and the good guys have to resort to something else. What if the good guys ultimately win by using the power of their collective consciousness to send light to the darkness - to change the minds of the bad guys by sending them love? Wouldn't that be a breath of fresh air? But Hollywood prefers to give us clichéd stories with predictable outcomes, and we continue to eat them up.

They say that the true nature of misinformation, which we are fed constantly by all forms of mass-media, is that it consists of 90% truth and 10% distorted truth. The 90% truth gets our attention, and then the distortion subtly misinforms us, leading us off of the path and keeping us ignorant. It is certainly easy to see that the news media employs these tactics. I feel that 'Avatar' is yet another example of this.

Even the use of the word 'avatar' is a distortion. An Avatar is an incarnation of divinity, an enlightened, ascended being who descends into physical form in order to help, usually by offering teachings. An Avatar is a being of pure love, incapable of violence. I believe that we are being misinformed when we are given the idea that our problems will be solved by some messiah figure who will lead us through the battle. We can't sit around waiting for 'the chosen one'. We must solve our problems together, collectively.

I truly believe that war is not, and never will be, the answer to the human dilemma. Even when one side is clearly and obviously 'good', which is rarely the case, we will never ward off evil on the battlefield. We cannot fight darkness with more darkness. Love is the only solution.

Source: whyislife.com

A CALL TO JOIN IN PLANETARY HEALING

Dr. Daniel J. Benor — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 10:41:00 GMT

Dear Wholistic Healing community,

Letme share a few thoughts about what I see as the potential and mission of all healers today:

Ifeel that the dense lack of awareness of people being energies and Spirit aswell as being material beings is a root cause (if not THE root cause) of manyof the world’s problems.

Isee the Wholistic Healing Community as a potential node for bringing more awareness and more healinginto the world.

Hereis a quote that speaks to this:

"Tome, I represent a unified field of love, so therefore I am a spokesperson forthe divine spark in all, which is going to be more and more illuminated as wedraw closer and closer to the prophesized shift date 2012… When this takesplace and the veils are lifted, including the one between life and death - wewill be given full access to the cosmos as galactic voyagers with free reign toaccess all levels of our being and existence. It is like the true power of Gaiathat regenerates itself and opens us up to its cosmic immortal nature, has beenreplaced by a force that carries parasitic beings that attach to people,harmful frequencies that control even the weather - also mind control, who feedoff of anything that gives it power because one is unaware of its influence.Without most of humanity knowing it, they are feeding this force. This is whatI was preparing to confront - those who are behind the technologies andagreements that keep us locked in global exile from the rest of the universeand our true selves. Our current reality is not fully running on the creativepower of each individual or our freedom and divinity - that part of us issomewhat sabotaged in exchange for a fear producing world filled with misusesof power, suffering, environmental degradation, Natural Disasters and neglectof those who are in great need. Our collective imbalance is what causes anyoutward imbalance, and it is due to this divine spark being so veiled andhidden, that we function on a whole other system that is completely out ofalignment with our organic make-up. The blueprints that the planet holds, weare meant to be aligned to in order to create in accordance with naturalcycles, the planetary grid and then also find in our own beings, the union ofpolarities. With this type of awareness, we can bridge the separation of Earthand the Heavens and understand different technologies and how they either workagainst or with our environment. We need to co-create with the Mother energy,there is only so much that this force can do, and now is the time tounify."

-Laura Magdalene Eisenhower -- Taken from 2012 and the Ancient Game:Venus-Sophia and Recruitment to Mars<http://sites.google.com/site/lauramagdalene/home/2012-and-the-ancient-game>

-More about her recent revelations in this article<http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-2912-Seattle-Exopolitics-Examiner%7Ey2010m2d10-Whistleblower-Laura-Magdalene-Eisenhower-Ikes-greatgranddaughter-outs-secret-Mars-colony-project> by long-time ERN subscriber AlfredLambremont Webre

-Forwarded by Jean Hudon Jean Hudon globalvisionary@earthrainbownetwork.com

‘Avatar,’the top hit film of all time, shows a variation of how the world could look inits oneness. It is good to see that somewhere inside the collectiveconsciousness there are resonations with this vision.

Manyare awakening to the oneness of all Creation.

Wethe Wholistic Healing Community can serve to facilitate this awakening and healing of our planet.

Withoutthis awakening, we are headed for disasters of unprecedented proportions.

Evenwith the awareness, we may have passed tipping points beyond which disastersare inevitable. In that case, the Wholistic Healing Community can be a node for bringing more healingto those transitioning out of our morass, and to whatever survivors remain.

Bybringing together the diverse visions of a healing reality distilled throughthe diverse members of the Wholistic Healing Community, we can come to a common denominator ofawareness and understanding of the deeper realities where we connect with ourhealing consciousness.

Workingtogether, we could be a greater healing presence on this fraught and imperiledplanet of ours.

