Recent Epoch
11,000 years ago to the present

Average longevity of species is about 5 to 10 million years according to the fossil records. But now man has reduced the longevity of species to under 100 years.

12,000- 10,500 YEARS AGO

 
The Earth warms-up once again, ending the last Ice Age.

The Island of Tasmania is formed south of the Australian mainland as water rushes over to form Bass Strait, and the Mediterranean Sea is created as sea levels rose by at least 74 and as much as 120 metres. It may have taken 7,000 years to raise world temperatures by 5 degrees to achieve this, but eventually it happened. (1)

NOTE: The Black Sea later appeared around 7,000 years ago. It is the place were the fabled story of an old man named Noah, a great flood and messages from a God speaking to the man of the impending disater as revealed in the Bible was thought to have taken place. Today, some scientists are questioning who or what is this God.


Sea floor imaging showing the topography below the oceans of south-east Australia. (Source: Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia web site, 2007).

Interestingly, a study of some great civilisations such as the Aztecs reveal stories of a great flood occurring at this time. Some civilisations were thought to have been destroyed and new ones formed as a result of the great flood. Whether this is true or not and if this is related to the end of the Ice Age, more scientific evidence is needed to confirm the stories.

At any rate, prehistoric man continued to hunt and gather food and lived in groups of between 20 and 100 individuals, averaging about 40 people. On rare occasions, some groups in different parts of the world would swell to great numbers (approximately 10,000 people) forming what are crudely known as human civilisations. Human population throughout the world probably didn't exceed 5 million.

Michael S. Bisson from the Anthropology Department at McGill University, Montreal, Canada, said:

'At the end of the Pleistocene, there was a dramatic warming of the climate that had very important ecological consequences. First, the polar ice caps melted back significantly as well as the continental ice sheets. This raised ocean levels and isolated North America from east Asia, and also isolated Japan and parts of Indonesia from the Asian land mass. This allowed genetic drift to create new forms of new species in these different areas. At the same time, cold-adapted animals — particularly the large mammals such as the Mammoths — no longer had an environment in which they could survive and they became extinct, perhaps helped by human hunting. In other parts of the world, however, increases in temperature generated much bigger increases in biomass. Animal and plant productivity increased and this created important opportunities for humans.' (Quote from the French documentary film Homo Sapiens: He Domesticates Nature produced by France 3 Production Sud-Ouest, France 5 TSR RTBF, To Do Today Productions (Belgium), CAB Productions (Switzerland), Productions Pixcom (Canada), Ballistic Pictures (South Africa), Tang Media (China), Danit Rossner (Israel). 2004.)


Michael S. Bisson. (Image from the French documentary film Homo Sapiens: He Domesticates Nature, 2004. ).

 

10,000 YEARS AGO

 
A number of animal species became extinct such as Wolly Mammoths, Wolly Rhinos, Bisons, and the Sabre-Toothed cats. Perhaps it was caused by a natural change in world climate after the last Ice Age? Or more likely the reason may be to do with the presence of humans growing in numbers and finding more efficient and effective ways of hunting some animals for food and perhaps for pleasure. Once the main food supply was gone, it can easily bring down with it other species in the ecology.

## SPECIAL UPDATE ##
13 May 2006
A poorly reported study in The Canberra Times (forcing readers to check the Nature edition this week for names of scientists and their official quotes) claims carbon-dating of more than 600 bones from bison, wapiti, moose, humans, wild horses and mammoths recovered from Alaska and the Yukon Territory suggest the timing for human habitation was either a little late (the fossils for humans in these regions seem to point to a figure of 12,300 years ago and not earlier) or left very little time for humans to cause the extinction of an animal such as the Wolly mammoths. Scientists are inclined to believe the extinction was probably due to climate change. In other words, 2,300 years is said to be not enough for humans to cause the demise of a large animal such as the Wolly Mammoths. The scientists of this study, however, are putting the decline of the Wolly Mammoths at closer to 11,800 years ago, rather than 10,000 years ago. We assume this is from the fossil records. So we are left with a time frame of say 500 years for humans to do the damage.

Is it possible?

Well, the study doesn't discount the possibility humans could have had an impact. It just suggests the available human bone fragments put them at a time where it seems there was little time for humans to create the damage. But is it not possible for these humans to have been living in these areas at an earlier time? And could 500 years be enough to hunt some of the animals to extinction?

As for the warming of the planet starting from 13,000 years ago, one would think this would have favoured the existence of these larger animals with extra grass.

Some scientists are not too sure, suggesting the muddy grasslands would be an impediment for larger animals trying to escape predators including humans.

So why not migrate to warmer and less muddy regions? Or travel closer to the poles? Animals would surely take an easier route so long as there is food beneath the snow. It would explain why these creatures survived the previous Ice Ages and interglacial periods.

Now some scientists are thinking it might be due to humans after realising these larger animals were genetically predisposed to producing very few offsprings. If human populations expanded in the warmer interglacial period and hunted in greater numbers the remaining adult wolly mammoths, there may be little time for these animals to recover and produce enough offsprings to maintain its own population.

But did this all occur between 12,300 and 11,800 years ago? Further work is taking place to find out.

 

9,800 - 6,000 YEARS AGO

 
For a couple of thousand years after the end of the last Ice Age (certainly by 9,800 years ago), food was in plentiful supply. Humans could walk a short distance to gather food and return to the tribe without too much difficulties. Perhaps humans would occasionally migrate to warmer regions during the winter to continue gathering food. However something happened around 8,000 years ago to change this situation.

An increasing number of humans seem to no longer be interested in migrating all the time perhaps out of fear of losing their territory to other humans.

In what is classified as the Neolithic Age, either food supplies did dwindle or became too unpredictable for some reason. Whatever the cause, it forced humans to see the usefulness of cultivating specific plants and breeding certain types of animals to help maximise and stabilise the food supply for humans in a region. Among the foods being cultivated and bred extensively for humans around 8,000 years ago include wheat, rice, oats, barley, cattle, chickens and goats to name a few.

Humans were also learning to store grains to last the cold winters, thereby avoiding the need to migrate to warmer lands.

This kind of human activity kind would also coincide with an anomalous rise in the levels of methane and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere preventing what would have been, as the scientists believe, the next expected cooling of the planet and possibly another Ice Age starting around 5,000 years ago according to recent computer models of world climate over the past 400,000 years. Apparently something was increasing the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at this time. And what could that be?

Did humans suddenly evolve into a new species known as Homo Flaturectumus? Highly unlikely. Even if humans could have caused this abundance in greenhouse gases through massive flatulence, it would have required a massive surge in population growth. Or were the cattle, chickens and other farm animals contributing significantly to the greenhouse gases? Certainly methane is 22 times more potent in trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbond dioxide. And humans would have needed to produce more animals for food. Or what about the cutting down of trees and the burning of wood by humans?

Evidence to support the increase in the two important greenhouse gases by around 5,000 years ago comes from precise measurements into the types and amount of gases found present in the ancient atmosphere through tiny ancient air bubbles trapped in the Antarctic ice. As Professor Bill Ruddiman of the University of Virginia said during a meeting of the American Geophysical Union on Tuesday 9 December 2003:

'[An analysis of the gases trapped in the ice shows] You have 395,000 years of history, which sets some rules, and 5000 years that break those rules.' (2)

So what was causing the increase in greenhouse gases? Ruddiman suggested humans were affecting the climate in a slow and steady rate over a period of 3,000 years because of the way they were organising their natural environment nearly 8,000 years ago. He believes it is possible the clearing of forests, planting crops and raising livestock were integral to explaining the rise in greenhouse gases.

So while things appeared to be warming up at this time, a greater number of humans were organising their food supplies and making the environment more suitable for them to live.

To make life even easier for people, trade and travel had to be integral at this time. Trade is the means by which people can acquire and sell exotic foods, new tools and clothing, and in exchange obtain certain other valuable services.

Among the new and valuable materials being discovered for a successful trade at this time by humans include a rare and one of the hardest substances on Earth called obsidian formed by lava cooling rapidly. Because of its hardness and durability, this glass-like material was fashioned into cutting implements considered more sharper and tougher than stone implements.

The world's first artifical and portable mirrors made of obsidian for humans to look at themselves were also developed. (3) Not such a bad idea considering the increasing damage humans have been placing on the environment since the end of the last Ice Age.

 

5,000 - 7,000 YEARS AGO

 
World human populations reach around 50 million nearly 7,000 years ago (ie. 5,000 B.C.E).

At around this time, ancient people visiting the island of Malta in the Mediterranean Sea were initially greeted with a natural environment abundant with vegetation and a reasonably fertile soil. Then around 5,000 years ago (ie. 3,000 B.C.E), the societies on the island effectively denuded the fragile landscape of its natural vegetation, allowing severe soil erosion to rob the land of its productivity.

The environmental degradation caused humans on the island to go through high stress periods as agricultural yields became unpredictable and costs to produce food went up. Eventually the societies became more introverted (only a few powerful extraverted people had knowledge of the outside world and used whatever methods available to control the information in order to maintain power), relied less on imports from other countries, and turned to religious sculpture and art where the people began worshipping the gods, hoping the foods would be plentiful again.

As starvation and death became a common sight among the Maltese societies, the people showed a religious obsession with life and death.

Small stone statuettes from the island showing images of obese human figures as a sign of fertility were common. The large numbers of such stone artifacts gives an indication of the obsession these people had in religion when the environment was seriously damaged.

A cult society with a religious hierarchy consisting of priests at the top of this controlling structure appeared in the final stages of the societies' collapse around 4,500 years ago. People were made to feel compelled to honour the dead, placing the dead in burial chambers and caves, following many religious rites, making statuettes to link the dead with animals and human obesity, and expending immense energy to build temples at the request of the priests.

Soon the death toll rose and the need for people to remove the older bones to make room for the dead became paramount.

Not long after, all this temple building suddenly ceased, the priests lost power, and a new religious practice began. By around 4,000 years ago (ie. 2,000 B.C.E.), the old religious culture disappeared altogether in favour of cremation burials. No more statuettes of fat women would be created for this moment on.

Today, the people of Malta live on a hilly relatively treeless island with very little fresh water and a land seemingly inhospitable for farmers to grow anything. The people rely more on fishing, the tourism dollar, and food imports from its neighbouring countries to survive.

Also occurring at this time is a great flood filling a formerly freshwater lake as the Mediterranean Sea rose high enough to break through a canyon of several miles in width. It has been estimated that after 30 to 90 days, the lake turned into a large body of salt water. Today we now call this large body of water the Black Sea.

 

5,300 YEARS AGO

 
German amateur mountaineer Helmut Simon and his wife discovered in September 1991 the remains of what is now known to the scientists as "The Iceman" or Ötzi as many would prefer to call him. Believed to be of central-northern European origin through DNA analysis, the 159-centimetre tall iceman died in late spring or early summer while sheltering behind a rock in the treacherous Alps nearly 5,300 years ago (ie. the Neolithic, or New Stone Age period). So dangerous is this part of the world that Mr Simon fell to his own death in October 2004 near the spot where Ötzi was discovered just when the weather suddenly turned bad.

Other people were also caught in the storm and had to be rescued by helicopter. Such bad weather is believed to be how Ötzi came to his end.

