Don’t Live in Black and White

Certainty is comforting, but I find that it’s an illusion much of the time. After all, we used to believe that gods lived atop Olympus, that applying leeches cured illness, that ships fell off the edge of the Earth….

We’re quick to label people as good or bad and slow to learn details that might call such neat categorization into question. Our national debates routinely consist of an exhausting demonization of the other side. If someone changes their views, a shrill chorus brands them a “flip-flopper” and announces they’re untrustworthy or worse.

Rubbish. Things change. We evolve. Our perspective alters not because we are weak, but because we have the strength to be open, trying to learn and grow. We don’t have the world/the universe/Creation all figured out. Not by a long shot.

Where we can apply the scientific method, incorrect theories can eventually be exposed. Acceptance? Well, that takes time. (See: climate change.) But most things in our lives cannot be tested. They exist in the murky realms of belief and opinion, where certainty has even less place but where it hardens quickly and lasts longer. We’re left to try and figure things out together with no sure way of doing it. Messiness results and often only by viewing our history with the long term lens can we see change.

But that’s the point and why I like the image above. We should be wary of certainty, resist living our lives in black and white, because there is so much to learn and discover together in the grey.

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TTA Press Advent Calendar

TTA Press (publishers of Interzone, Black Static, Crimewave and much, much more) has a wonderful tradition this time of year. They offer an Advent Calendar of free flash fiction stories and poems as a way of counting down the days until Christmas. The pieces are mostly by writers whose work has previously been published by TTA Press, but not all. One of my flash fiction tales on this site will be included on December 17th.

Contributors this year include: Renee Carter Hall, Roy Gray, D. F. Lewis, Bob Lock, David McGroarty, Dennis M. Lane, Dylan Fox, Ian Hunter, Darren Gallagher, Anthony Watson, Rhys Hughes, Guy Anthony DeMarco, Damien Walter Grintalis, Aliya Whiteley, and others.

You can keep up with the calendar in the Black Static news feed or in the feed for either of TTA’s other two magazines. Drop in and meet some writers you may not have read.

Happy Advent, all.

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Beware: Consider the Shark’s POV

There has been a lot of fuss n’ holler here in New England for a few years now about the growing population of great white sharks off Chatham on Cape Cod. This is, after all, Jaws country. So, some people start wondering whether it is safe to continue going back in the water while others are off making T-shirts like this one or mugs or toys or anything else that might net them a few bucks.

As is so often the case, the facts dispel the concerns. Firstly, you cannot walk from the Chatham beaches to Monomoy Island without getting your feet wet by crossing on the backs of the sharks. In fact, most of the people who go looking for them don’t find them. Secondly, the sharks that are there are not cruising the shallows near the beaches looking for tasty, slow moving humans in bathing suits. They are after the seals and it is the booming seal population that has led to the increase in the number of great whites in the area. In other words, it is a classic example of nature doing its thing. An increase in the population of a species leads to an increase in the corresponding predator’s population.

Now, all of this is not to suggest that the beach closings that have become a periodic event each summer are unwarranted. If a shark is spotted in the area, officials try to get everyone out of the water quickly and keep them out until well after the shark exits. Rightly so. After all, you never know what a human being might do. People do things like jump off a moving train into the zoo habitat of a Siberian tiger, for example.

But I would suggest that more careful thought should be given to what the scientists are doing out there in their boats while they study the sharks. I read this article about a research vessel that is new to Chatham waters, the a-bit-too-cleverly-named Ocearch. Like other vessels that are there, the Ocearch is busy finding and tagging great whites so that the population can be better tracked and studied.

Fine. Better than fine, actually, because they are attaching a tag that pings a satellite every time the dorsal fin breaks the surface and you can see online where the sharks have been. This, of course, is tremendously helpful to those folks standing at the waters edge wondering if they can go swimming.

(Man staring out to sea, inflatable sea horse tucked under his arm.) “Is it safe, honey?”
(Woman whips out her smartphone from somewhere in her bikini.) “I’ve got an app for that.”

