The Gulf Stream

The Gulf Stream

bringing the equator's warmth to Europe

     Martin continued, "The Gulf Stream follows the Atlantic seaboard north, hugging fairly close to shore, until it reaches the latitude of Virginia.  Then, as you can see, the Gulf Stream flows northeast across the North Atlantic toward Europe."

     He walked across the ship's conference room to the wall of windows, then stood with the sea behind him.  He pointed his red beam at the map on the screen: "As you can see, the Gulf Stream divides into three branches as it approaches Europe.  Part of that great river branches southeast, toward France and Spain.  Part of it branches north, toward Iceland and Greenland.  The middle fork of the Gulf Stream continues northeast, straight on, over the top of the British Isles, bathing them in its warmth.  It then flows north along the rocky coastline of Norway, and over the top of Norway, into the Barents Sea . . . Russian waters."

     He turned off the red pointer.  After a long pause, he continued, "Thus, the Gulf Stream brings a river of warmth to the coast of Norway.  If it were not for the Gulf Stream, the water you see outside the windows would be a sheet of ice.  Remember, we are above the polar circle, in the month of April.  If it were not for this river of warmth from the equatorial sun, life in northern Europe would be very different."

               John Slade

               Climate Change and the Oceans

               http://www.woodgateintl.com/

    

Adelie Penguins

Adelie penguins

Antarctic Peninsula

Photograph by Dr. George Somero

     Dr. Richard Worthington knew that the slow dying of populations would take a long time, perhaps a couple of centuries.  Palmer Station was on the Antarctic Peninsula, an arm that reached fom the main body of the continent toward the tip of South America.  The Station was at 64 degrees south, on the warm side of the Antarctic Circle at 67 degrees south.  So the peninsula would warm more quickly that the polar heart of Antarctica.  Penguins would survive in diminishing numbers, laying their eggs in diminishing numbers, hatching their chicks in diminishing numbers.  The warming would be slow, until there were only a few lingering survivors.

     These birds--birds that had once learned how to swim--could perhaps adapt to a slow change of climate, a change that stretched over thousands of years.  But they probably could not adapt to changes tht came in the course of a few decades, or even a few centuries.

               John Slade

              Climate Change and the Oceans

               http://www.woodgateintl.com/ 

    

Lady Liberty, New York, USA

Lady Liberty

New York, U S A

     As the ferry rounded Liberty Island and approached the pier, Zheng looked up at the stern face: the face of a schoolteacher who had much to offer, as long as we all behaved.  He looked at the hand holding the tablet inscribed, as he knew, with the date of the Declaration of Independence.  Then he looked up at the torch, that symbol of freedom, that symbol of hope.  French engineering, Norwegian copper, and the spirit of America.

     Somehow, that spirit needed once again to join the world.

               John Slade

               Climate Change and the Oceans

               http://www.woodgateintl.com/  

The Big Guy



The Big Guy

     What determines human destiny?  What determines a nation's future?  Was it economic policy, or was it something in the spirit of the people?

     Those were the questions that Zheng loved to think about.  He was a senior now at New York University, double majoring in economics and international affairs.  Born in China, raised in America, intrigued by the histories and habits of countries around the world, he saw within each nation a dynamic balance between that nation's economic system--a carefully built engine--and the psychology of the engineer who operated that engine. 

               John Slade

               Climate Change and the Oceans

               http://www.woodgateintl.com/ 

A Soldier Comes Home

De Kalb, Illinois: Buckle on the Corn Belt

     Tom stood in his desert camouflage behind a barbed wire fence, staring at a vast field of corn, the young green stalks about a foot high.  He had been back from Iraq for twelve days, and hadn't yet traded his camouflage uniform for his old denim shirt and jeans.  The soldier wasn't able yet to become a farmer again, because the soldier hadn't yet found a way home.

                      John Slade

                      Climate Change and the Oceans

                      http://www.woodgateintl.com/ 

Baby Leatherback Turtles

Baby leatherback turtles emerging from nest.

          Michelle and Carol sat beside each other a few feet from the emerging turtles.  They watched the little black noses becoming snake heads nudging free.  The baby turtles twisted and rested, twisted and rested, corkscrewing their way into the upper world.  By the time both flippers had lifted free of the sand, the eyes were opening. 

                                               John Slade

                                               Climate Change and the Oceans

                                                http://www.woodgateintl.com/

Chapter Two: Introduction to "Climate Change and the Oceans"

Dr. John Slade

     In Chapter One (18 posts), we looked at two interweaving themes: Wind Turbines and Children.

     In Chapter Two, we shall explore a unique and powerful book in which the children grow up in a troubled world, a world which they have inherited . . . from us.

     "Climate Change and the Oceans" tells seven stories, set in seven locations around the world, today, and twenty years from now.  Based on extensive research, this book dramatizes the probable climate changes coming soon to your world. 

     The stories give climate change, and clean energy, a human face.

     This is the book that your children (born, or not yet born) hope you will read.

