Science and Natural History discussion

Post your questions, comments and outrages here to share and discuss with other members. Happy reading!

This was a great a book I particularly enjoyed the chapter about Easter Island. I also enjoyed the comparison and contrast between Haiti and the Dominican Republic because they both share the same island.

This is a good book. I have not finished reading it but thought Diamond's attitude about mining could be felt. I live next to a large gold mine that has been operating since the early 1990s and is permitted to operate until 2024. They use the cyanide leaching method and have never had an environmental problem. The cyanide solution is quite dilute. You would have to drink 8 gallons of it in order to become ill. If you quickly drank 8 gallons of water you would also be sick. The gold mine goes to great lengths to ensure the safety of workers and nearby towns. This gold mine is committed to protect the environment. Modern gold mining is so different from what Mr. Diamond presents. Yes, in the past they are guilty of many environmental problems. I live in Colorado and see the problems from mining in the 19th century. The mine operated by me is a South African company and they have posted a huge cash bond should they go out of business, which is extremely unlikely. It is also important to note that if it cannot be grown, it must be mined. All of the components of the laptop,desktop, or mobile device you are using to read this comment were mined.

I have a short comment to append to my earlier post. I have visited this gold mine since they started operations in the early 1990s. I have gone there several times each year for 23 years. I have brought students there for Colorado School of Mines classes I taught and have intimate knowledge of their operations. Furthermore, they pass on lots of geophenomena for me to study, examine, research, and publish on. I will provide a link to research my team just completed there. One of the coauthors of the paper, that was presented at the Geological Society of America, is a high school student (16 years-old) We did this so he would have experience of doing a research project and adding to the body of scientific knowledge at a young age. The gold mine have been very gracious to me and my students of all ages for many decades. Here is the link to our research abstract:
https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2013AM/fin...

Bit late to this one, as I had a pile of other books to get through, and will read it during February as I cannot get hold of the February read.

I am so glad we selected this book to read. It raises so many questions and makes us look at what is taking place right now. Diamond discusses water resources in several chapters. There is a large aquifer between Colorado Springs and Denver, Colorado (USA) that was full of water from the last Ice Age. It takes thousands of years, or longer, to recharge. A rapidly growing community between the two cities--Castle Rock--is actually mining the ground water in the aquifer. Mining water means that eventually they will run out of water. They are experiencing that now, and are drilling wells deeper and deeper. Many states in the US west are experiencing similar problems. In paleontology I look at fossils, and they had to respond to changes in their environment. We call this MAD. They have three choices, either MOVE, ADAPT, OR DIE. Some organisms cannot move when their habitats change. Where will Polar bears go? They will die. Some organisms can move, and some can adapt to their new ecosystems. I studied the climate and ecosystem near where I live and a mammoth found in Pleistocene gravels.
See: https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2004AM/fin...

I was able to reconstruct the environment the mammoth lived in by using pollen. See: https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2004AM/fin...

I also studied a diary kept by some students who organized a trip to Colorado and Utah in 1877. In the diary, one of the students had to wash his hands in a river near their camp in the mountains of Utah. The river was frozen over and he had to use an ax. The date of the entry of the journal was one in August. This would not occur today, but in certain parts of North America the "Little Ice Age" was still around.
See: https://gsa.confex.com/gsa/2003RM/fin...