But, the intrepid crew of the Ocearch are doing other things as well:

The Ocearch crew tags great white sharks in an unorthodox way. Unlike Skomal’s team, which has tagged a dozen great  whites off the Massachusetts coast with harpoons, Chris Fischer’s Ocearch crew baits the fish and leads them onto a large platform that lifts them out of the water for tagging and collecting blood, tissue and semen samples.

Now…if I were a shark, I think I would probably take exception to that. Give me a tag on my dorsal fin and it’s like a piercing, right? I’m hip. I’m edgy. But, you start messing with other stuff?

Well. I’m a bit concerned the sharks may reevaluate their level of interest in dining on slow moving bipeds.

Just sayin’.

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Another Story Idea for Someone Else

Ripped from the headlines!

Far, far out in the frozen wastes of Antarctica, a Russian (of course) team of scientists and engineers is hard at work doing something amazing, something controversial.  They are drilling to a mysterious underground lake 13,000 feet below the surface.  A body of water the size of Lake Ontario that has remained isolated for millions of years.  The team is hard at work, racing the clock to beat the oncoming Antarctic winter that will render drilling impossible.  But when they break through, whether it is before the winter or afterwards, they hope to encounter life forms never seen before…!

Sounds like the opening act of a sci-fi / horror movie or the first few chapters of a similar novel to me.

You go write it.  I’m busy.

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A Next Big Thing Who Already Is

One of the books I’m reading at the moment is Paolo Bacigalupi‘s lush, complex debut novel, The Windup Girl (Night Shade Books), which seems to have won every related major award being handed out this year.  It has won the Hugo for Best Novel, the Nebula for Best Novel, the John W. Campbell Award, the Locus Award, and quite possibly, a growing pile of other, less well known awards because it’s just one of those books that comes out, lights up the critics, and runs the table.

And I don’t intend that in a snarky way at all.  It’s a remarkable thing.  The sort of thing lots of writers (all?) hope will happen with one of their books someday but almost never does.  You can’t plan for it.  Can’t set it out there as a goal.  And I imagine, when it happens, it looks and feels completely different than what someone imagines when they were daydreaming or making a pitch to their spouse, parents, friends, or other source for another round of financial support so you can go and attend that special writers workshop or conference or what have you.  ( Not that I know anyone like that.  Ahem.  No sireee. )

On top of the runaway success of The Windup Girl, Bacigalupi already has a winner of a collection in Pump-Six and Other Stories and I’m completely intrigued by Ship Breaker, his recent YA book.  Here’s the author talking about it:

I don’t read much science fiction these days, but this is an author I’ve gotten excited about because of my interest in sustainability issues.  He seems to consistently manage the trick of telling stories that live into futures that are completely plausible consequences of our current economic systems and lifestyles, but without coming off as judgmental.  The story and the characters come first, which invites a wider audience in and lets them think and reflect rather than feel put on the spot or insulted.

May he continue to succeed, reach a wider and wider audience, and keep his head on straight.

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The End Could Be Itchy

There are dozens and dozens of theories regarding how an apocalypse (or THE apocalypse) might occur.  One of the ways the world might end, or at least our status as residents, is by massive plant overgrowth.  For a glimpse of the risks, look no further than Monsanto‘s lovely line of products and their general attitude toward nature and their fellow human beings.  (Watch Food, Inc. and follow the court battles in the news, if you’re unaware of this corporation’s impact and the implications of what they’re doing.)

The theory goes like this: someone genetically engineers super seeds that give rise to super plants that grow like crazy, have huge yields, are highly resistant to insects, and are also highly resistant to the very special pesticide sold by the same company.  Farmers buy up the seeds along with lots and lots of the pesticide.  Nature happens – the weeds and other unwanted plants develop a resistance to the pesticide.  Farmers use more concentrated doses and buy the enhanced super seeds that can survive it.  Nature happens again, looking for another way out of the box we’ve tried to put it in – the enhanced super plants and the unwanted plants get together and do the nature thing, giving rise to super weeds that share the insect and pesticide impervious traits of the engineered plants.  Or, they give rise to a version of the desired plant that grows like…a weed.  The plants overrun the planet, overwhelming other plants (including our food crops) in their way.  They suck the moisture from the soil, turning massive areas into deserts covered in tinder dry, dead plants that burn away in huge fires.  They eliminate the habitat for dozens, then hundreds, then thousands of species.