Howcan we achieve this?

Canwe get beyond our differences and separation to work together?

Thatis our most important challenge.

Theclock is ticking...

What are YOU contributing to this healing?

Blessings

Dan

Gambling on Global Heating: Where do YOU put your chips?

Dr. Daniel J. Benor — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 14:49:00 GMT

Various thinly supported theories are put forward to suggest we are mistaken about global heating threatening the existence of every living organism on our planet Earth.

Here are a few observations on this subject from a recent email exchange with a wise friend, whose judgment i generally hold in very high respect and esteem.

And would you gamble, Jim, on this thinly supported theory, if you had the ability to control one or the other set of variables that are proposed to be causal in anticipated catastrophic climate change?

My read on the recent colder winters is from James Lovelock, who observed
"Despite the heat absorbed, the global temperature did not rise; in fact it fell slightly, perhaps because to melt ice it takes eighty-one times as much heat as to raise the same quantity of water one degree. This property of ice is called its “latent heat.” You can see this yourself by making a near full cup of tea with boiling water. It will be too hot even to sip. Adding cold water to cool it quickly rarely works; but add a single ice cube and it will be cool enough to drink in a few seconds. In a few more years all that floating ice may go, and then the sun will be free to heat the dark Arctic Ocean, No longer will it have the Sisyphean task of trying to melt white, reflecting ice that rejects 80 percent of the sunlight it receives so that to melt it consumes most of the radiant energy that would otherwise warm the ocean."
Lovelock, James. The Vanishing Face of Gaia- A Final Warning. New York, NY: Basic Books 2009, p. 16-17.

For gambling odds, see this excellent discussion
Risks of global heating
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mF_anaVcCXg

Blessings

Dan

Forwarded by: Jim and Andrea MacKimmie
Fw: Earth on the Brink of an Ice Age

This is the kind of information that has been ignored and suppressed by the fans of Anthropogenic Global Warming. It indicates the influence of Man is a negligible factor in the climatology of the Earth, and will remain so. Man’s hubris and ignorance continue to be the most detrimental impediments to his health, peace and happiness on this Earth. In fact, the only truly significant geophysical problem being significantly impacted by human indulgence and stupidity is pollution of the oceans, and while that will not in any way permanently damage the Earth, which over a long time can self purify, it might engender a temporary, accelerating toxicity that would endanger mankind much faster than it has even been imagined Global Warming ever could. jb

Earth on the Brink of an Ice Age

by Gregory F. Fegel

The earth is now on the brink of entering another Ice Age, according to a large and compelling body of evidence from within the field of climate science. Many sources of data which provide our knowledge base of long-term climate change indicate that the warm, twelve thousand year-long Holocene period will rather soon be coming to an end, and then the earth will return to Ice Age conditions for the next 100,000 years.

Ice cores, ocean sediment cores, the geologic record, and studies of ancient plant and animal populations all demonstrate a regular cyclic pattern of Ice Age glacial maximums which each last about 100,000 years, separated by intervening warm interglacials, each lasting about 12,000 years.

Most of the long-term climate data collected from various sources also shows a strong correlation with the three astronomical cycles which are together known as the Milankovich cycles. The three Milankovich cycles include the tilt of the earth, which varies over a 41,000 year period; the shape of the earthâs orbit, which changes over a period of 100,000 years; and the Precession of the Equinoxes, also known as the earthâs "wobble," which gradually rotates the direction of the earthâs axis over a period of 26,000 years. According to the Milankovich theory of Ice Age causation, these three astronomical cycles, each of which effects the amount of solar radiation which reaches the earth, act together to produce the cycle of cold Ice Age maximums and warm interglacials.

Elements of the astronomical theory of Ice Age causation were first presented by the French mathematician Joseph Adhemar in 1842, it was developed further by the English prodigy Joseph Croll in 1875, and the theory was established in its present form by the Serbian mathematician Milutin Milankovich in the 1920s and 30s. In 1976 the prestigious journal Science published a landmark paper by John Imbrie, James Hays, and Nicholas Shackleton entitled "Variations in the Earth's orbit: Pacemaker of the Ice Ages," which described the correlation which the trio of scientist/authors had found between the climate data obtained from ocean sediment cores and the patterns of the astronomical Milankovich cycles. Since the late 1970s, the Milankovich theory has remained the predominant theory to account for Ice Age causation among climate scientists, and hence the Milankovich theory is always described in textbooks of climatology and in encyclopaedia articles about the Ice Ages.

In their 1976 paper Imbrie, Hays, and Shackleton wrote that their own climate forecasts, which were based on sea-sediment cores and the Milankovich cycles, "· must be qualified in two ways. First, they apply only to the natural component of future climatic trends ö and not to anthropogenic effects such as those due to the burning of fossil fuels. Second, they describe only the long-term trends, because they are linked to orbital variations with periods of 20,000 years and longer. Climatic oscillations at higher frequencies are not predicted... the results indicate that the long-term trend over the next 20,000 years is towards extensive Northern Hemisphere glaciation and cooler climate."

