351 desertification and other marks of civilization

Let's talk about Mesopotamia. And the Sahara desert. And Caral, Peru. 

These places are all the location of some of human's first civilizations. They are all currently deserts. But they weren't always. They used to be forests. Remember the cedars of Lebanon?

They became deserts through thousands of years of cutting down trees, altering waterways to provide irrigation, and perhaps also some bigger things, like the earth's wobble.

In California, we cut down 95% of the old growth redwoods in our first 100 years as part of the USA. We've dammed every river in the state, for irrigation and for home use. Recently, 102 million conifers in California have died because temperatures have risen enough to allow them to be infested by bark beetles. And a million live oaks have had their 500+ year lifetimes of growing green against our golden hills ended by Sudden Oak Death, the result of a fungus from that bark beetle again.

Deforestation leads to desert, which leads to population collapse and the end of a civilization. 

It used to be that process took a while. Now we're all crossing our fingers and hoping it doesn't get too bad "in our lifetime."

God fucking damn we are short sighted, greedy little creatures.

File under: you bet your ass we can change

Once upon a time, somebody thought this was a good idea. And then this happened:

The Freeway Revolt succeeded in stopping some of the freeways from being built, but it took an act of nature to turn that concrete monster above back into this:

Hmmm...ideas plus disaster equals change.

File under: barcoded Amazon slaves

I think I can wait a week to order some new underwear.

File under: how do you sell digital art?

With a "non-fungible token." 

This is a blockchain tracked individual identifier that labels the original as the original. 

I guess I need to look these up.

File under: my phone wanted me to know this is a thing

Years ago I remember seeing a video of someone making one of these out of that corrugated plastic stuff. I guess he was onto something.

File under: it's not competition, it's company

As a theater producer looking for a venue this summer or fall, I have to admit a tinge of jealousy that a Canadian cirque-du-soleil is taking over the old Beach Blanket Babylon space, which also notably was the birthplace of Bank of America.

But if we're going to retain our status as an arts destination, the more the better.

I'd heard San Francisco lost 100k people last year. But then I saw this chart.

It says we lost 25k. In the fourth quarter alone. So maybe that 100k wasn't that far off.

In the words of immobile people everywhere, "they'll be back."

Stay tuned, based on pictures in my phone, I think tomorrow will be "gardening Saturday."