And the rest of the dominos fall.

I have a story out looking for a home that is set in a post apocalyptic world where soy bean crops cover everything except isolated islands of humanity.  A sea of green that you have to keep cutting or burning back and, even then, it might just be a matter of time.

The past few days, I’ve been wondering if poison ivy might be a more likely natural world scythe to cut us down.  My wife is suffering with a pretty nasty case of it.  Started out on her wrists and then began popping up in lots of other places. 

Poison ivy is just pervasive where we live now.  Much worse than I remember it being when I grew up in a different part of New England and spent lots of time in New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine.  Having done some quick research, it’s not my imagination.  Poison ivy loves to grow in edge areas bordering forests and in disturbed zones.  In other words, anywhere where we’ve moved in and constructed housing developments.

But it’s more than that.  Poison ivy is devious and strong.  It can appear as ground cover or as a bush or as vines climbing trees or rocks.  The vines can shoot out lateral branches that can be mistaken for thin tree branches.  It can grow at altitudes up to 4,900 feet.  It can grow in forests or fields.  It  can survive long droughts as well as floods.  It can grow in many soil types and doesn’t mind brackish water.  Studies at Duke University indicate that the current climate change trends will lead to an expansion of its range.

Humans become sensitized to poison ivy via repeated or more concentrated exposure.  Severe allergic reactions can include aniphylactic shock.  Inhaling smoke from burning poison ivy can do a fatal number on your lungs.  Eating it can damage the airway and digestive tract.

So…what happens if it does the nature thing with engineered super plants?

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Happy 40th Earth Day

Earth Day and I have been around for the same number of years, as it turns out.

When I first became aware of it, which is probably only 10 years or so ago, it seemed really small, really quaint.  As in, very few people actually took it seriously.

I’m glad that’s no longer the case.  Earth Day is huge.  And the time, energy, attention, and resources focused on environmental issues has grown exponentially.  Going green is now a mainstream phase.

Unfortunately, it remains an open question whether our efforts will prove too little, too late.

The planet continues to warm.  Species continue to go extinct at an alarming rate.  And there are still far too many people, from government and industry leaders on down to the masses who can change what those folks are doing, who don’t believe there is a problem or that they should do anything to change the status quo.

Artists are among those who can have the most fun drawing attention to climate change and other environmental issues. 

My family has an environmental art calendar this year.  The image for April is  EarthMan, by Dion Laurent, a self-sustaining ecosystem suit.  It features the Terrarium BackPack  Oxygen/Air Survival System.  The 80-pound solar-powered backpack terrarium suit calls attention to the vital role of plants in the regulation of our atmostphere.  Laurent attends public events, performs in museums, hands out flowers, spread seeds and plants trees internationally.

You can learn more about him at his EarthMan web site.

Happy Earth Day.

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White Nose Syndrome is Spreading

Bats in North America are in big trouble, and it’s getting worse.  I learned about White Nose Syndrome a couple of years ago.  It’s the sort of runaway epidemic that disaster / apocalypse novels feature, except that it’s the poor, misunderstood, PR-challenged bats being wiped out.

The problem is that bats are hugely important.  They keep other insect species in check, insects that will wreak havoic on crops now.  They spread seeds and pollen.

It started in the Northeast, but now cases have been found west of the Mississippi River.  There is no known cure.  The impact can only be guessed at.

Learn more.

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Science is the Poetry of Reality

My father is a retired physicist.  There is a bluff in Antarctica named after him (because he wintered over there).  Trips to the Boston Museum of Science were a big part of my childhood and trips to the Connecticut Science Center are now eagerly anticipated expeditions for my family.  I read and write stories that usually have little to do with science.  I had no chance, as a student, of becoming a scientist.  But I still enjoy and am fascinated by it.  Here’s a fun video that gets at the joy, wonder, and role of science in an unusual way.

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