During the 1970s the famous American astronomer Carl Sagan and other scientists began promoting the theory that "greenhouse gasses" such as carbon dioxide, or CO2, produced by human industries could lead to catastrophic global warming. Since the 1970s the theory of "anthropogenic global warming" (AGW) has gradually become accepted as fact by most of the academic establishment, and their acceptance of AGW has inspired a global movement to encourage governments to make pivotal changes to prevent the worsening of AGW.

The central piece of evidence that is cited in support of the AGW theory is the famous "hockey stick" graph which was presented by Al Gore in his 2006 film An Inconvenient Truth. The "hockey stick" graph shows an acute upward spike in global temperatures which began during the 1970s and continued through the winter of 2006/07. However, this warming trend was interrupted when the winter of 2007/8 delivered the deepest snow cover to the Northern Hemisphere since 1966 and the coldest temperatures since 2001. It now appears that the current Northern Hemisphere winter of 2008/09 will probably equal or surpass the winter of 2007/08 for both snow depth and cold temperatures.

The main flaw in the AGW theory is that its proponents focus on evidence from only the past one thousand years at most, while ignoring the evidence from the past million years ö evidence which is essential for a true understanding of climatology. The data from paleoclimatology provides us with an alternative and more credible explanation for the recent global temperature spike, based on the natural cycle of Ice Age maximums and interglacials.

In 1999 the British journal Nature published the results of data derived from glacial ice cores collected at the Russiaâs Vostok station in Antarctica during the 1990s. The Vostok ice core data includes a record of global atmospheric temperatures, atmospheric CO2 and other greenhouse gases, and airborne particulates starting from 420,000 years ago and continuing through history up to our present time.

The graph of the Vostok ice core data shows that the Ice Age maximums and the warm interglacials occur within a regular cyclic pattern, the graph-line of which is similar to the rhythm of a heartbeat on an electrocardiogram tracing. The Vostok data graph also shows that changes in global CO2 levels lag behind global temperature changes by about eight hundred years. What that indicates is that global temperatures precede or cause global CO2 changes, and not the reverse. In other words, increasing atmospheric CO2 is not causing global temperature to rise; instead the natural cyclic increase in global temperature is causing global CO2 to rise.

The reason that global CO2 levels rise and fall in response to the global temperature is because cold water is capable of retaining more CO2 than warm water. That is why carbonated beverages loose their carbonation, or CO2, when stored in a warm environment. We store our carbonated soft drinks, wine, and beer in a cool place to prevent them from loosing their "fizz," which is a feature of their carbonation, or CO2 content. The earth is currently warming as a result of the natural Ice Age cycle, and as the oceans get warmer, they release increasing amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere.

Because the release of CO2 by the warming oceans lags behind the changes in the earthâs temperature, we should expect to see global CO2 levels continue to rise for another eight hundred years after the end of the earthâs current Interglacial warm period. We should already be eight hundred years into the coming Ice Age before global CO2 levels begin to drop in response to the increased chilling of the worldâs oceans.

The Vostok ice core data graph reveals that global CO2 levels regularly rose and fell in a direct response to the natural cycle of Ice Age minimums and maximums during the past four hundred and twenty thousand years. Within that natural cycle, about every 110,000 years global temperatures, followed by global CO2 levels, have peaked at approximately the same levels which they are at today.

Today we are again at the peak, and near to the end, of a warm interglacial, and the earth is now due to enter the next Ice Age. If we are lucky, we may have a few years to prepare for it. The Ice Age will return, as it always has, in its regular and natural cycle, with or without any influence from the effects of AGW.

The AGW theory is based on data that is drawn from a ridiculously narrow span of time and it demonstrates a wanton disregard for the "big picture" of long-term climate change. The data from paleoclimatology, including ice cores, sea sediments, geology, paleobotany and zoology, indicate that we are on the verge of entering another Ice Age, and the data also shows that severe and lasting climate change can occur within only a few years. While concern over the dubious threat of Anthropogenic Global Warming continues to distract the attention of people throughout the world, the very real threat of the approaching and inevitable Ice Age, which will render large parts of the Northern Hemisphere uninhabitable, is being foolishly ignored.

This article originally appeared in Pravda.

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Dr. Daniel J. Benor — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 14:25:00 GMT

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Tomorrow is the BIG Day - read on

Dr. Daniel J. Benor — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 21:58:00 GMT

HELP MAKE HISTORY TOMORROW & WIN WITH WHEE

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Chapters.Indigo.Ca WHEE Campaign Update

Dr. Daniel J. Benor — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 03:46:00 GMT

Bookmark this web page www.Paintap.com on Dec. 8th

On Tuesday, December 8th we are mounting a campaign at ChaptersBookstore in Canada to bring my book on WHEE into the TOP 7 BESTSELLING LIST.