Analysis of the body suggests he died at the ripe old age of 46 years. Some evidence of arthritis can be observed in the lower spine, right knee and ankle suggesting he did a lot of walking through the mountains. A look at the contents of his last meal suggests he may have been a shaman relying on medicinal mushrooms and grains for his sustenance. But he also ate red deer and alpine ibex (wild goat) to complement his diet.

Clothing consisted of a bearskin hat, three layers of clothing — consisting of leggings, loincloth and jacket made of deer hide and goat, and a cape made of grass and bast — and shoes made of bearskin soles, goat-skin uppers and grass to insulate his feet.

The man was involved in some fighting with x-ray images revealing an arrowhead in his shoulder blade according to Paul Gostner and Eduard Egarter Vigl of the Regional Hospital of Bolzano in Italy. There is also a deep cut between the index finger and the thumb on the right hand. Histological analysis of the cut suggests the injury happened between three and eight days before his death. And DNA tests confirmed traces of blood on his clothing from four different people according to Tom Loy of the University of Queensland.

So who was the iceman and what was he doing towards the end of his life?

Scientists have speculated on his life based on emerging evidence. The first explanation suggested by scientists nearly 10 years ago is that he was a shepherd preparing for a usual trip over the mountains in early alpine springtime. Except on this occasion the weather turned nastier than he expected and his health for such an old man was not as good as he thought. Maybe this is how he died.

Some scientists, notably Professor Walter Leitner of the University of Innsbruck, has suggested an alternative explanation as more forensic details emerged since 2003. The appearance of an arrowhead in the shoulder blade and the presence of a sharp axe the old man was carrying around suggests he may have been a travelling trader and blacksmith dealing in recycling copper for local communities. Being a stranger, it is possible he may have got himself into a fight with young rivals and tried to escape by foot over the mountains where he hoped the rivals would not pursue him. This he may have succeeded. But on this occasion, despite his experience with the mountains, he may have timed it badly when the weather suddenly turned nasty and a blizzard ensured he paid the ultimate price.

Either that or he was being pursued by his rivals who wanted him dead in the mountains knowing how quickly the weather was turning bad.

The latest forensic evidence suggests a third and final explanation. This explanation suggests he was not a stranger but a local. Trace isotope elements in the teeth composed of strontium 87/88 and oxygen suggests he didn't travel further than 60 kilometres from where he was born. Combined with the deep fresh cut in his hand which could be a defensive move against a sharp implement and the blood from four different individuals on his clothes and axe, it is possible the man was involved in a major fight between tribal groups near the end of his life.

Weakened by his wounds, he could have decided to make a desperate trip over the mountains to return to his homeland only to be caught in a severe blizzard.

The truth is, scientists don't really know for sure. We have tantalising glimpses into the life of the iceman. But not enough to give a firm answer as to what really happened to him. Stay tuned for further details.

 

5,000 YEARS AGO

 
The first known evidence of writing for recording events, how much of something was available, and various other things is thought to have began during this time. The record-keeping was primarily to mark how much or how many of something was available, who did what, and when is the best time to grow food and perform certain ceremonies (considered by some psychologists as a strongly L-brain activity).

As the development of writing was taking place, the Bronze Age also began at around this time (ie. 3,000 BC) in the city states of Mesopotamia. Prior to the invention of bronze, people were using stones, copper and obsidian as tools.

Apart from the L-brain skills needed to develop effective writing and communication, this was also an inventive time (ie. a R-brain skill) when the lands of Mesopotamia were sufficiently fertile enough to grow enough food for everyone where enough craftsmen would free up their time to experiment with different materials.

It was here that certain craftsmen learned to combine tin and copper in their smelting furnaces to create a new metal called bronze. Bronze had the benefit of being a much harder material than ordinary copper for making durable products.

At first bronze tools were made for the rich and powerful in society. After a while it slowly tricked down to the rest of society. For very low costs, pottery made from clay and heated in a furnace still remained the best option for most people.

However being rich can bring out the worse in other people as they fight for the riches. Therefore the need for a new metal such as bronze to protect the rich and the infrastructure eventually grabbed the attention of the military and soon bronze became the metal of choice for building more sophisticated weapons.

 

4,900 - 3,000 YEARS AGO

 
Humans had well and truly discovered the usefulness of metals for creating very sharp cutting implements considered vital for hunting, protection and fighting other humans and predators.

Early metals used by humans tended to be soft and easily damaged (eg. copper) after repeated blows to predators, trees, and later other humans. But soon the metals were carefully selected (eg. bronze at around 5,000 years ago and iron at around 3,300 years ago) for their hardness and durability and were fashioned using new technologies to help melt the metals and combine them in the right way as well as clever techniques to harden the metals such as rapid cooling and adding some impurities like carbon to the metals.

NOTE: Military wars remained common at this time as people enjoyed a sense of power and wanted to maintain territories containing valuable resources for their survival and wealth. Metals were considered a new and important part of the military at this time. Today, humans are no different except for the metals we use — now progressed to the use of titanium for jet fighters and missiles.

Horses are domesticated by humans as a form of transport and to overwhelm the enemy with shear size and speed together with the skills of the rider to wield a sword.

 

4,600 YEARS AGO

 
The world's oldest known human civilisations proven by archaelogical finds have been dated to this time (although it is likely civilisations existed prior to this time)

Perhaps you might be asking, "Why create a civilisation?" This is a good question. Maybe the answer lies in the sorts of benefits people receive with the least amount of effort when getting into a group situation with other human beings.

With new and exciting products made with metals, mirrors, hallucinatory drugs from various plants, and other services (eg. sex) to meet the needs and wants of people at this time and so make life more bearable and enjoyable, trade had to exist.

Where there was significant trade among one or more groups of people in a confined area, the propensity for humans to develop a large civilisation by building houses, roads and other infrastructure (since trade would mean people could stay in one spot for a very long time) to help support the trade would have been great.

Already we see the beginnings of a civilisation through trade.

Similarly, the art of warfare can lead to the development of a civilisation. Getting into a group situation is considered vital to improving the individual's chances of survival when fighting other groups. The only extra thing that is needed are other people to provide the food and various services to help maintain this type of military-based civilisation.

But for how long can any civilisation be maintained?

Would the people of a civilisation become so successful in surviving that there is plenty of time to develop many of the more R-brain activities such as the arts? Or does religion become increasingly more important as people used up the remaining resources and soon contemplate the issues of life and death, why we are here, and what happens to us when we die? Or do the L-brain skills continue to be maintained as a civilisation continues to fight on regardless of the potential benefit of other people all for the sake of acquiring everything in the known world?

Or is there something else to maintain the civilisation?

Whatever maintains a civilisation, the people must have a belief. People have to believe in something and one which had to be in common with others in the civilisation in order for the civilisation to be maintained and supported for a long time.

Otherwise brute force must be used on ordinary citizens to work under the rulers to maintain a certain belief. We see this in ancient Egypt.

For the Egyptian civilisation that flourished nearly 2600 BC (or 4,600 years ago), great wealth, power and importance was thought to be the dominant theme for the leaders. Why? Certain rich individuals realised they could live longer by being rich and powerful. Hence a belief was born that perhaps they could live forever by somehow being the richest and most powerful leaders in the known world.

At first as certain people got richer through trade and had more time to think about things, the issue of death must have enter their minds many times. If people can get rich, why can't we forever enjoy the benefits of being rich? Why should people die?

After a while these rich people noticed one interesting observation: the more richer they were, the more it seemed they could live longer than the poorer members of the society.

This is how a civilisation is maintained by some rich people. By maintaining a civilisation, the quality and quantity of foods and other products being produced would improve to such an extent using the best available knowledge at the time that the leaders could see a direct correlation with long life and a reduction in the likelihood of experiencing death from disease, malnutrition and even slow down the onset of old age. Given enough time, a belief would be formed in the minds of these leaders based on this observation. It would be a belief that the more richer and powerful you became, the more likely you could live forever.

But there is still a problem here for the rich Egyptians. Despite all the wealth and access to quality materials, leaders still do die. How do we get around this issue?

At some point in the history of Egyptian pharoahs, a leader must have took it upon himself to believe that death is not much different than sleeping. Yet everyone knows at some point, people sleeping will have to wake up. Until that moment comes, how do we prevent the body from decaying too quickly so that the gods will have the power to bring them back to life or enter some kind of new afterlife?

The obsession into the secret to true immortality by the leaders has meant the belief was extended to not only include riches and wealth, but also a means of preserving their bodies when they do fall into the ultimate deep sleep. So they gave other people what they needed, and in return they asked the people to build the pyramids of Giza and other monuments and riches to help the dysfunctional leaders achieve their ultimate goal of travelling to the afterlife.

This is one belief we know about.

In other civilisations, sex may be seen as a way to achieve immortality (especially among women) as it makes some people believe they feel younger (4). In some cases, women in these civilisations may work their way to become matriarchies (or leaders where the inheritance is transferred down the female line from mother to daughters) within the civilisations. The men, however, are happy to perform work to produce the foods and have what they need and later provide the necessary sex to make the women think they will live forever young.

Or some people in other civilisations may simply see men and women as being equal with no need to create a hierarchy. They work together to achieve a common goal and perhaps become leaders in their own right in their particular area of expertise. And yet somehow manage to see each other as vital to each other's existence.

An example of this is the group of Neolithic people living at the edge of a river on the plains of central Turkey nearly 9,000 years ago in a town now known as Catalhoyuk where men and women lived under the same roofs performing similar tasks on an equal level and were buried together under the floor at time of death.

In this ancient Turkish society, statuettes and paintings of a dominant woman with a wild seed lodged in its back and placing a hand on the heads of leopards together with statuettes of a dominant man or an animal with an erect penis or an association between a man with a wild animal such as a bull are quite common. Are these artifacts telling us women are important for agricultural activities and men in hunting animals or tending to livestock?

Whatever the truth, it seems both men and women in this Turkish civilisation saw each other as important members of the society as expressed through their elaborate artworks.

In essence, no matter how we come together to create a civilisation, forming a group has to be seen as the beginnings of any civilisation. Groups form because there is a common belief (eg. the need to survive, feel secure, produce food, have sex or anything else to help make ourselves feel loved or taken care of) through the help of others in the group. Building roads, house and other infrastructure is a natural outcome when people provide services to one another in order to make life easier for others to achieve their goals for the good of the group.

How groups are formed in the initial stages can be varied. But they can be roughly explained in terms of whether the people can come together from a R-brain approach such as creating and selling new and attractive products on popular trade routes, or groups can form from a more rational L-brain approach such as acquiring existing things and selling them at higher prices, or when there is regular warfare and people had to survive by being in a group. It depends on the situation and place and how people have learned the easiest way to survive.

If a civilisation can survive long enough without destroying its food supply and can look after its environment and its people, a combination of L- and R-brain approaches will ensure all problems get solved and new ways of thinking are created by a broader range of people within the group and so maintain the civilisation forever.

But as we shall see, many civilisations have not survived the test of time by taking the balanced approach.

Will our modern civilisation end the same way?

 

3,750 - 3,500 YEARS AGO

 
An incredible story handed down through the generations, later written down in a scripture, and eventually included with other scriptures in what is now described as the Bible by the Hebrews would have its origins at around this time thanks to some persistent archaeologists and efforts by Jewish Canadian filmmaker named Simcha Jacobovici in recent times searching for clues to support the story.

