As I write this (and I may update later), there have been 19 earthquakes in central New Jersey beginning with a real glass-shaker of 4.8 Magnitude this morning at 10:23. I, unfortunately, did not feel it but several close relations did because they were closer. Good for them. It’s always a cool bucket list item to feel a substantial but not dangerous earthquake to remind you of how small and unsubstantial people are.
Earthquakes three days before the eclipse are not helpful for people trying to be rational
If you have been following along, the quakes are just 3 days ahead of the eclipse. The 2024 eclipse will not pass over this epicentral area of New Jersey, but the correlation in time has sent the nervous and Biblically-minded people into fits. The timing makes this very hard to explain that there is no correlation between the two interesting events. Seriously, no matter what I say, certain people will not believe me. Take one very awful person, MTG:
I mean, TAKE HER, please, get her the hell out of here. Sadly, she is not the only one promoting the idea that End Times are upon us. The heat from religious fearmongering about the eclipse was just turned up. I have to go back and update my last post because I found more about it being the Rapture, End of the World, with human sacrifices, etc. Check it out if you haven’t already, just to feel prepared for potential chaos on Monday.
The need to share the experience with each other
The eclipse is one of those events that can, actually, bring people together in a collective experience. Today’s earthquake(s) did the same. People wanted to talk to others and share what they felt. They turned to social media to do that, which is really cool.
What wasn’t great were the very many “suddenly seismologists” who appeared to opine about plate tectonics, the Ramapo fault, and the logarithmic magnitude scale. It did not help that the news media appeared to grab their meteorologist to deal with the science of earthquake reporting. The amount of misinformation may exceed the factual information. The degree and quantity of insane claims will grow, I’m sure. If you want to see some unhinged ideas, they are on TikTok and Reddit.
Just like with all the Google University bridge engineers who emerged on the internet 10 days ago, people want to contribute to the conversation by sounding sciencey. They want attention. Many of the commenters who felt the quake were very scared and overreacted because they don’t know anything about earth sciences. This is not unexpected, but social media feeds full of bogus airbags spouting nonsense makes all this much worse. Scientific explanations can help us understand a scary thing and alleviate some of the concerns. But the catch is that people have to be able to hear qualified and helpful voices and to trust them. The “qualified” and “helpful” voices are being drowned out, and the “trust” has been eroding for decades.
It’s disturbing to be faced with the barrage of information without having a trusted source about science and nature. Where is Carl Sagan when you need him! Note that some media outlets called the 21st century version of Dr. Sagan – Bill Nye. That’s OK, I know he checks his sources before speaking.
In a fortunate bit of timing (maybe), the BBC posted an article about how and why earthquakes are occurring outside of plate boundaries, in unexpected places. This was published 3 days ago:
Something very weird is happening to the planet’s earthquakes
Earth-shattering seismic events can occur away from the fault lines between tectonic plates. And there’s no easy way to predict when or where they’ll hit.
The article describes the problem of intraplate quakes, like the one that occurred in New Jersey. The faults can be hidden or quiet for so long that the population is unprepared. Exactly what happened today. Usually, intraplate faults can’t store a huge amount of energy so when they rupture, it isn’t big. But it can get up to magnitude 7, which is definitely destructive. If you are feeling nervous about earthquakes, I suggest you not read that article because it might make things worse. Clearly, these natural events are adding to the severe national anxiety we are experiencing every day for the past decade.
I told my cousin in New Jersey that aftershocks are likely and they did happen. It may not be just the seismic ones that are felt. People are edgy, the daily news is unsettling. When the ground actually shakes and your congressperson is insisting that the sky is falling, we are rudely reminded how very mired we are in Strange Times.
Finally, a favor to ask: if you see any strange stories about the earthquake, drop me a line. I’d love the links. See email address in the header or follow me on Mastodon.
BANK OF AMERICA IS BACKING DESTRUCTION OF THE RAINFOREST
The #Amazon rainforest is at a critical tipping point — and the world's largest butcher, #JBS, is pushing the world's largest rainforest over the edge, and setting up a global #catastrophe.
In fact, right now, JBS is being sued for lying to consumers about their #EnvironmentalImpact, #ClimateGoals, and their pseudo-plan to achieve net zero carbon #emissions by 2040 —
Why do authorities never miss a chance to point out that wildfires were caused by arson?