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    for physical or emotional pains of all sorts...
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ALSO Get Hundreds of dollars worth of bonus offers, including:

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Distant healing with WHEE

Dr. Daniel J. Benor — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 16:48:00 GMT

Dear Daniel,

I have three of your books and believe in distant surrogate/proxy WHEE, but haven't been able to get it working. I get the impression that ability to induce physical changes from a distance is strongly related to the bioenergetic balance without our systems. I spend at least 25 minutes/day doing slow abdominal ujjayi breathing per day, use WHEE and related myself, follow Eckhart Toll's teachings, etc. What can I do to increase my 'prayer power'?

If you come to Australia at any stage please let me know.

Best regards,

Blake Graham, B.Sc (Honours)
Clinical Nutritionist

Dear Blake,

You ask deep and important questions, to which human answers are but partial guesses/ intuits/ understandings/ ...

Wholistic healing is not a ‘perform on demand’ modality. It taps into the collective consciousness, where each of us is like a brain cell in the mind of the All.

The mind of the All often has views, understandings and plans that are far more complex than we can begin to conceive or even imagine.

Spiritual healing is a petition to the Infinite Source to shift what exists in present time. Sometimes we offer our healing at propitious/ intuited times when there are needs for extra energies/ unconditional love/ boosts to confidence/ encouragements to think/ look/ step outside the boxes we build around ourselves.

Sometimes we see the possibilities for changes that others are not yet ready/ able to see. They may need energies for clearing old hurts/ traumas/ feelings/ etc in order to open a door in the walls they have built around themselves.

If we direct energies with the intent to change, before the other person has become aware of/ dealt with/ learned the lessons of whatever their life path is about, then the other person cannot/ will not accept our healing wishes/ energies.

If we send energies ‘for the highest good’ of others, then they are free to accept the energies for exactly whatever it is that they need at that moment.

Thanks for your question, which has helped me put into words in a more succinct way than before what I believe healing is about.

Thanks

Blessings

Dan

Play Me, I’m Yours: London 2009

Dr. Daniel J. Benor — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 07:47:00 GMT

Touring internationally since 2008, ‘Play Me, I’m Yours’ is an artwork by artist Luke Jerram

Presented for the City of London Festival and Sing London,30 street pianos were installed on streets, in public squares andparks, train stations, and markets. Like a creative blank canvas, thepianos were there for any member of the public to play and engage with.The pianos were in place for three weeks, after which time they were bedonated to local schools and community groups.

This website was made for you to post your comments, films andphotos about the pianos. It is aimed to help document each piano’sjourney whilst connecting the pianos and their communities across thecity.

Click here to see a heartwarming collection of photos and links to several impromptu performances. (You can click on the double arrows at the bottom right of the photos to advance them more slowly than they are set to rotate automatically.)

From http://www.dailygood.org

Blessings

Dan

Perpetuum Jazzile - Africa

Dr. Daniel J. Benor — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:44:00 GMT

Toto's Africa by Perpetuum Jazzile, performed live at Vokal Xtravaganzza 2008 (October 2008) - arranger Tomaž Kozlevčar.

For more information
To buy CD

Thunderstorm simulation effects inspired by Kearsney choir (South Africa).

Forwarded by Bonnie Reid

Blessings

Dan

If the image above does not appear on your screen, click on the link below.

Automobile pollution

Dr. Daniel J. Benor — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 05:05:00 GMT

FYConcern

Electric cars are available.

Click here for one example.

Blessings

Dan

A Break in Nature

Dr. Daniel J. Benor — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:29:00 GMT

Taking a break to visit a variety of nature scenes is healing.

Blessings

Dan

If the image does not appear above on your screen, click on the link below.

Building for environmentally sensitive people

Dr. Daniel J. Benor — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 05:32:00 GMT

OTTAWA’S FIRST 100% SMOKE-FREE, SCENT-FREE, PET-FREE AND CHEMICAL-FREE CONDOMINIUM APARTMENT BUILDING FOR INDIVIDUALS WITH ENVIRONMENTAL SENSITIVITIES

Ottawa – Wednesday, April 22, 2009

The Windmill Development Group Ltd, an industry leader in energy efficient and environmentally responsible housing, has partnered with Safe Housing Ottawa Inc. and the Parkway House Foundation, two charitable organizations, to build the first 100% smoke-free, scent-free, pet-free, and chemical-free condominium apartment building in the City of Ottawa.

This innovative housing development is designed to meet the needs of individuals who suffer from allergies, asthma, and environmental sensitivities. It is the first of its kind in both the City of Ottawa and the Province of Ontario.