According to the Book of Exodus in the Bible and latest archaeological findings, it is claimed that sometime between 3,750 and 3,500 years ago (or 1,750 - 1,500 B.C), the Israelites known as the Hebrews led by a man named Jacob moved into a small fertile area in the Nile delta (possibly at Avaris, the capital for a group of mysterious foreigners called Hyksos arriving to the region, as discovered by Professor Manfred Bietak of the Austrian Archaeological Institute). It is not clear whether the land was leased to them by the Egyptians. Nevertheless, the land was fertile enough to grow an abundance of food for the people and develop trade with Egypt and Greece. When Jacob passed away, his son Joseph took over the reigns of leadership where he soon became a powerful leader.

Closer to around 3,500 years ago, Egyptian pharoahs became afraid of revolutions as it could undermine their power and authority in the land. Eventually the pharoahs instigated a policy of drowning every Israelite male infant in the area to prevent a possible uprising against the Egyptian rulers at some point in the future. When news reached the Israelites, there was little time except for Jacob's great, great grandson, a baby at the time, to be placed in a basket on the shores of the Nile river and left to nature to take its course.

Luckily the baby was found by the daughter of a rich and powerful Egyptian Pharoah. Not knowing who it was owned by, she looked at the innocent and handsome baby. Did she think it was a gift from the gods? Or did she know the baby was an Israelite? Whatever the truth, the Egyptian woman decided she would take care of it. And the Egyptian Pharoah did not disagree with her daughter's decision.

Not long after, the Egyptians rounded up the remaining Israelites and forced them to work as slaves.

Over the next 20 years, the baby was brought up with the knowledge of how to read and write and all the etiquettes of upper class life while living a life of relative luxury.

Then one day, as the young man emerged into the real world and thought about his environment, he noticed how a group of foreigners consisting mostly of Hebrews were brought in as slaves and worked tirelessly for the Pharoah. More importantly, he saw how badly these slaves were treated by their Egyptian captor.

It is hard to tell at this point whether he realised this group of slaves were part of his own heritage and blood. Yet one thing was certain: he would witness the mistreatment and knew it was wrong. For a young man seeing these terrible acts of cruelty by one human to another, hatred must have welled up inside of him.

Eventually he plucked up the courage and conviction to do something about it. Even if it meant destroying whatever promising future he may have had in his adopted Egyptian family, he believed he would not be one of those rich people who would ignore and pretend everything is okay and things should be the way it is in return for living a comfortable life while these oppressed Israelites were being mistreated.

One day, the young man confronted the same Egyptian who was again found badly mistreating the people under his rule. Somehow a fight took place, the Egyptian was killed, and the young man knew he could no longer remain in Egypt as such a crime was punishable by death.

So he fled Egypt together with the people he saved to a place in the desert where the Egyptians couldn't find him.

Forty years would pass and the likelihood of any Egyptian remembering, let alone recognising, the old man was virtually gone. Yet something happened to the old man — now living a simpler and more frugal life — to make him come back to Egypt. Something drove him to complete one more task before he would be allowed to live his remaining part of his life in peace and happiness. This final task was to free the remaining Hebrews still working under the Pharoah's rule.

It is hard to tell whether this old man had outside help. The old man would later claim it was God who helped him.

Who is God?

Are we dealing with the world's first recorded encounter with an extraterrestrial civilisation visiting the Earth with a grandiose vision of influencing humanity towards a road of greater balance and equality (the positive approach to social development) by helping the old man to achieve this goal?

Certainly it would be far less frightening in human society for a human to be doing the task rather than an alien coming down from the sky and scaring the shit out of the Egyptian people simply by looking at a creature clearly different in appearance from any human. At any rate, the alien would probably be more in danger of its own life if the humans decided to solve their fear by killing it.

Nobody knows for sure exactly what happened. But it would appear the old man was shaken by the experience with what he called God and he knew he had to fulfil a promise.

On returning to Egypt, he approached the Pharoah (most likely to be Ahmose I of the XVIII Dynasty, son of Seqenenre Tao II). As he stood before the Egyptian leader, the old man demanded that the Pharoah release his people.

The Pharoah looked upon the old frail man and probably laughed. He couldn't see what the fuss was about. Clearly this old man wasn't a threat to the Pharoah as he could see the man was old and somewhat frail and didn't carry a weapon. "It has always been like this, so why change now?" the Pharoah probably thought. And anyway, the Pharoah was enjoying a life of luxury and great comfort so why risk losing all this extravagance and richness in his life by letting the slaves go?

Furthermore, the Pharoah felt a little challenged by the old man when he spoke of a Lord God of Israel. The Pharoah must have thought, "Now who or what could have a higher authority than him and his gods?"

Maybe he wanted to entertain himself with the old man's ideas.

The Pharoah wasn't entirely convinced of the old man's explanation. He stubbornly stuck by his beliefs and denied the old man's request. Even when shown some interesting tricks from the old man, the Pharoah wouldn't budge from his position.

Now the old man was in an unusually confident position for some reason for it seemed he knew what the answer would be from the Pharoah and the impending disaster that was about to befall Egypt. Whatever it was he knew, he would then declare to the Pharoah that if his people would not be released, the Pharoah and his own people would experience a great plague, the Nile river in the delta region where the Pharoah lived would suddenly turn red, the Egyptian people relying on fish and water from the Nile would suffer health problems, a great darkness would fall at a time when the Sun should be shining, and lightning and hail would come and other frightening events, unless the Pharoah released the slaves.

The Pharoah's highly rational mind and set ways of doing things didn't persuade him to do anything different thinking this story was from a rambling old man.

However, the events described by the old man actually did happen. Later, archaeologists in the late 20th and early 21st century would find scientific evidence of what could be the biggest explosion of the last 10,000 years occurring on a Greek island of Santorini less than 200 kilometres from Egypt.

Apparently around 1,500 BC, a sudden movement of the African continent plate below the European plate caused a volcano to erupt (the equivalent to a pimple on the face of mother Earth which God has trying to pop open). It blew such a huge hole through the island that plumes of smoke, dust and ash were sent 40 kilometres high into the stratosphere. Coincidentally, the wind had just happened to be blowing the dust in a south-easterly direction straight for Egypt.

An earthquake of magnitude 4 to 5 on the Riechter scale could be felt 200 kilometres away. It was enough to topple numerous Egyptian statues. Soon afterwards, darkness fell on the Nile delta, just as the old man predicted. It would be accompanied by intense lightning and volcanic hail (ash and water crystals).

An increase in the number of bugs and bacteria affected the health of the fish and the people who drank from the water and ate the fish. A red colour also appeared in the water due to a sudden release of carbon dioxide gas inside the Earth reacting with iron dissolved at the bottom of the water and the oxygen thereby produced a distinctly reddish iron oxide. Soon the fish died from a lack of oxygen in the water.

Then an unusual number of insects and frogs were mobilised and, as they were trying to move away from the prolonged darkness, cold and lack of fresh water, came across the Nile delta to be witnessed by the Egyptian Pharoah.

Makes one wonder what kind of scientific instrument the old man had to help him predict this catastrophic event. Maybe he stuck his finger in the ground and came up with this remarkable insight?

Still the old man had one more trick up his sleeve. He returned to ask whether the Pharoah agreed with his request. Still he refused. So the old man said that his first born child would be affected by the recent catastrophic event.

Knowing that the Pharoah's first born is the most valuable to him as the child would help to take the reigns of power when he died, the old man somehow knew this was going to make the Pharoah change his mind. Naturally, without being aware of the old man's knowledge he acquired from an unknown source, the Egyptian ruler refused thinking his own gods were more powerful and would protect his first born.

However, that very night, all Egyptian first-born males sleeping on low-lying beds on the ground floor were axphyxiated by a sudden outburst of a large amount of carbon dioxide that emerged from the water (everyone else slept on the floors above).

Again remarkably the old man knew how to protect his people by asking them to sleep in the upper floor.

When the Pharoah's baby was affected by the events, the Pharoah's intense grief saw him cave in to his request.

The slaves were eventually released. But not without the Pharoah calming down and trying a trick of his own for the old man — as a form of revenge he would allegedly send 600 Egyptians on chariots to intercept the old man and his people and have them wiped out in a bloodbath. How's that for a magic trick of his own according to the feeble-minded Pharoah. But fortunately the old man had yet another trick up his sleeve (he would have made any magician proud). And more importantly timing and a little outside help was on his side. This time his people had reached the marshy sea which, surprisingly, was about to dry up that very moment.

According to the Bible, the Hebrews allegedly witnessed the water parting on either side of the old man at the right time (maybe he received a visual and auditory sign from God?). They called the place Yam Suf (or Reed Sea and later renamed to Lake El Balah, which when translated from Hebrew means quite literally, "The lake where God devoured"). It would later be described by the people nearly 3,500 years ago in imaginative language as a wall of water being scooped up by God on either side of the old man and so allowing him and his people up to 3 hours to walk across an apparent land bridge previously hidden by the water.

What the Hebrews and Egyptians pursuing them didn't realise is that a wall of water no less than 2 metres high was about to sweep across the valley as would be expected from a massive volcanic eruption in the Mediterranean Sea nearly 200 kilometres away. At first the water receded for a few hours because of the movement of the African continental plate allowing the Hebrews to walk across the valley. But once the old man and his people reached the other side, the Egyptian soldiers came after them.

Not thinking and realising as independent individuals as to why the water had disappeared and whether it would return, the Egyptians continued on their merry way across the valley with only one thing on their minds: to destroy the Israelites under orders by their Pharoah. But the decision to cross the valley was the Egyptian soldiers downfall. When the waters did return, it would coincide remarkably well with the death of these Egyptian military men. The death and destruction would be witnessed by the people who stood safely on the other side of the valley.

Timing to reach the Reed Sea wasn't exactly precise (well, nothing is ever perfect in this world).

Another thing mentioned in the Bible is how a cloud seemed to have guided the old man and his people during the day and later it shoned a light to help him and his people see where they were going at night. According to Exodus 13:21, it is claimed:

'By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light. Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.'

Apparently it was also witnessed by the Egyptians pursuing the old man and his people. When the Egyptians were close to reaching the marshy sea to do their dirty deed on the fleeing people, there was incredibly some hesitation on their part to continue on. Why? They saw something in the sky. Apparently the cloud moved back across the sky to a position where it made the Egyptians stop and wait.

The hesitation by the Egyptian army not to pursue until the cloud moved away was enough for the old man to do his trick of "dividing the waters" so to speak and walk across the marshy sea. According to the King James version of the Bible, it stated:

'And the angel of God [in the sky], which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, and stood behind them: {14:20} And it came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness [to them,] but it gave light by night [to these:] so that the one came not near the other all the night. {14:21}

And the Egyptians pursued, and went in after them to the midst of the sea, [even] all Pharaohs horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. {14:24} And it came to pass, that in the morning watch the LORD looked unto the host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and of the cloud, and troubled the host of the Egyptians, {14:25} And took off their chariot wheels, that they drave them heavily: so that the Egyptians said, Let us flee from the face of Israel; for the LORD fighteth for them against the Egyptians.'

This is a interesting discovery. For a great story not to be exactly perfect by showing signs that something had to intervene in the events on the ground suggest something or someone else was involved. It is not entirely clear whether there is an extraterrestrial connection going on here (could our understanding of God be actually explained in terms of an advanced alien civilisation(s) guiding humanity along the right path of social development?). We can only guess.

Perhaps it is another classic example of the ramblings of an old man and his people (yet somehow the story was never forgotten and was maintained over many generations)?