Because it simplifies the problem & draws attention away from larger & more complex and implicating causes, like climate change, poor catastrophe preparation, lack of budget for firefighting crews, etc.
Even if arson is indeed the start of a fire, its extension, intensity, speed, voracity, etc. depend on many other factors.
There’s a rural AB myth that fish and wildlife have released cougars into rural areas…which they haven’t ever done (problem cougars get shot, not relocated).
But the fear these silly bumpkins falsely carry is real for the wildlife getting wiped out by feral and roaming cats.
TNR doesn’t work, feeding stations don’t work…pretending they work is part of the problem (or maybe it’s the Toxo parasite speaking).
Heartbreaking video shows Palestinian children eating scraps from the community pot as hunger and starvation is taking it's toll on the most vulnerable members of the close to 2 million refugees in Gaza.
I just watched the most heartbreaking short video from Gaza
Current situation in Gaza is so bad that doctors are forced to perform operations without anesthesia.
The video was of a surgeon who just had finished aon operation on a little girl without anesthesia, the operation was successful but the girl succumbed to the shock she received because of the pain.
I just can't imagine how these people are managing it.
Each of these treatments leave a scar in the psyche of all those involved, and doing it again and again, under the lights from mobile phones and on the most innocent victims is an unbearable burden they have to carry with them for the rest of their lives.
I freaking hate this world
A Palestinian surgeon in southern Gaza has made an impassioned plea to the Biden administration, asking the US president how many more civilians need to be killed in Israel's military campaign on Gaza before the US demands a ceasefire.Speaking to Al Jazeera, Dr Ahmed Moghrabi, head of plastic surgery in Khan Younis's Nasser Hospital, was heavily distraught as he recounted having to work around the clock for 80 days to treat the Palestinian victims of constant Israeli bombardment.
"I want actually to ask the Biden administration and the leaders of the world and [those] who sent these prohibited mass destruction weapons to Israel," Moghrabi said. "How many more of us have to die? Really, how many more of us have to die, as civilians? How many more videos do you have to see?"
8,000 Palestinians are missing and most are feared under rubble, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.
The reports from Gaza are hard to come by because of power cuts. Internet blocking and lack of living reporters in the northern parts.
#UNRWA called Gaza "the closest to hell one can imagine" and #UNICEF is warning about unaccounted deaths due to the collapse of the healthcare and administrative functions in most of #Gaza.
The #catastrophe is ongoing even though most media looking the other way and many people focusing on Christmas festivities.
"To counteract the potential loss, research indicates humanity must work to restore nature across the planet, adopt more environmentally friendly farming practices, reduce meat consumption, stop the spread of invasive species and dramatically cut the use of fossil fuels."
“If we do not take the necessary actions to conserve biodiversity, the world’s future and that of our people can be described in one word: desert."
"Invasive alien species … will have replaced the unique local ecosystems, causing some native species … to go extinct."
“The boom in mining for the green-energy transition will send miners into the last biodiversity refuges over the next 25 years. Those minerals will get dug up, and we need them. To avoid a biodiversity catastrophe, we need to develop ways to mine far different from the environmentally and socially destructive methods of yesterday and today.”
#Brexit disaster grows. UK trade with rest of the world fallen dangerously, New 'trade deals' mostly EU rollovers, new ones are inconsequential, UK left behind in global investment stakes. this means low growth & productivity, if these trends continue UK will sink to new economic lows. #Catastrophe#RejoinEUhttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64450882
About 10 #NGOs told reporters on the sidelines of a humanitarian #summit hosted by #France that a simple pause in the fighting would not alleviate what they called a #humanitarian#catastrophe
If #climate#catastrophe encompasses everything everywhere all at once there might be no place left to run to. So let's disband the notion that life threatening events always happen somewhere else. Even in moderate climate zones there is no guarantee to be exempted by the worst anymore.
Paul Gilding (The Great Disruption, 2011) gives an overview on simultaneous developments that reinforce their destructive potential mutually, backed up by 20 years of research.
Pensées pour les Marocains et Marocaines de France qui ont des proches au pays et à tous ceux et toutes celles qui ont vécu cet effroyable séisme... 💔 #Maroc#Seisme#Manal#Catastrophe