Windmill Developments and Safe Housing Ottawa Inc. have started the City of Ottawa’s prescribed re-zoning process. A preliminary community meeting was held in Bay Ward on April 15, 2009. The proposed development will still be subject to the development team successfully working with the City of Ottawa and the local community to achieve a mutually satisfactory re-zoning proposal.

“This safe housing project is long overdue in Ottawa,” says Linda Nolan-Leeming, the design consultant for the new housing development, and the President of the Environmental Health Association of Ontario. “Too many people in Ottawa with allergies and environmental sensitivities move frequently because they cannot find a safe place to live. They are affected by the second-hand smoke and the scents from personal care, cleaning, and laundry products that seep into their apartment from neighbouring units. Individuals with environmental sensitivities are unable to detoxify and metabolize many of the chemicals typically used in home construction materials, such as urea formaldehyde, polyvinyl chloride, and solvents.”

“Indoor air pollution poses a serious health risk to a growing segment of the population,” says Louise Richard, a Registered Nurse, a Gulf War Veteran, and the President of Safe Housing Ottawa Inc. “Research shows that poor indoor air quality is linked to headaches, nausea, dizziness, fatigue, behavioural problems, cognitive impairments, and environmental sensitivities. These individuals experience symptoms at very low chemical exposures compared to the general public. Individuals with environmental sensitivities need safe housing so that they can recover their health and return to work.”

Windmill Developments is proposing a 12 storey residential building for individuals with environmental sensitivities and a 20 storey “green” building for the general public in the west end of Ottawa, near the intersection of Richmond Road and the Ottawa River Parkway. The developer’s plans also include the construction of a new building for Parkway House, a residence for twelve adults with physical disabilities, which is currently located on site.

“We are pleased to work with Safe Housing Ottawa and the Parkway House to bring this important project to market,” says Jonathan Westeinde, founder and managing partner of Windmill Development Group Inc.

Windmill Development Group Ltd will sell 24 units in the proposed 12 storey residential building to Safe Housing Ottawa Inc., which, in turn, will assist those looking for safe housing.

Windmill Development Group Ltd will sell an additional 50 units as market condominiums to those who agree to abide by the 100% smoke-free, scent-free, pet-free, and chemical-free policy.

Safe Housing Ottawa is being developed with assistance from the Canada-Ontario Affordable Housing Program and Action Ottawa.

Construction is targeted to begin in late 2009 and to be completed by the fall of 2010.

Visit OTTAWA’S FIRST 100% SMOKE-FREE, SCENT-FREE, PET-FREE
AND CHEMICAL-FREE CONDOMINIUM APARTMENT BUILDING
FOR INDIVIDUALS WITH ENVIRONMENTAL SENSITIVITIES

Ottawa – Wednesday, April 22, 2009

The Windmill Development Group Ltd, an industry leader in energy efficient and environmentally responsible housing, has partnered with Safe Housing Ottawa Inc. and the Parkway House Foundation, two charitable organizations, to build the first 100% smoke-free, scent-free, pet-free, and chemical-free condominium apartment building in the City of Ottawa.

This innovative housing development is designed to meet the needs of individuals who suffer from allergies, asthma, and environmental sensitivities. It is the first of its kind in both the City of Ottawa and the Province of Ontario.

Windmill Developments and Safe Housing Ottawa Inc. have started the City of Ottawa’s prescribed re-zoning process. A preliminary community meeting was held in Bay Ward on April 15, 2009. The proposed development will still be subject to the development team successfully working with the City of Ottawa and the local community to achieve a mutually satisfactory re-zoning proposal.

“This safe housing project is long overdue in Ottawa,” says Linda Nolan-Leeming, the design consultant for the new housing development, and the President of the Environmental Health Association of Ontario. “Too many people in Ottawa with allergies and environmental sensitivities move frequently because they cannot find a safe place to live. They are affected by the second-hand smoke and the scents from personal care, cleaning, and laundry products that seep into their apartment from neighbouring units. Individuals with environmental sensitivities are unable to detoxify and metabolize many of the chemicals typically used in home construction materials, such as urea formaldehyde, polyvinyl chloride, and solvents.”

“Indoor air pollution poses a serious health risk to a growing segment of the population,” says Louise Richard, a Registered Nurse, a Gulf War Veteran, and the President of Safe Housing Ottawa Inc. “Research shows that poor indoor air quality is linked to headaches, nausea, dizziness, fatigue, behavioural problems, cognitive impairments, and environmental sensitivities. These individuals experience symptoms at very low chemical exposures compared to the general public. Individuals with environmental sensitivities need safe housing so that they can recover their health and return to work.”

Windmill Developments is proposing a 12 storey residential building for individuals with environmental sensitivities and a 20 storey “green” building for the general public in the west end of Ottawa, near the intersection of Richmond Road and the Ottawa River Parkway. The developer’s plans also include the construction of a new building for Parkway House, a residence for twelve adults with physical disabilities, which is currently located on site.