However we now know from latest scientific research into UFOs that it is possible for air pressure to be reduced near the surface of UFOs flying in the atmosphere. Air pressure is reduced because the air is electrified and pushed away by the electric fields and electrons coming off the electrically charged metal surface of the UFOs. When air pressure is reduced in slightly humid air, clouds are formed.

Observations of some modern UFOs have shown they do come masquerading as a cloud under certain circumstances. Hence descriptive words used to describe God in the Bible such as:

"God stretches out heaven over empty space, and hangs the earth upon nothing. He wraps the rain in his thick clouds and the clouds are not split by the weight. He shrouds his throne with his clouds." Job 26
could be explained using the latest UFO knowledge.

Also, the glowing nature of UFOs can be attributed to the metal surface receiving an oscillating high frequency and high voltage (considered crucial for keeping the UFO aloft and moving through the air based on the solution presented by the Abraham-Lorentz formula for radiation emission from the surface of a charged object as found in only a few advanced textbooks of electromagnetism) which produces the "electric light bulb" effect. So when a heated glowing metal is covered by a cloud-like structure, it can give the appearance of a glowing cloud at night.

And it's an electromagnetic technology and associated side effects that never change over thousands of years.

It's all a question of how refined the technology is by an advanced civilisation in implementing the electromagnetic concept in order for these objects to approach more closely the speed of light and how many objects and their occupants can participate in the journey.

So what we see today in the UFO reports could easily have existed 3,500 years ago.

Or, using a more natural explanation as scientists with virtually no knowledge of UFO technology would prefer, it could be the presence of glowing ionised gases in the atmosphere which lingered just at this precise moment for many hours (or days). Of course, we are talking about a cloud of ionised gases that can move forward and go backwards on its own as seen by the old man, his people and the Egyptians to affect human events on the ground. Quite a remarkable feat for any natural event in anyone's language.

The truth is, no one knows for sure. The quotes in the Bible are not quite detailed enough for scientific purposes to reveal precisely what it is the people saw in the sky.

But ever since this remarkable event occurred, the old man would go down in the history books written by Jewish and Christian scholars as the legend of Moses (the name given to him by his Egyptian princess), in memory of the man who saved his people from oppression under the rule of an Egyptian dictator and who seemed to have the uncanny knowledge of knowing when a certain catastrophic event was about to beset Egypt and where to go to save his people from destruction.

And a man who seem to have been helped by someone or something at the right time to know when a certain event occurred and get help to save his people from the marauding Egyptian army.

At any rate, three months later, the old man Moses would come down from what people would later describe as a holy mountain in the desert claiming he received a set of rules on two stone tablets from, you guessed it, God of how people should live known as the Ten Commandments (a form of knowledge based on the principle of love to help evolve the mind and so bring humans up to scratch with how we should be interacting with other human beings in order to avoid hardship and conflict). The following commandments are important for a L-brain society that needs to see things in concrete before performing action:

  1. I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other gods before me
  2. You shall not make for yourself an idol
  3. You shall not make wrongful use of the name of your God
  4. Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy
  5. Honor your Father and Mother
  6. You shall not murder
  7. You shall not commit adultery
  8. You shall not steal
  9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor
  10. You shall not covet your neighbor's house, and you shall not covet your neighbor's wife.

NOTE: Evolution is not just a physical thing involving the brain and body. It is also evolution of the mind in terms of the type of knowledge we acquire through education.

People would call this holy mountain where God allegedly revealed the laws to Moses as Mount Sinai. (5)

Thanks to some interesting investigations by Canadian filmmaker Jacobovici, the mountain may have been tracked down. Assuming a daily walking distance of 15 kilometres and using the Bible to give an indication of how many days it took to reach the mountain from three locations (one of which is Lake El Balah or 15 days to walk to the mountain and the other two known to the archaeologists as Timna where Moses tended to his flock and was allegedly no more than 45 kilometres from the mountain, and a 11-day walking trek south of a place called Kadesh Barnea) together with some interesting geological features considered extremely rare for this mountain (such as a former fresh water spring on top of the mountain) and a natural geological ampitheatre, it seems the filmmaker may have finally found the landmark. He claims the mountain is likely to be at Hashem El Tarif.

Now if only we could find the Ark of the Covenent containing the Ten Commandments to help complete the picture and provide the final proof of the story of Exodus.

Interesting to see how we can no longer find the tablets as this might provide evidence of who or what created them — was it done by the hands of Moses or something more technological in nature and beyond the skill of any human being at the time?

A compilation of all the latest evidence (not including the possibility of extraterrestrial intervention in human affairs) can be found in the 2006 film by two times Emmy award winner in investigative journalism named Simcha Jacobovici titled The Exodus Decoded.

The film also contains new interpretations for some archaelogical artefacts which is likely to keep scholars busy debating whether or not they have the evidence for the Exodus, the most famous story lying at the heart of Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

As for the latest in UFO research, please refer to the work being conducted by SUNRISE.

NOTE 1: Could aliens have again guided humanity nearly 1,500 years later through another individual who would crucify himself on the cross to show life was eternal? Is there any evidence this individual could have been given the medical help to survive the incredibly harsh crucification and be seen as resurrected in the eyes of his disciples, and so spur a new faith known as Christianity?

NOTE 2: Should scholars find universal agreement on the site for Mount Sinai as being at Hashem El Tarif, can there finally be agreement between Israeli and Palestinian people on how to live in peace? For example, why not give the Palestinian people a new state in this area? It will be far enough away to stop Hamas fighters sending rockets into Israel and so stop Israel bombing the Palestinian people. And at the same time it will give the Palestinian people responsibility to look after a Holy place. In return, Israel can share Jerusalem with the Palestinians and the Palestinians can give Israelis access to Mount Sinai. And if they still can't live in peace, perhaps God will make sure the sea levels rise high enough by the end of this century to ensure there is no Israel and Palestine to live in. A very simple solution to what people claim is an unnecessarily complex problem.

 

3,300 YEARS AGO

 
The Iron Age is well and truly upon us when the Greeks developed their own formidable army and iron weaponry. This was the time when Greek legends were born such as Achilles, the greatest Greek warrior, who fought in the 10-year war against the Trojans at the city of Troy near the Dardenelles in Asia Minor in the 13th century BC.

The Greeks relied not just on a strong sense of social skills to stick together and fight the enemy but also in unusually intense and brutal male competitions at home (which later gave rise to the idea in the modern world of starting up the less violent Olympic Games). The competitions helped to physically bring out certain individual traits and skills (eg. throwing spears at seemingly impossible distances, showing signs of remarkable endurance and strength, and much more) that eventually saw certain Greek men reach almost God-like status among their own fellow country men and women and spawned amazing tales.

Some of these legendary skills may have been seen by those outside of Greece as "a gift from the gods".

 

3,000 YEARS AGO

 
World human population reaches 100 million.

 

2,500 - 2,000 YEARS AGO

 
Despite some people gaining important knowledge in the past of the principle of love and living a more balanced and simple life, the strong L-brain societies (probably arising after intense and regular warfare in certain parts of the world as resources dwindled or became a valuable commodity) would appear from time to time.

These L-brain societies tended to be large, highly organised, specialised, communicative and sometimes brutal and conquering in nature. One can therefore surmise that such a set of "rational" skills in creating a L-brain society is a trait well-suited to men as if the leaders of the societies were almost exclusively male-dominated. Of particular note in this regard were the Romans from Italy.

For example, the great "testosterone-smelling" military machine of the Roman civilisation saw the Italian men push their horses, soldiers and new and highly organised fighting techniques and weapons to the limits as they expanded and conquered much of the known Western world. Only those nations able to provide something of value to the Romans succeeded in surviving and maintaining their own unique cultures.

This is one thing Cleopatra of Egypt understood. She used her feminine beauty, the power of sex, and her position as ruler of Egypt, to influence the great Roman leader, Julius Ceasar, and the General of the Roman military machine called Anthony (also known as the Lord of the East) to spare Egypt from almost certain occupation and destruction by the Romans.

Together with other Egyptian wealth, Cleopatra's ability to provide carnal pleasure to the two crucial virile masculine leaders of this strongly L-brain society from Italy made it possible for Egypt to survive for quite a long time.

It was only after the strongly L-brain Roman Octavian (who later changed his name to Augusta Ceasar) saw through Cleopatra's power did her great dream to become the new rulers of the world die with her and her lover Anthony.

After the death of Cleopatra and Anthony, Octavian became the emperor of Rome and the L-brain society of Rome continued to flourish for another 400 years before eventually ending in the early centuries after the death of an unusually "balanced-thinking" man with an outstanding knowledge of the power of love 2000 years ago and how this man sparked the beginnings of Christianity throughout the Western world.

 

2,000 YEARS AGO

 
A more "balanced" individual appeared in the Middle East to bring ideas and ways of living based on the principle of love (considered the fundamental law of the universe for all living things wanting peace and harmony) to, yet again, an oppressed people in Israel (because of brutal Roman occupation of this country).

Why was he balanced? Did he get outside help? Or did he learn the right way to do things?

We may never know. But it seems he understood why people fought and accumulated wealth and power and realised there had to be a better way for people to live in peace.

Essentially he understood that if people learned to survive with what they need and not what they wanted and don't interfere and control others to achieve certain selfish needs and just simply treat people well, he realised there would be no need for war. People would live peacefully for eternity while letting God provide everything the people need (ie. recycling and growing foods) in abundance.

In other words, this man — known simply as Jesus Christ — understood the principle of love in its fundamental sense.

But he wasn't the only individual to emerge with more balanced thinking and an understanding of the power of love.

On the other side of the world, another balanced individual also became disenchanted by the wealth accumulated in L-brain society and the suffering and warfare that would take place among ordinary people. Then one day, he decided to let go of his own material wealth (apparently enough for him to survive for the rest of his life within the L-brain society), walked through the forests of India and meditated. After about a couple of years, he reemerged from the forests. What he saw about life and the universe and the simple technique he developed to understand our purpose in life and reach a more balanced mental and spiritual state in a process known as enlightenment would see hundreds of people support him.

His name was Siddhartha Gautama (ca. 563-483 B.C.) and his ability to reach a more balanced state without the use of drugs (ie. through the power of meditation) as the key to breaking free from the shackles of human conditioning or pre-programmed patterns in the mind learned from other people in society (including human language itself) and so lead ultimately to the experience of true freedom from all suffering would quickly see him get tagged the name of the "Awakened One" or simply "the Buddha" by some of his slightly more L-brain followers.

The religion this ordinary man would create and eventually affect over 50 per cent of the Indian population 2000 years later (around 1500 AD) is called Buddhism.

Unfortunately not everyone agreed with the enlightened one. Some of the heavy L-brain people with power, lust and greed did try to destroy the early group of Buddhists. Fortunately a number of leaders and followers would escape from the warfare and live in various parts of India and later the rest of the Asian continent.

Such fascinating stories of men (and probably women) living a rich and comfortable lifestyle and then suddenly changing to a more frugal and simpler life after seeing the injustices and/or inequalities of modern society are not unusual.

Before the Western world was ever influenced by the ideas of one such man born to a humble carpenter and his young wife in a place where Palestine and Israel now exists, a man named Moses nearly 1,600 B.C. claimed to have given away all his wealth and power in Egyptian society after understanding the principle of love as a young man when he saw how certain people were treated under Egyptian rule. In his situation, he was forced to leave because his actions to stop the brutality of one Egyptian caused his death. And death of an Egyptian is punishable by death.