     While doing the research for this book, I spent hours in libraries and bookstores, looking at multitudes of books on ecology, energy, economics, and engineering.  I found many excellent books, but not one that told a story.  Not a single novel, or any sort of fiction, which might engage the interest of a sixteen-year-old in high school, or a tired parent with half an hour to read before collapsing into bed.

     As both teacher and author, I write for the young people who will soon inherit a changing world.  My method is to weave solid information into a story with short, clear chapters and vibrant characters.

     Tell me a story . . .

    

    

The sun, that blesses me

The sun, that blesses me with richest earthly finery,

Shines no warmer than my hopes upon thee.

   John Slade

Silhouetted Against the Stars

                        Silhouetted Against the Stars

     Tony didn't want to leave yet.  The sky was still cloudless, the air extremely clear.  The stars would be crystalline tonight.
     He wanted to look up at the tall slender wind turbine against the stars.
                                      * * *
     The sky had fully darkened to a radiant black.  Cygnus the Swan was sailing along the crystalline Milky Way, straight overhead and thus high above the slender spinning  blades of the wind turbine, when Tony heard what Miss Applegate called his Voice.
     He took his notebook out of his backpack, then began to write in the faint glow of starlight.  Though he could not easily read what he had neatly written, he could see the black writing on the pale white paper, and thus he could write line by line down the page.

             On a Starry Night

Look at all that flash and tatter out there:
Nuclear sparks hurtling through a void
Laced with waves of energy.
And spinning as happy as could be
In the midst of that vast celestial desert
Is Earth, blessed with water, blessed with land,
Blessed with a gentle, steady dose of sunshine:
An oasis which the Creator chose as a cradle.

Matter which has been ordered into the form of life
Seems to be only a tiny fraction
Of all the matter in the universe.
Most matter seems to be unliving,
Unless we believe that fiery gases and chunks of frozen nitrogen
Are alive.
But only a small portion of living matter
Thinks,
Unless we believe that viruses and vegetables and ancient sequoias
Can think.
And only a small, small portion of thinking matter
Ponders its origin,
Unless we believe that apes and elephants and the singing whales
Can ponder.
That leaves
Us.
We see no clear bridge between star and starfish,
Nor between starfish and human child,
And so we ponder how we came to be.

There must have been some force that challenged
The randomness of existence,
And won.


     Tony looked up at the towering black wind turbine, silhouetted against the stars.  The blades no longer spun, for the breeze had settled at dusk. 
     As the wind turbine seemed completely at home as it stood atop the mountain, so it seemed completely at home among the stars.


                       from Adirondack Green

                       John Slade
                       Woodgate International
                       http://www.woodgateintl.com/

Yes, I Was There

Yes, I Was There

Yes, I was there when the first wind turbines were built upon the land.

Some thought them ugly, and some thought them grand.

The turbines worked steadily, by day and by night,

Keeping the lights on, steady and bright.

Yes, I was there when the first wind turbines were built out at sea,

Catching the wind to make power for you and for me.

The turbines worked steadily, by night and by day,

Powering new factories, along the shore of the bay.

Yes, I was there when people from China visited our town.

They studied our factories, upstairs and down,

They studied our schools, downstairs and up.

Now we work together, coffee in a mug and tea in a cup.

Yes, I was there when my children in school gradually learned

That for which we older folks, since ancient times, have yearned:

How to share the wind with Russia and Peru,

How to share the wind with Kalamazoo, and Timbuktu.

Yes, I was there when we learned to build a global grid,

Bringing power to every kid.

And as we built our growing network of cables, bringing power,

Something else, something good, something quiet, began to flower.

Yes, I was there when that growing network included schools,

Scattered among all countries like democratic jewels.

The kids in Scotland and the kids in Greece

Were building a new world, with a network of turbines and a network of peace.

We don't have time, they said, for any more war.

Your smoke and your stench we think is a bore.

Together we study, together we learn, together we build, and together we pray,

Yes, we pray with deep gratitude (each to his own) that we finally got to this day,

When kids from your town and kids from mine,

Even kids from five to nine,

Learn first to catch the wind, and then to share.

Yes, oh yes, I was there!

                                      John Slade

                                      Woodgate International

                                       http://www.woodgateintl.com/ 



Wind Turbine Economics

Wind Turbine Economics

     One week in Denmark, home of the modern wind turbine, would convince you that manufacturing a product which the rest of the world is going to need by the hundreds of thousands, for the next half-century at least, is a proven way to provide jobs for the country's workers.  Not only jobs, but lifetime careers.

     The only economic engine that can truly lift America's economy, and the world's economy, out of our present recession is the engine of building clean energy products.  Look at what needs to be built: wind turbines, solar collectors, tidal turbines, a modern continental grid, and a new generation of electric public transportation, from sea to shining sea.  That is a program as urgently needed today as President Roosevelt's great programs during the Depression.

     Put the nation to work . . . by building products that truly make sense for our children.

                                                 John Slade

                                                 Woodgate International

                                                  http://www.woodgateintl.com/