“We are pleased to work with Safe Housing Ottawa and the Parkway House to bring this important project to market,” says Jonathan Westeinde, founder and managing partner of Windmill Development Group Inc.

Windmill Development Group Ltd will sell 24 units in the proposed 12 storey residential building to Safe Housing Ottawa Inc., which, in turn, will assist those looking for safe housing.

Windmill Development Group Ltd will sell an additional 50 units as market condominiums to those who agree to abide by the 100% smoke-free, scent-free, pet-free, and chemical-free policy.

Safe Housing Ottawa is being developed with assistance from the Canada-Ontario Affordable Housing Program and Action Ottawa.

Construction is targeted to begin in late 2009 and to be completed by the fall of 2010.

Visit www.chemicalfreehousing.ca for details about this housing development.

Forwarded by Bonnie Reid

Comments:
Increasing numbers of people are suffering from high allergy sensitivities. It may be difficult for someone who is unfamiliar with this to appreciate just how difficult and frustrating it can be for someone who cannot tolerate scents of perfume, cologne, cleaning fluids, paint, petrochemicals and many other substances. For these people, this housing would be an enormous blessing.

In addition to isolating oneself from the offending substances, it is possible to reduce one's sensitivities to them by using Energy Psychology methods. WHEEh is a helpful approach that can lessen allergy responses. WHEE is also helpful for lowering stress levels that contribute to and worsen allergy sensitivities.

Blessings

Dan

Thoughtful observations on population shifts

Dr. Daniel J. Benor — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 13:15:00 GMT

Three Migrations

STEPHAN A. SCHWARTZ
Editor - Explore - The Journal of Science and Healing

Migration. The word evokes for me, and perhaps for you, images from the Bible. Charlton Heston's Moses leading the Jews out of Egypt, across the Red Sea, and into the desert that lies beyond. Masses of people collectively on the move with common purpose, bringing with them all their goods and chattels. Never expecting to return. More than war, more than climate catastrophe, more than pandemics-migrations are a force for change. And this is as true for first world countries like the United States, Europe, or Japan, as it is for developing nations like China or Third World countries such as the nations of Africa.

Migrations come in two varieties: glacial and volcanic. The 1994 Tutsi flood that poured out of Rwanda and the several million non-Islamic Sudanese forced from their villages by the progovernment Janjaweed militias are volcanic migrations-violent ejections of populations based on immediate crisis. The volcanic time frame is short term, because just as the Rwandans-both Hutu and Tutsi-came back as soon as it was possible, those ejected by a volcanic migration do not surrender their allegiance to their homeland and always hope to return. Theirs is the commonsense response of simple people caught in the ravenous jaws of some greater political purpose. In contrast, glacial movements represent a general surrender of allegiance to the old land and an embracement of the new home, and typically take place over several generations. The Irish diaspora to the New World, resulting from the Corn Laws and the Potato Famine in the 19th century-a migration that profoundly changed America-is an example of this process. The movement of Hispanics into North America is another. Mostly because of their timing cycle, and because each decision to move seems so personal and unrushed, true migrations often occur beneath public awareness until they are largely a fait accompli that has reshaped the world that is the migration's goal. The response is really more about the change wrought than the migration that produced it.

Within large lands, migrations can also be internal. The Chinese, for instance, are actively encouraging the migration of Han Chinese into Tibet as a way of cementing the connection between Tibet and mainland China. America similarly encouraged homesteading as a way of claiming the central plains from Native Americans, about which I will have more to say later.

Right now, three major migrations are actively at work changing the face of the United States. Their effects hold implications for every aspect of American life, from healthcare to education to what kind of arts are publicly supported. Understanding them is critically important, because if we do not correctly understand them, we will invest possibly trillions of dollars and millions of work hours constructing bridges to nowhere.

The Coming White Minority

The Census Bureau reported in August 2008 that by 2042, America will be majority nonwhite. Those who identify themselves as Hispanic, black, Asian, American Indian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander will collectively outnumber non-Hispanic whites. Some demographers believe the actual tip point will occur even earlier, and they may well be right. This latest projection by the Census Bureau accelerates by six years the official projections made previously, in 2004, that saw this shift happening in 2050.