When Moses left and learned to live frugally, he saw there was no need to fight and gain power and wealth just to survive. To encapsulate his knowledge of the principle of love for ordinary folks to understand and practice, he was allegedly told by God to return to Egypt to free his people from Egyptian slavery and deliver a set of rules known as the 10 commandments as the way for his people to approach greater balance and happiness, or else face the fear of punishment by God (the essential psychology revealed in the Old Testament).

The ideas from Moses came well before Jesus would preach and practice the very same principle as he understood it from his more humble beginnings. His knowledge was presented in simple laymen's terms through a more compassionate approach using effective story-telling techniques. His approach is more a reward-based psychology as revealed in the New Testament where ideas such as living for eternity and how death is not seen as the end formed an integral part of his thinking. He also believed in the existence of a kingdom of heaven where we can all strive for and experience if we do the right thing under the principle of love.

Will we, yet again, need another person to teach humanity the principle of love as a way of approaching balance in the 21st century?

Given how few people today are listening to the wise men of the past and their knowledge of compassion and love, perhaps humanity needs a woman to do the job properly?

Unfortunately most men in the Middle East don't allow women to become leaders, so it seems there is a fat chance of that happening. And knowing that some men may claim to have listened to the words of wise men, are still continuing to misinterpret the knowledge to serve their own selfish power-struggle goals.

We only have to look at Islam today to see how leaders misinterpret the scriptures with the sole aim of getting poorer people to do the dirty work of harming foreigners.

It is starting to look like only another and perhaps more direct intervention by an extraterrestrial civilisation with all of humanity will solve this problem if our brains don't get big enough to realise what we are doing.

 

1,150 - 1,519 YEARS AGO

 
The time of the Aztecs reigned supreme in central Mexico. Approximately 175,000 people came together in 1150 AD in the Valley of Mexico. The population swelled to around 1 million in the late Aztec period of 1350 to 1519AD before the civilisation suddenly collapsed. The reason for the collapse can now be understood from the way the size of the Aztec population was placing considerable stress on the environment.

At first the land in central Mexico was, before the people settled there, highly fertile and had plenty of water. People saw this and thought it would be a great place to live. But as more people came to the area, some of the people owning the land decided to lease it to free up their time, enjoy more luxuries from society, increase their wealth, and develop greater power when making decisions.

As the population increased, all available fertile land in the area were exhausted after 350 years. Why? Because the land was being cleared of the trees, rain washed the valuable nutrients away from the soil making it harder to grow food, and the swamp was drained of its waters to create raised fields and places for some of the inhabitants to live which in turn increased evaporation of the water to the hot Sun.

The society formed by powerful Aztec rulers was based on a hierarchical system of religious leaders and elite overlords monopolising power in the city and owning the land where the people lived while leasing this resource to the people. As the leaders got richer through the early abundance of food and other goods, the commoners created their own markets free of state control. People could produce their own goods consisting of growing thirsty cotton crops and making cotton textiles, as well as pottery, statuettes and offering other kinds of services.

However, towards the end of the Aztec empire in 1519 AD, growing food in adequate quantities to feed the high population became difficult. There was less rain. The land was not producing enough food. The commoners tried desperately to resort to non-food products such as cotton and increasing the production of textiles to help them pay the elite overlords for the land and import food from towns and villages far away. Soon religious activities increased as a way for the people and the leaders to solve the food shortages as more and more people found it harder to afford imported goods and pay for the increasing costs to the rich.

The constant war between the Aztecs and Tarascan people also eventually saw enough weapons cross the border from Tarascan into the hands of the commoners through the Aztec market system.

Then a time came when religious leaders were asking too much from the commoners. And too many people from outside the Aztec community were being sacrificed in order to appease the gods for a hopefully bountiful supply of food, the elites could no longer be paid properly, and many people were beginning to starve for food (ie. fewer people outside the civilisation to supply the food).

When this happened, the population of commoners saw through all the religious ceremonies and made the final decision on the future of their civilisation. The decision was to end the civilisation for good no matter what the military would do to stop it. No longer would they continue working for the leaders and supporting the outrageous religious rituals at the time if they could no longer eat and be free.

The final act was really a bloody end to what could have been a prosperous and peaceful society if it took a balanced and more frugal approach to living, and simply learned to recycle everything including the biggest natural recycler of all — our environment.

And all this requires some way of controlling our L-brain desire for power and greed.

Who knows? The Aztecs could have survived to this very day if it took a more balanced approach to living.

 

1,600 -1,500 YEARS AGO

 
Around the year 426 A.D., a young teenager living in a rich English family was taken away by pirates to be sold as a slave among a group of poorer Pagan people of Ireland. Many years of hardship through hunger, cold, rain and loneliness in a foreign country taught him to rely more strongly on his Christian faith for a sense of stability in a new world that seemed to lack love.

One day, as he tended to the sheep of his captors, he realised how the one true God in the things he observed in nature was sustaining him and keeping him alive despite all the suffering (the sunshine for warmth, the fresh water satisfying his thirst, the foods he found for additional sustenance etc). Then he heard a voice in his head suggesting he can return home in a ship if he followed his faith.

After 6 years being held against his wish in a foreign land, his creative and defiant spirit finally took over and he followed the voice in his head to see where it would lead him. The young man decided to escape on foot across Ireland despite the risk to his life if he was captured, relying simply on the water and food of the land for sustenance and his intelligence and creativity to avoid detection.

Miraculously he managed to reach the Eastern coast of Ireland where he found someone who was prepared to take him back to England after observing how this strange man was able to pray like a christian. Clearly this was no ordinary Irishman.

On his return to England, he was welcomed with open arms by his family and own township. Soon everyone learned of the man's incredible story of capture, living in Ireland, and how he escaped the land, the first person to ever do so as a slave.

It wasn't long before his remarkable story and strong christian faith would see English priests sufficiently impressed to allow the young man to become a priest himself and later a bishop. Yet his life's work had only just began.

The voice of God seemed to call once again saying the people of Ireland needed him. It would take him some time to resign himself to the fact that he had a task to perform in this foreign land. Understandable considering the hardship he went through. Yet somehow he must have realised the people of Ireland were missing something in their lives. The multiple gods in this ancient and brutal Pagan society was not helping the people to see a better way of living.

The lack of love in a nation yearning to be loved eventually brought the man back to Ireland.

Over the next few years he convinced an incredible number of Irish people to follow the one true loving God by using a simple language spoken in the native tongue of Ireland at the time which he learned. The ideas of God and love and in solving many social problems helped the people to understand life more clearly and to reach for yet another higher level of existence through the christian faith.

In return for this knowledge, a large number of people in Ireland gave him the love and the things he needed to survive and live peacefully.

Back in England the christian king and some of the bishops were jealous of the man's increasing fame and success. They wanted to pick on his weaknesses in a vain attempt to see him as a sinner. The man had to return to England to answer charges that he had sinned unto God.

The man tried to convince his fellow christians what he did was right. For example, he did not speak Latin to the people of Ireland and his methods were somewhat unorthodox. Yet this should not have made a difference when speaking the language of love.

Unfortunately the behaviour of his colleague priests and bishops still weren't in keeping with the christian faith and the principle of love as he understood it.

The man felt disillusioned by the christian leaders in England. So he left the place he once called home for the last time to return to Ireland where he felt the people could benefit more from his teachings than he could ever achieve from his so-called christians in England. He wrote letters explaining his strong convictions, how God spoke to him, and gave a clear account of his entire life story in vivid detail.

His courage and persistence in writing eventually saw him left alone by the authorities. Perhaps the man felt abandoned in Ireland by the English religious authorities. Yet the Irish people made him feel at home as he continued to help them until his death.

The man's incredible strength, sacrifice, determination to survive, conviction and support for his own understanding of the christian teachings, appreciating the simple life, realising how nature was supporting him, to allow his mind and body to acutely be sensitive to his natural environment, be an excellent problem solver, and his tremendous love for the Irish people, even those who the English christians thought could never be helped, had turned him into a Saint.

Today the Irish people remember the man as St Patrick, which is celebrated on 17 March every year.

 

350 YEARS AGO

 
The last of the big flightless wingless birds were hunted to extinction on the islands of New Zealand by the Maori. Known as the Moa, these birds stood up to 3.5 metres in height. Now scientists believe they know why they disappeared. After analysing the growth rings in the stored bones of extinct Moas, scientists discovered the two Moa species may have taken several years to reach reproductive maturity and up to a decade to have a strong enough skeletal frame to defend itself and run away from the humans as well as support their offsprings.

Stop making excuses. It is not just because the bird was slow to reproduce and grow. It is because human beings were such idiots when it comes to thinking about their stomachs and egos. Blame it on the males of the human species whose egos and food demands are suddenly inflated everytime they kill an animal much bigger than themselves.

For an animal having the largest brain in comparison to its body, we are acting like we have the smallest brain in comparison to our body.

 

200 YEARS AGO

 
More and more L-brain societies live in close proximity to each other. Not surprisingly we see many of these L-brain societies run by male leaders in Europe and North America.

No guessing these leaders all want to become rich and powerful.

Could this strongly L-brain approach to life when combined with greed and power be the root cause for so much social, economic and political friction between nations?

With these strongly L-brain skills of the Western European world came the arrival of the first Europeans to Australia bringing with them many traditional "non-recycling" ways of farming the land, hunting for animals, and gathering other resources as needed not only to survive but also to become famous, powerful and rich.

For example, the new settlers effectively stopped "patchy" burning by Aborigines. Eventually the fuel loads on the ground built-up and the appearance of massive broad-scale and intense fires have become the norm in modern Australian life.

As for the hunting techniques employed by white settlers in Australia, this has effectively wiped out 20 mammal species weighing between 35 and 5,500 grams in size. All we have remaining is a few small animals and only a very few large potentially "high breeding" mammals like kangaroos and emus to survive on the remaining tough, more fire-resistant vegetation on the Australian continent.

As a result, the Australian continent combined with increasing carbon dioxide emissions from our growing industrialised world would see the land dry up significantly.

By the time the 21st century would come around, the pressing issue on many Australians would be where to find enough fresh water and how to allocate the remaining resource in an efficient way to maintain their way of life.

Perhaps Australians should concentrate more on rebuilding the environment, reestablishing the great inland sea, and less on economics through non-recycling products and services as the key to solving the water issues.

 

120 YEARS AGO

 
The possibility that something alien could be travelling around in the skies of Earth inside glowing symmetrical objects surrounded by a cloud on occasions especially during the time of Moses just before a great natural disaster may have returned. Although it is not clear whether an impending disaster is about to befall humans.

As humans began to develop primitive balloons and airship technologies in the late 19th century to help lift people off the ground, sightings of glowing disks started to emerge and get reported in some newspapers. These objects would reappear during World War II as foo-fighters only to move away and reappear again in northern Europe where they would act like rockets coming down from the sky and occasionally more close up views. They would disappear, only to reappear in the lower southwestern corner of the United States where a lot of testing of new aircraft, the first atomic bomb and other military and scientific activities would take place.

The rapid technological developments in the US would become a prime focus for a series of intense UFO waves between 1947 and 1964, culminating in an interesting event in New Mexico of something crashing near Roswell on 2-3 July 1947 and where the US military have tried to cover it up to this day and still cannot tell us what really happened.

