A visual history of pandemics from The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

In 1996, I scored, bigtime; an improbable life-changing event. I had been staying at the home of a family in Merizo for many months. In order to introduce them to my family, who had flown in from Chuuk, we stopped our rent-a-car at my friends' home, intending a short stop, just for a few minutes. 

 Their phone (alandline) rang; strangely, it was a call for me! I never received calls on their line. On the other end, a voice asked, would I accept a job on Saipan teaching Health Science? The salary would be sufficient for subsistence, and housing would be provided. Could we be at the Guam airport early the next morning, myself and family? 

I could---and probably should---elaborate, contextualize this event. But to cut to the chase, we were at the airport the following morning, and that evening we were comfortable in a temporary lodging provided for us in a local hotel. Things did not go smoothly, but thanks to a wonderful team from the CNMI Public School System we soon had an apartment and I, a job at Marianas High School. 

My Health Education job turned into Biology and Environmental Science. Perfect! From the star, teaching in Micronesia involved a heavy dose of Environmental Science. In Chuuk there was a book, but abundant opportunities for focusing on local problems and issues, students were engaged in confronting numerous local issues, often involving the collision course between their tranditional ways and the new economy of money, politics, plastics, frozen food, canned food, monofilament fishing line and nets, the exhustion of fish stocks, encroachment of fishing fleets from around the world, new ideas about consumption... I could go on. 

The experience of students on Saipan was a step ahead of those in the other Micronesian entities. The U. N. Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands maintained headquarters on Saipan, reigning over all of those other diverse entities--The Marshall Islands, Kosrae, Pohnpei, Chuuk, Yap, and Palau. The locals on Saipan organized and learned to tap into the massive federal resources. They learned the game of political control, and when the time came for "self-determination" (as mandated by the U. N.), they had a leg up, and already were in the driver's seat. 

Development---all of those new or improved trappings referred to in the previous paragraph---was already on track for bigger and better things.  This story will probably be told elsewhere, but in all likelihood, the first draft has already been written by those educated by their captors.  

My job was not the same on Saipan, then, as it had been in Chuuk. Students from diverse backgrounds and languages had different perspectives, so I was at a disadvantage. The books, surprizingly, since the budget of CNMI PSS was an order of magnitude larger---thanks to the influence of the local population in Territorial political affairs---than the Chuuk State Department of Education.  And the Chuuk DOE had 100 schools to deal with! But the books were better in Chuuk. Go figure. 

 I now had an Internet connection and PC, at home, and devoted a considerable amount of time and energy to developing classroom materials. The new (to me) search engine, Google., made swift work of searching; buton a typical day, I wouild be lucky to find ONE (1) article about any important environmental issue of consequence for the islands. I tell this story to illustrate how much things have changed over the past 25 years, for that is how long it has been. What I really want to show show is a web page I just encountered today, in 2023, of monumental significance to Environmental Science: an article, a visual history of pandemics.

June Gloom and Doom: manifestations of the Heat of Fusion of Water

 Proposing a new blog: "Watching the Ice Melt."

In Environmental Science classes, a goal of mine has been to facilitate understanding of the dynamics of water phase changes.  I have portrayed polar ice masses as a buffer to mitigate the worst effects of imbalances in the hear budget of the planet.  It has been a few years (ie., "a minute") since I have taught Environmental Science.  In the meantime, it has become apparent that the predicted and feared growing imbalances are increasing; and at the same time, I have wondered whether my approach to teaching these important concepts were sufficiently impactful.  Ie., did students in my classes understand these important lessons.  

I have come recently to use the term "watching the ice melt" when responding to queried such as "what's happening?", or " what have you been up to?"  And, indeed, I have focused on this problem of many dimensions.  And, like many such "existential" problems, the psychological, social, historical, cultural ramifications pose some of the most difficult challenges to those who have tried to warn the world at large.

Here is present one article that caught my attention in late May 2023.  I intend to post other such articles and thoughts that appear before me in coming days.  Like a haiku, this statement withing this featured article says everything, in few words:

Scientists have said that an acceleration of melting Antarctic ice and rising temperatures, driven by the emission of planet-warming gases, is expected to have a significant effect on the global network of ocean currents that carry nutrients, oxygen and carbon

 The article appears on a web site, Phys.org:   

Dangerous slowing of Antarctic ocean circulation sooner than expected