As Sam Roberts reported in The New York Times, 'The main reason for the accelerating change is significantly higher birthrates among immigrants. Another factor is the influx of foreigners, rising from about 1.3 million annually today to more than 2 million a year by mid-century, according to projections based on current immigration policies.â€1

Think about this for a moment; it stunned me when I first absorbed it as more than a statistic. In my lifetime, we have gone from separate drinking fountains segregated by race, to an American President who is by heritage half white, half African, half Christian, half Islamic. And now I, child of two earlier white migrations, am poised to become a minority because of new large migrations. It is a measure of the resilience of our political system, and the tolerance built into the culture as the result of that system's long endurance as an idea-the United States has the oldest continuous form of government on the planet-rather than a racial, ethnic, or religious grouping that this has happened. 'No other country has experienced such rapid racial and ethnic change,â€ observes Mark Mather, a demographer with the Population Reference Bureau, a research organization in Washington.1

'A momentum is built into this as a result of past immigration,â€ says Jeffrey S. Passel, senior demographer at the Pew Hispanic Center. 'In the 1970s, '80s and '90s, there were more Hispanic immigrants than births. This decade, there are more births than immigrants. Almost regardless of what you assume about future immigration, the country will be more Hispanic and Asian.â€1

The Reemergence of the Plains

They came in waves. It is one of the enduring iconic stories of our past, one of the legends we tell our children to teach them who they are. The Homesteaders, 'openingâ€ the Great Plains and the West, set in motion by the Homestead Act of 1862. They are there still in our mind's eye. Their wagons named for Conestoga, a small town in Pennsylvania where they were first made, became the most numinous conveyance in American history until the advent of the Model T. For people like the Mormons, the wood and canvas wagons are still a living presence. Fueled mostly by the migration of Scandinavians, Germans, Scots, and Irish from their homelands where land was parceled out to peasants on a scale of yards, the land of the Great Plains and beyond represented a scale that could scarcely be imagined by those millions who poured into America. The small towns that soon dotted the central corridor of the American land mass became the very thing we meant when we said, 'American heartland.â€ Beginning in the 1930s, though, the great experiment in family farming began to fail, replaced by massive agri-industrial farming requiring few people and many machines, and the towns were abandoned one by one. In the census of 1890, 'desolate landsâ€ were defined as land with a population of less than one person per 10 square miles. By the 1990s, parts of the Great Plains had reverted to that status.

The Inter-University Consortium For Political and Social Research studied this, concluding: 'In the next decades, aging farmers in the United States will make decisions that affect almost 1 billion acres of land. The future of this land will become more uncertain as farm transfer becomes more difficult, potentially changing the structure of agriculture through farm consolidation, changes in farm ownership and management, or taking land out of production.â€2 The common wisdom is that the 'Age of the Plainsâ€ is over.

But it isn't quite that simple, nor that gloomy. To be sure, the farming village heartland of story, movie, and song is gone and will not return. But the Great Plains will remain the nation's breadbasket and the primary source of wheat, as well as much of the barley, corn, flaxseed, sunflowers, sorghum, cotton, and cattle. As Jim Stephens, president of Farmers National Commodities, and a grain-marketing consultant says, 'Despite population declines in many areas, the total acres of corn, soybean and wheat in Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and Montana are up 7.2 million acres since 1950 to 48.3 million acres.â€3

However, as the European model of small family farms ends, new models of living on the plains are arising and a new migration is beginning. One of its most interesting aspects is the return of Native Americans to historic lands. Speaking of this, John Mitchell writes in National Geographic Magazine, 'If there was any surprise in the findings of the 2000 U.S. census, it wasn't so much the loss of population from half the counties in the Great Plains; those numbers had been ebbing for decades. The surprise was the disproportionate gain in counties that contain the region's Indian reservations, a growth that could not be pegged entirely to higher birthrates, better healthcare, casino jobs, and the availability of federally subsidized housing. Thousands of Native Americans long off the â€˜rezâ€™-Blackfeet, Crow, Flathead, Northern Cheyenne, Sioux-were putting the white man's cities behind them and heading for home. â€˜A lot of these people returning from the cities are retirees,' says Fred DuBray, a Sioux who manages the InterTribal Bison Cooperative near the Black Hills. â€˜This is where they want to be. This is where their heart is.'â€4

Another shift lies in retirees seeking quiet, less expensive retirements. And young families seeking much the same, at the other end of life. Small metropolitan areas near interesting geographical features, or with the 'goodâ€ bones of architecture, or proximity to a college and a medical center are attracting these people, and are actually growing. Fargo, North Dakota, for example, grew by 20% between 1990 and 2000. Joining Fargo are towns such as Grand Forks, North Dakota, Dubuque, Iowa, and Casper, Wyoming, all of which have enjoyed significant growth. And inexpensive land costs near these groupings are attracting technical industry. But the factor that I believe will matter most is the one announced by President Obama, then President elect, on Monday, December 15, 2008, when he presented Nobel Laureate physicist Stephen Chu and the others he described as his 'energy and environment teamâ€ to oversee the Green Transition and the shift in energy it represents. Why do I say this? Because through a stroke of extraordinary good fortune down these lonely flat states that constitute the nation's central spine, with few metropolitan installations to break its momentum, flows one of the best wind corridors in the world. Already, libertarian ranchers, normally defined by their independence, are banding together to form wind cooperatives. We are about to experience something like the Oklahoma-Texas oil rush. And an entire new infrastructure is going to rise before our eyes. We are going to go back to the age when the Hoover Dam and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) lakes were created. As transportation from trains to automobiles shifts to electricity, and residential and office structures do the same, places with wind, like places with constant sun, are going to become extraordinarily valuable.