Are humans misinterpreting natural phenomena? Or are we being watched?

If UFOs are meant to be natural phenomena, the US military are acting odd be covering up something for a very long time. It is hard to imagine a meteorite or some other natural phenomena could create such secrecy for such a long time.

We will briefly look at this potentially momentous event later.

 

95 to 60 YEARS AGO

 
Conflict between nations in Europe would reach a climax through World War I between 1915 and 1918. More than a million soldiers from up to a dozen countries would be sent to their deaths by their leaders to fight a war that could have been avoided in the first place if the knowledge from certain wise men in the past were heeded.

People would naively describe World War I as "the war to end all wars". But we now know how untrue this was. World War II began in the 1930s among essentially the same nations (eg. Germany, France, the UK, Australia and Russia) with assistance from the United States over what was believed to be economic hardship placed on Germany by European nations after the previous world war and how a German leader emerged with delusional grandeurs that he could break free from these economic shackles to become the greatest nation on earth by invading various nations.

Again this is an issue of so-called male leaders thinking they can become the most powerful and richest people on earth. And at what cost to achieve this stupid aim?

 

55 YEARS AGO

 
Something interesting occurred in the deserts of New Mexico, USA, on 2-3 July 1947 which would forever change the attitude of the highly male-dominated and strongly L-brain US military. According to witnesses, a strange symmetrical and metallic glowing object allegedly crashed to Earth, presumably after being hit by lightning.

Apart from those witnesses who have described what appears to be a new technology in the metallic foil found at the first crash site (the rest of the disc-shaped object landed in the Plains of San Agustin) never before seen by scientists until the sudden invention of pure nitinol after 1947 by the US Air Force as well as the appearance of rather unusual small bodies with large heads and all wearing smooth skin-tight metallic suits (at the second crash site), it would appear that the US military had quickly realised the importance of the find and have decided (initially for fear of creating a mass panic) to keep it a big secret.

The Roswell materials were sent for analysis at Wright-Patterson AFB (the place were nitinol was first studied in pure form after 1947) before the evidence was moved to a more secret location.

Ever since this momentous event, the US military generals, intelligence chiefs and US President Harry S. Truman were deciding whether or not to reveal the truth as documents released under US FoI have revealed. But as soon as evidence of possible panic and social chaos emerged from events such as the CBS radio broadcast of Orson Welles War of the Worlds, Truman decided in the best interest of his people and the world to maintain the secrecy.

Then, after seeing the reaction of President Dwight D. Eisenhower following a possible one night viewing of the wreckage and bodies acquired from New Mexico, the CIA may have chosen to go at it alone by not telling other US presidents of the discovery.

Only US President John F. Kennedy posed a serious security risk for the CIA with his official request to share all UFO secret intelligence files with the former USSR and the American space agency NASA when he asked in a formerly Top Secret memo dated 12 November 1963:

'SUBJECT: Classification review of all UFO intelligence files affecting National Security.

As I had discussed with you previously, I have initiated [unintelliigible] and have instructed James Webb to develop a program with the Soviet Union in joint space and lunar exploration. It would be very helpful if you would have the high threat cases reviewed with the purpose of identification of bona fide as opposed to classified CIA and USAF sources. It is important that we make a clear distinction between the knowns and unknowns in the event the Soviets try to mistake our extended cooperation as a cover for intelligence gathering of their defence and space programs.

When this date has been sorted out, I would like you to arrange a program of data sharing with NASA where Unknowns are a factor. This will help NASA mission directions in their defensive responsibilities.

I would like an interim report on the data review no later than February 1, 1964.

/S/ John F. Kennedy.' (Original copy is with Robert and Ryan Wood, investigators of UFO-related US Government documents (available from http://www.presidentialufo.com/kennedy&1.htm)

This would coincide with Kennedy's strong interest at the time in get the first man on the Moon and to try to achieve greater cooperation and peace with Russia.

Unfortunately Kennedy would never get the opportunity to find out the outcome of his request into UFOs, nor would he get to see his dream come true. At 12.31pm on the hot, sunny afternoon of 22 November 1963, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Who assassinated the president has remained one of the most controversial in history as the man allegedly responsible for the shooting, Lee-Harvey Oswald, was killed by Jack Ruby, a nightclub owner with Mafia connections, before Oswald could reveal his knowledge to the public.

As history tells us, Mr Oswald was vulnerably led by two policemen from the county jail on Houston Street in Dealey Plaza through a crowd of 75 reporters and numerous policemen and civilians when somebody shouted "Do you have anything to say in your defence?" Oswald didn't have time to reply. Mr Ruby suddenly pushed himself through the crowd, pointed a handgun in Mr Oswald and shot him. Mr Oswald later died in hospital.

Was President Kennedy and later Mr Oswald taken out by the CIA to avoid sensitive UFO information getting through to the public? Or was it the crazy antics of a lone gunman as the CIA and FBI-backed Warren Commission on the assassination in September 1964 wanted to conclude?

A lot of questions remained unanswered. For example, a man in the crowd was observed opening up the only umbrella on a sunny, hot day and holding it high above his head just before the assassination began and then closing it after the event, together with several men seen carrying rifles in the crowd, how the bullets hitting the President seem to come from two different directions despite the Warran Commission supporting the single magic bullet theory of hitting the Kennedy and the driver by changing directions several times, and the missing autopsy report of the President's body all added to the conspiracy theory that Mr Oswald was not the lone gunman we were all led to believe. Someone else appeared to be involved.

The CIA?

All we know is that the CIA has used the Mafia to do its dirty work in the past. For example, the CIA hired the Mafia in a failed attempt to kill Cuban leader Fidel Castro during the Bay of Pigs fiascoe. So any involvement by the Mafia in stopping Mr Oswald from revealing evidence to the media or the independent commission could be linked back to the CIA.

And certainly the CIA would have the motive to take out Kennedy after his revealing memo on UFOs.

Perhaps we may never know.

Today, the secrecy behind UFOs is being maintained by US intelligence and military mainly on the basis of maintaining power and staying rich under the current economic system so long as other people maintain the system and are kept in the dark about the electromagnetic technology of UFOs. The key is to keep people preoccupied with making money and surviving (or fighting the war on terror and other earthly issues).

A few cracks in the US policy of extreme UFO secrecy would emerge. For example, we find evidence in the old metallurgical journals of how the US Air Force was involved in nitinol research in 1948-49 with the help of scientists at the Battelle Memorial Institute, which raises serious questions as to how the military created the alloy in 1947 at a time when the technology for making pure titanium in adequate quantities was not available to help explain the witnesses' observations. Another serious crack would occur after 1975 when citizens against UFO secrecy successfully forced the US Government to release a few thousand pages of UFO information under the US Freedom of Information Act (FoIA). Some of those documents would mention at least one crashed disk.

To counteract this situation, it is possible that a decision was made to sanction the records of Project Blue Book for public scrutiny in the hope the public will be convinced that most UFOs are IFOs, and through the release of anonymous and somewhat dubious US UFO government documents such as the Majestic 12 document to keep UFO investigators and researchers busy and away from critical areas of research.

In the meantime, certain well-paid individuals in the US either directly involved in the big secret or others who don't know the secret but were willing to do as they were told for enough money would infiltrate key positions of power in the US military, secret intelligence and a few civilian organisations (and politically through the US Administration in more recent times). These individuals would wield enormous power on the local, national and international scene by promoting many strong L-brain (ie. R-wing) ideas needed to keep the big secret going for as long as is possible.

Among the attempts to stop the public and the rest of the world from learning the great truth include:

  1. debunking UFOs at every turn;

  2. getting the skeptical scientific community to support the idea that there is nothing to be advanced from the study of UFOs;

  3. paying government scientists in the 1950s to support a way of life that is unhealthy (eg. mainly to eat more carbohydrates to supposedly reduce fat and make us more healthy, when in fact there is no real scientific basis to support this idea and could well be making us more fatter and unhealthier), making people as lazy and uneducated as possible and/or too busy making money and therefore not curious enough at learning new ideas, while influencing as many people to participate in mainstream "uncreative" L-brain jobs considered generally "safe" in the eyes of the US military (eg. join the Army or support the current economy). (6)

Now these ideas would be accelerated after 1980 with the help of the US Government, with subtle influence from the US military and intelligence organisations. It is thought the war on terrorism is just one approach to stopping the truth from coming out.

The rest of the world, on seeing this superficial situation and in believing UFOs are nothing out of the ordinary, would merely follow the US lead in order to maintain their place and relevance on the world stage, enjoy the benefits of maintaining the system, and so be seen as though they are "part of the global team" (ie. non-terrorists).

We are certainly not a sufficiently creative bunch to look through the US military and intelligence aims.

 

50 YEARS AGO

 
The idea of recycling our energy and waste products first has its discussions around the mid-1950s in the US. But most governments and business professionals would ignore it.

This is important for the US military and intelligence communities as any emphasis on recycling concepts could reveal the secret to recycling electromagnetic energy via Albert Einstein's Unified Field Theory and the potential for a new technology (ie. the UFO). It is better to emphasise jobs and the economy to maintain the status quo.

But there are consequences in taking this non-recycling approach.

For a start, human population is increasing rapidly. We are living on this planet quite literally in the billions. Combine this with a powerful technology considered more than capable of putting every other competing predator in its place (including other humans although it won't necessarily stop all humans from trying to hurt other humans if they are disadvantaged in some way) while transforming vast areas of land to suit the belief systems of so many L-brain people (eg. human greed is seen as acceptable) without giving back what we take and the impact humans are having on Earth's climate and the natural environment is starting to become overwhelming.

Without some form of significant recycling, the human population is heading towards an irreversible disaster.

It will be around the first half of the 21st century when many areas of the world will experience severe environmental degradation of the likes seen by the ancient people of Malta nearly 5,000 years ago as world temperatures increase and rainfall decreases creating what is known as desertification starting with Africa and moving onto Australia, parts of the Asian mainland, and North America.

Occasional storms of greater severity will arrive every now and then, but they will be few and far between.

Europe may be the exception. It is likely it will experience slightly higher than usual rainfalls, extreme cold conditions during the winter, followed by floods and high temperatures in the summer which may suit higher levels of food production.

However, this trend for the European continent will end and things will dry up after 2050.

 

20 YEARS AGO

 
There is excellent scientific evidence to support the view that humans are affecting the world like never before. Classic examples of this include the greenhouse effect (the trapping of heat from the Sun) caused by the release of carbon dioxide and other pollutants from the burning of natural forests from land clearing and coal-fired power stations, greater levels of pollution in fresh water supplies from chemical factories, natural fish in the oceans becoming increasingly decimated from overfishing and being slowly poisoned by chemicals, massive glaciers melting and sea levels rising, and so on.

Among the scientific evidence supporting things like the "greenhouse gases" problem, researchers at the University of Alaska have discovered an alarming increase in the rate of melting of ice after surveying 67 major glaciers. It has already been known since the mid-1950s that glaciers were melting. Now in the last five years (after 1997), the rate of melting has almost doubled to nearly 52 cubic kilometres a year (7). The consequences are clear: pure ice from the glaciers are being converted to liquid water which eventually flows to the sea and this in turn raises the world's sea levels, putting coastal cities at higher risk of being flooded.

The researchers came to this conclusion after measuring on an annual basis the changes occurring to the surface of glaciers using a laser system transported in an aircraft.