Perturbation on the Coasts

Some years ago I did a research study in which I asked a population of Japanese and a population of Americans to imagine a place.5 I then asked them to categorize it as being (1) a mountain, (2) a city, (3) a sacred space, (4) a technological installation, (5) a land-water interface, or (6) farmland. To an overwhelming degree, the Japanese picked 'a mountainâ€ and Americans selected 'land-water interface.â€ If one thinks about it, I believe it is not hard to see why this occurred. Japanese revere mountains in general, and Mount Fuji especially. It is a constant symbol in their art and literature. Americans are strongly oriented towards land-water interfaces. Our anthems speak of them, and our cultural memory is replete with tales that involve the shores of our oceans, lakes, and rivers and their deltas. Perhaps that is why, although worldwide about 40% of people live within 100 km/62 miles of a coastline or in land lying less than 10 meters/33 feet in height (the definition of coastal areas), in the United States that number is 53%.6 Nearly 160 million people live in coastal counties, an increase of 39 million since 1980. An additional 12 million are expected in the next decade. If the consensus models of climate change continue to correctly predict outcome, this cannot continue.

States like Florida are obviously going to be severely impacted by the rise of seawater, and there is a very real chance that the Keys will simply go under the waves. But that's just the obvious. Consider a state like New Jersey, where 60% of the population lives in a coastal county. Even in 2005, to those who bothered to look, the picture was remarkably grim, and recent developments suggest that those predictions, looking back from 2009, are not only holding true but are, perhaps, too conservative. Princeton University researchers led by Matthew Cooper carried out the 2005 study of the impact rising sea levels would have on the state and reported, 'Sea level rise is a significant and growing threat to New Jersey.â€7

Their study projected that 'as much as 9% of the state's low-lying land could be hit by periodic coastal flooding in a trend that would devastate property, disrupt wildlife, erode beaches, and salinate drinking water in populated areas. Worldwide, sea levels are expected to rise between 0.09 and 0.88 meter (0.29 and 2.88 feet) between 1990 and 2100. In New Jersey, the rise is projected at an overall 0.71 meter (2.3 feet) over the period.â€7

Much the same could be said about every state down the Eastern seaboard, where a vast megalopolis essentially runs from Boston to Norfolk. I invite my readers to visit a site maintained by the University of Arizona Department of Geosciences Environmental Studies Laboratory (http://geongrid.geo.arizona.edu/arcims/website/slrus48prvi/viewer.htm), where they have dynamic maps showing what the projected impact of sea level rise will be. It is a very scary picture. Clearly, people in the coastal regions are going to experience radical change in their living patterns, and one probable outcome will be a migration back from the present coastline to some safer line inland.

All of these migrations are occurring now, and will produce powerful forces for change in our future that will accelerate as the century spools out. They matter now, however, because thanks to the new Obama administration, we are undertaking the first massive national infrastructure building effort since the interstate highway program began in the 1950s. If the 'past is prologueâ€ and we must live for the next several generations on the decisions we make today, then it is important to our lives, and particularly the lives of our children and grandchildren, that we make decisions about where to place hospitals, schools, libraries, and other public facilities based not only on present needs and population patterns, but, also on the needs and patterns three decades from now. The time when climate change deniers could be taken seriously is long past, and the choices we make in the next few months will largely describe the America we live in tomorrow.

References

1. 1Roberts S. In a generation, minorities may be the U.S. majority. The New York Times. August 14, 2008 www.nytimes.com/2008/08/14/washington/14census.htmlAccessed August 14, 2008.

2. 2Leonard SH, Gutmann MP. Land-use and transfer plans in the U.S. Great Plains. Great Plains Res. 2006;16(2):181â€“194.

3. 3El Nassar H. Life of the plains is anything but plain, simple. USA Today. August 13, 2007 www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-08-12-great-plains_N.htmAccessed December 7, 2008.

4. 4Mitchell JG. Change of the heartland. National Geographic MagazineMay 2004 ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0405/feature1/index.htmlAccessed December 7, 2008.

5. 5Schwartz SA, De Mattei RJ. The Mobius Psi-Q Test: Preliminary Findings. In: Roll WG, Beloff J, White R editor. Research in Parapsychology. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press; 1983;p. 103â€“105.

6. 6United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme, World Bank, World Resources Institute World Resources Institute. World Resources 2000-2001: People and Ecosystems: The Fraying Web of Life. Washington, DC: World Resources Institute; 2000;http://www.wri.org/wr2000Accessed December 5, 2008.

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