And now some scientists are claiming the greenhouse gases in the air is in greater concentrations than for the last 400,000 years and increasing at a rate more rapid than at any time in the history of life on Earth. The warning bells are ringing.

Are the brains of humans big enough to solve the environmental problems? Or has greed and power taken over the powerful leaders of the world?

Sounds like people in the world will be reliving the Aztec experience very soon.

## SPECIAL UPDATE ##
4 January 2003
The government-funded US scientists from the University of Washington, Seattle, have joined the debate on melting ice sheets and glaciers with a report stating a large Antarctic ice sheet is melting and will take 7,000 years to disappear, raising sea levels throughout the world by 4.8 metres, thereby easing the public's fear of a massive global catastrophe within a lifetime. As these US scientists are suggesting, we have plenty of time to do something about it and hence humanity can continue doing the same things as we have done for the last 50 years.

However, the method employed by the US scientists in measuring the rate of melting of the Antarctic ice sheet is still not accurate enough to tell us what is happening today with humankind's attempt at accelerating the process of global warming through its own activities. Also it doesn't take into account the melting in the Arctic regions.

The US scientists are relying on an "average results" technique whereby a machine would measure the amount of isotopes of certain elements in rocks. Since the Earth's magnetic field at the poles are at its weakest and more cosmic rays reach the Earth's surface, any exposure of certain rocks on the Antarctic mountains to the cosmic rays when ice has melted can change the number and type of atoms in the rocks forming what are known as isotopes.

Because the isotopes have a radioactive decay rate lasting literally thousands or even millions of years, it is possible for scientists to measure things like the number of such isotopes and how far the isotopes have decayed over time, giving an average indication of how much melting has probably occurred in the immediate area over say a thousand year period where the rocks were found.

Certainly a study such as this one is fine for getting an average long-term indication of global warming over the last few thousand years. And with the results in, it suggests melting of the Antarctic ice sheet has been steady and relatively slow, enough for humans to adapt to the eventual change in sea levels once the ice sheet has melted in 7,000 years time.

Unfortunately, this study cannot help with the immediate concerns of how much time we have now before sea levels rise to 4.8 metres and beyond given the fact that more recent and indirect scientific studies are indicating an exponential "runaway" increase in worldwide temperatures and only now are we at the brink of experiencing the warmest period of our times. Averaging results over thousands of years does not help.

In fact, if, as some scientists suggest, the trend towards global warming thanks to human intervention with nature continues it could take less than 75 years before sea levels rise to the unheard of level suggested by the US scientists at the University of Washington. And if the ice sitting over the warmer Arctic seas melt more quickly, sea levels could rise 30 metres or more in the next 75 years.

Studies are continuing in this area to this day. But how long will it take before action is taken to control global warming? Or are we happy with global warming? If so, who is going to plant enough trees to mop up the carbon dioxide in the air before the planet becomes a giant desert and is too hot and waterless on the continents to plant anything? And who will support these people when the time comes?

Does the US Government need to spend more time and money deciding whether another study on global warming would convince them of taking appropriate action to protect and improve our natural environment?

Or are there certain unnamed individuals in the US military and government more concerned at keeping the secret new "electromagnetic energy recycling" technology from emerging to the public so they can enjoy a life of total greed and power?

## SPECIAL UPDATE ##
May 2004
US scientists released more interesting scientific results at the same time as US Hollywood movie producers unveiled a science fiction (or more likely a science fantasy) movie called The Day After Tomorrow suggesting the Earth is probably getting cooler and, if we accept the scientific logic in the film, may result in a new Ice Age.

A scene from the science-fiction movie The Day After Tomorrow.

Ignoring the hype behind the Hollywood film for a moment, the latest scientific evidence from the researchers at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and the California Institute of Technology is now suggesting the Earth is reflecting more light into space from the Sun from 2001 to 2003 compared to the period from 1984 to 2001. And this appears to be because there is more cloud cover. This latter observation was determined after looking at satellite images of the amount of cloud cover on Earth since 1984; and the former observation when scientists on Earth measured the amount of earthshine reflected off the dark side of the Moon compared to the bright lunar crescent serving as a standard for the scientists. Because there appears to be more cloud cover than ever before since measurements of cloud cover by satellites began in 1984, the Earth must be getting cooler because less sunlight is able to reach the Earth's surface at ground level. Of course the researchers are not suggesting an Ice Age is going to hit the Earth any time soon as the Hollywood film would suggest. But any evidence suggesting a cooling of the planet would have to be good in the eyes of the current Bush Administration wanting to access stable supplies of oil in Iraq while maintaining the current "non-recycling" approaches to modern life. (7)

One cannot help wonder whether this is not another subtle R-wing attempt to calm the public of fears of global warming.

As for the film itself, a number of scientific flaws can be observed. For example, it is claimed for an Ice Age to occur, all the polar ice caps would have to melt causing a disruption in the flow of warm ocean currents from the equator in the Atlantic in reaching the northern latitudes. Well, if the polar ice caps have melted, how come Los Angeles and New York aren't flooded by at least 70 metres of oceanic water? Incredibly the film, with its regular images of the R-wing Fox News being flashed across people's television sets, claims these and other coastal US and European cities were untouched by the higher ocean levels. Surely there is a flaw here? Yet another serious anomaly is how the oceans don't retreat in the face of a severe Ice Age. Satellite images of Europe and the USA according to the film showed the boundaries between the oceans and land remained the same and countries can be observed. When ocean waters retreat in an Ice Age, the boundaries are never clear as the oceans retreat and ice extends over the surface of the oceans and reach closer to the equator.

And what of the effect of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere? How does this affect air temperature? This and other scientific issues are not properly dealt with in the film.

## SPECIAL UPDATE ##
April 2007
A documentary aired on SBS television on 29 April 2007 titled Gulf Stream and the Next Ice Age attempts to give a slightly more realistic scientific basis for the Ice Age in terms of an interruption of the warm ocean currents in the Atlantic reaching western Europe (eg. UK, France, Netherlands etc) known as the Gulf Stream.

Written by Nicolas Koutsikas & Stephan Poulle, the film claims melting of the ice in Greenland under current global warming conditions could see large quantities of ice breaking off and drift as far south as Spain. Its presence would help to cool the northern ocean and dilute it with vast amounts of freshwater. It is the freshwater that could be of greatest concern because some scientists believe it may be enough to dilute the high salt concentrations in the warm Gulf Stream, making it harder for this normally salty, dense water to fall to the ocean floor where it can return to the warmer waters of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean sea. If this cooling and lower salt concentrations occur well before reaching Norway and Sweden, the Gulf stream could be halted resulting in cold air from the Arctic reaching Europe more easily and causing a drop in temperature sufficient to possibly start an Ice Age.

The collapse of this thermohaline circulation of the Gulf Stream may explain why the UK experienced a mini-Ice Age several hundred years ago. But as the name suggests, any drop in temperature will be temporary. Even more so under the current global warming conditions.

Towards the end of the last Ice Age nearly 10,000 years ago, periods of sporadic high temperatures in the summer would have sent large numbers of icebergs near the temperate latitudes corresponding to France and the UK where the ice sheets had originally extended. Extra icebergs in the Atlantic at this latitude may have assisted in maintaining the Ice Age in Europe for a few decades by disrupting the Gulf Stream.

Several hundred years ago, the mini-Ice Age of Britain lasted 2 or 3 years before conditions warmed up again.

In the next 50 to 100 years from now, global warming is likely to see any Ice Age last not much longer than say a few months, probably during winter and mainly confined to Europe and North America assuming of course that the Gulf Stream is interrupted by enough cold freshwater before it becomes diluted with the rest of the oceans.

In the summer, global warming would see any mini-Ice Age end, creating great floods in low-lying areas of Europe. As for the lower salt concentrations, the melting of most of the ice in the world would be sufficiently diluted throughout the oceans of the world. What is likely to happen is that because cold temperatures in the Arctic will not be as extreme as it was in the past 100 years to create trade winds, the Gulf Stream may not flow as strongly as it does now.

So between 2050 and 2100, it is likely we will see both north America and Europe having roughly the same weather conditions. In the winter, Europe will have snow like north America does today, but in summer the continents will experience the same hotter than average temperatures once the snow and ice has melted.

Hence the greater land mass of the northern hemisphere could see temperatures plummet in the winter by as much as 5 or 6 degrees Fahrenheit, but later reach above-average temperatures in the summer. Whereas the greater water mass of the southern hemisphere could see temperatures rise by up to 4 degrees Fahrenheit throughout the year, resulting in greater and more severe droughts on the western side of major mountain ranges in Australia and South America and potential flooding on the eastern side of the mountains. The temperature figures indicated here are considered a worse-case scenario according to a 20-page report written by Peter Schwartz and Doug Randall titled An Abrupt Climate Change Scenario and Its Implications for United States National Security (published in October 2003). The report was commissioned by the US Department of Defense.

But to claim the Ice Age will be so severe as to last for years, decades or even centuries under the current global warming conditions according to Hollywood movies will be pushing the boundaries of good science.

## SPECIAL UPDATE ##
May 2004
Not noted for their indepth analysis of environmental problems, the US Department of Defence at the Pentagon has somehow seen the need to study global warming. Perhaps all those ideas of intense and unabated "non-recycling" approaches to modern life by accessing oil in Iraq are not sustainable and could end up being counter-productive to their aims in maintaining supersecret Defence projects (eg. UFOs)?

Or maybe the US military is realising there could be more wars and terrorism when people get displaced by the rising sea levels?

We can imagine what the solution from the US military in a year from now will be. The clue will probably come from the soldiers themselves as they start singing and marching in the training camps to the tune: "We...know...how...to...keep...it...coooool; we...stick-a-cork...right...up...our...buuuums!"

And all that after probably spending a few billion dollars of taxpayers' money. How useful is this military study to society?

## SPECIAL UPDATE ##
August 2004
NASA has joined the ranks of the climate change debaters with slightly more useful scientific revelations about global warming. It concerns the amount of black asphalt being used on roads for US cities and how it is absorbing more heat and making Autumn leaves drop later and vegetation in the cities stay greener for a long period of time. Included in the list of culprits for elevated "island" temperatures in the cities according to NASA are such things as buildings, car exhausts and human activity in general.

NASA advises that the advantage in high temperatures in the city areas might be a slightly longer growing season for farmers located nearby and a reduction in snow during the winter months for city dwellers. However, the disadvantage will be a greater reliance on water to maintain the growth of agricultural plants during the summer months, more weeds and insects to control, and increased human stress to heat (a major issue for older residents).

In another sensible scientific study published on the National Academy of Sciences website, two scenarios of what will happen in the cities were put forward. In one scenario in which fossil fuels continue to be used at its present rate with no discernible increase in the use of renewable energy sources such as solar or radio wave-to-electricity converters, temperatures in the centre of some cities could rise by as much as 15 degrees, resulting in 90 per cent less snow staying on the surface and with it greater winter flooding, while cities in more drier areas such as San Francisco may receive less reliable water supplies from the mountains.

In the second scenario where renewable energy sources are used in significant quantities this century, the continued emission of some fossil fuel could still push average temperatures in the cities by four to six degrees unless there is something done to counteract the fossil fuel problem now such as somehow increasing the efficiency of photosynthesis in plants and growing more plants globally to absorb the greenhouse gases (basically the equivalent of a bloody miracle).

## SPECIAL UPDATE ##
June 2004
A highly useful scientific study in solving the global warming problems has taken place at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra recently. In a significant breakthrough for science, Professor Elmars Krausz, PhD student Joe Hughes and a team of researchers at the ANU have discovered the process of photosynthesis to produce oxygen (a non-global warming gas) is actually thwart with many barriers in the environment designed to make the process very inefficient. But now, with much tinkering and careful control of these external barriers, the scientists have found an easy way to greatly increase the speed of photosynthesis and hence the production of oxygen. For example, scientists have now found the wavelength of light needed for oxygen production to take place is actually much longer than previously thought and can be used to increase the production process.

As Professor Krausz said:

'Our entire existence is dependent on this critical process. It makes the air we breathe and the food we eat, yet we don't know how it works.

'We have discovered that the special reaction centres that power oxygen production have been misunderstood for decades.

'By encouraging and modifying natural systems or by mimicking their tricks, we can deliver a new range of sustainable, non-polluting, greenhouse positive energy production sources.' (9)

Now if only there is enough freshwater on land to keep the plants healthy for humans to tap onto this photosynthesis process, then maybe we can reverse the greenhouse effects. Let's hope this doesn't become the green light for the US government, military and business community to continue burning more coal and oil before we can counteract the effects.

Combine this with the idea of adding more acidophilus bacteria in yoghurt into our diet and the diets of farm animals and maybe the emissions of methane gas — another greenhouse gas — can be significantly reduced.

Who knows? The great farters of the world may soon be numbered!

## SPECIAL UPDATE ##
5 July 2004
Some government-funded scientists in Australia (under the control of the R-wing Howard Government) may be trying to play down global warming by emphasising the fact that over the last 2 million years, Earth has undergone a series of glacial and interglacial periods. The warm period we are experiencing now is a typical and natural interglacial period and as such there is nothing unusual about it. Yes, this is an interglacial period (although if current greenhouse gas emissions continue the way it is today, there may never be another ice age in the future). But are we experiencing a warmer period than previous interglacial periods? And if so, why? Are humans contributing to the global warming?

To bring balance to the situation, a group of independent scientists have come out of the woodworks outside the influence of governments and the military in favour of global warming. Known as the Climate Change Group, this group of well-respected scientists has strong evidence to show there is a definite "cause and effect" for the climate change we are experiencing today. And the cause is due to the impact of humans on the planet. The effect? Statistics on the temperature of the planet over the past 150 years show a definite trend towards global warming.

These opposing scientists are not predicting an Ice Age is coming any time soon. Quite the contrary, the scientists are strongly of the belief that the weather will get more extreme and hotter through higher wind speeds, more flooding, and very persistent droughts throughout the world. And all because the temperature of the atmosphere on Earth is rising thanks to human activity (ie. it is not natural).

## SPECIAL UPDATE ##
8 July 2004
The US scientists are having an extraordinarily hard time getting scientific facts accurate to the public through yet another R-wing government known as the Bush Administration. There is a feeling among the US scientists that the US Government is supressing good science to suit its own political aims according to a letter written and signed by the scientists to the Administration today. As the letter stated:

'Across a broad range of policy areas, the Administration has undermined the quality and independence of the scientific advisory system and the morale of the Government's outstanding scientific personnel...' (10)

The letter was signed by 4,000 scientists including 48 Nobel Prize winners and 127 members of the US National Academy of Sciences. We wonder how much of this interference by the Bush Administration has rubbed on the good US scientific work on global warming?

## SPECIAL UPDATE ##
June 2004
Scientists have determined how the oceans are rising at a rate of 2 millimetres per year based on current computer global climate models utilising information on just the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at this time with no other factors considered. By 2100, many of the highly-populated and/or economically-important low-lying coastal ports, coastal regions and islands will face the threat of flooding and economic hardship for the nations concerned far greater than the threat of any terrorism bombing coastal infrastructure.

NOTE: Should all the ice in the world suddenly melt, ocean levels will rise by 80 metres.

## SPECIAL UPDATE ##
17 July 2004
It is a well-known fact that the world oceans absorb carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Though exactly how much was anyone's guess. Now, according to research published in the journal Science this week, Oceanographer Christopher Sabine of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Seattle, USA, and his colleagues has discovered around 48 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuel and cement manufacturing between 1800 and 1994 has been absorbed by the world oceans. This represents about 118 billion metric tonnes of carbon. The oceans will continue to absorb more carbon dioxide for thousands of years. But the rate of increase in carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere — expected to at least double by the end of the 21st century — will force the oceans to absorb more carbon dioxide very quickly and could see many marine life potentially affected sooner rather than later. Why? Carbon dioxide makes water slightly acidic. And acids have a bad habit of absorbing the carbonate ions needed to make shells and other hard parts for living things as well as dissolving the already existent hard calcium carbonate material of molluscs, corals and single-celled organisms. If the world oceans get any more acidic than it is today, it could see the early extinction of many hard-shelled marine life and those animals reliant on coral reefs for their survival.

How will this affect the food supplies for humans of fish and other marine life? And what happens with the remaining 52 per cent of carbon dioxide still in the atmosphere and increasing as we speak?

## SPECIAL UPDATE ##
27 November 2004
A well-respected non-government Brazilian environmental group known as Imazon has released satellite images of the Amazon rainforests. The latest images as of 2002 are rather disturbing for humankind to say the least as it suggests that about half of the rainforests have been deforested or used for industry since the country's political leaders encouraged humans to exploit the forests after 1978 for "economic reasons" (or more accurately to gain political power).

The results show a level of destruction far greater than the Brazilian government wants to admit in its own official figures.

Part of the problem lies in the fact that politicians want to maintain the current economic system, for this equates to maintaining political power as well as staying rich so long as everyone else performs the essential jobs needed to keep the system going. And for politicians, maintaining the system also requires them to find ways to solve the problem of poverty which in turn helps the leaders to improve their own chances of being re-elected. Creating jobs is part of the key solution to staying in power.

The other reason is because many people in Brazil are poor and are looking for and willing to do anything to maintain jobs. For example, logging firms and ranchers are willing to kill people who get in the way of progress and making money irrespective of other people trying to help the poor and protect the rainforests. A classic case of this is the recent death of a high profile activist and American nun named Dorothy Stang for her work to establish some land and a settlement for the poor with the approval of the Brazilian Government.

And yet another reason for the rainforest decimation is because after the recession of 2002, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) provided billions of dollars in loans to Brazil on the condition the country maintains strong economic growth to help repay the loans.

It seems the only creative solution to come out of the Brazilian politicians at this time in order to solve poverty and pay a foreign debt has been to get people to make money from the rainforests by cutting down trees en masse (the biggest source of export income for Brazil).

But clearly, as the satellite images are showing, this 'economic' solution is not sustainable. Because in another 20 years, given the current population levels (let alone increases in the rate of population growth in the country) and the rate of destruction by businesses without an equally concerted effort to recycle and replenish the resources, the rainforests will no longer exist. The great lungs of the Earth will disappear.

Then how will people survive? Sticking a tube up one's arse and start sucking down the contents?

Persist with this economic idea and clearly a time must come when real poverty will return with a vengeance for a majority of people in Brazil once the resources in the rainforests are gone. If the leaders and business people do not change their ways soon, Brazil will fight with other countries for territory and hence a greater share of the remaining resources. Either that, or we will have to go in the same way as the people of Easter Island who became extinct after cannibalising each other for food.

Still think this is a far-fetched possibility?

## SPECIAL UPDATE ##
21 March 2005
The latest information on global climate is revealing a battle going on in the Earth's atmosphere between pollutants creating global warming and pollutants creating global cooling.

More importantly, current global climate models are not taking into account the pollutants responsible for global cooling (a phenomenon called by some scientists as global dimming) and what happens if this pollution is removed while pollutants for global warming increases unabated.

Some scientists believe global warming could suddenly increase at least twice as fast as present day computer models predict.

The pollutants responsible for global dimming has been determined to originate from soot, ash and sulfur dioxide from burning wood, coal, gas and oil. Scientists estimate that just 3 kilometres of this kind of pollution can reduce solar radiation by 10 per cent depending on its concentration.

But what happens if we don't have pollution in the atmosphere?

Europe is cutting pollution in the air. However scientists believe this is the pollution responsible for global dimming. So as the pollution goes down, there is a slight reduction in global dimming. Now European temperatures are suddenly rising because sunlight is reaching the ground more easily.

And it isn't a normal increase in temperature.

The global warming effect of pollutants from carbon dioxide and methane continues to increase unabated. Scientists are predicting a more dramatic increase in temperature.

Scientists believe current climate models are not predicting this sudden and accelerated temperature rise as pollution for cooling the planet goes down. The models should predict a temperature range difference of at least twice as much than currently published.

If this is true, it is possible for ice in Greenland to completely melt by 2030 (not 2080), rainforests may dry up sufficiently, more rainforest trees will become stressed in the drier conditions and become less able to absorb the greenhouse gases quickly enough to counteract the global warming pollutants from man-made sources, the rainforests become a greater fire hazard, and should a fire rip through the rainforests, will accelerate global warming even more dramatically.

Earth will eventually experience a runaway global warming effect with insufficient plant cover on the Earth's surface in a healthy enough state to absorb the greenhouse gases. Soon more countries will turn into deserts and become inhospitable for humans to live while others become flooded by rising sea levels.

Droughts and famine will be a far more severe and common sight in places such as Africa and India.

Does this mean we should continue to maintain the present levels of pollution emanating from burning coal, gas and oil? World governments and business professionals would love it. People needing jobs to pay for mortgages would say "Yes!"

Some scientists, on the other hand, would say "No!"

Again it depends if scientists are working for the government or not.

Independent scientists predict the atmosphere will be choked with enough soot, ash and sulfur dioxide that eventually human health will deteriorate to the point where our lifespan is shortened.

The only way to solve the problem of global climate change is to tackle all pollutants simultaneously. And the only way we can do this is to get at the root problem: the burning of wood, coal, gas and oil and how important getting rich and powerful is to our survival. If we want to be rich, humanity must find alternative and cleaner energy sources. Or humans must reduce their demand for cars, electricity and natural gas.

Nothing less than a major transformation of our current economy is needed, or we have no profit-driven economy at all.

Otherwise human population levels will be forced to go down because of health problems from poor air pollution, starvation and so much more. And it won't be just obesity that will kill the human population sooner rather than later in the developed nations.

## SPECIAL UPDATE ##
14 April 2005
The original idea that humans could be heading towards an Ice Age has returned with a vengeance, but this time with more credible scientific information (from the US no doubt). However it would take one hell of a natural disaster of global proportions for this to occur. In fact, the disaster being talked about is considered by scientists to be so rare in human experience that we may not have to worry about it for many thousands or tens of thousands of years (although it is feasible such an event could happen tomorrow or if the US military decides to throw a nuclear bomb to activate the natural disaster being talked about).

To be on the safe side, it would be prudent if world governments and scientists start decentralising and focussing on alternative technology for supplying the world with electricity from people's own homes in the event such a natural disaster does occur. At the moment, humans are extremely vulnerable in the current economic system and could die by the billions because of our reliance on energy from businesses, especially those utilising non-renewable energy sources.

The natural disaster being talked about at this time is a thing called supervolcanoes.

Supervolcanoes do occur in reality.

Supervolcanoes have occurred in the