Galaxy explorer
I really am a science fiction buff. I just love science fiction and expanding my thinking through this genre.
This video is also very cool as it helps to expand my thinking through images of what we know from science (it’s from the 1970s!)
And somedays I wonder about how SF thought and scientific discovery will adjust Christian theology over time. Personally, I want to spend my eternity exploring the galaxies - maybe ala Star Trek or the like.
Interesting thought to think of what I want to do (when I grow up) in the new heavens and new earth…
Comments(1)Bumping into Brokenness
We all have those things about us that we don’t like, and which we’d like to change, or which cause harm to others - you may call it foibles, character flaws, mistakes, nastiness or something else. You can see it in the world too when people are harmed or brutalized. We cause pain in others, consciously or unconsciously.
In Christian circles, we often call this brokenness. The world is broken, and each of us is broken. And when something is broken, it’s not working the way it should and cannot do well what it was intended to do. (There’s also an entire theology of how and why, but that’s not important here.)
Lately I’ve been recognizing my own brokenness. I live closely with 6 other adults (one my spouse) and it’s not as easy to hide motives or patterns which aren’t quite right.
I was overwhelmed by how broken my spouse and I both are - and how that affects our relationship. We end up working at cross purposes, even though we do love each other. And yet that brokenness also prevents us from putting our own wants aside and looking out for the other.
In this awareness of reality, I remembered my faith. This is exactly why Jesus came - because God’s love and forgiveness is the only thing bigger than this, and the only thing that can actually change me, re-new me, so that I’m fixed into how I’m supposed to be.
And that means that there is hope too, for the 7 of us (and children) to also be re-newed to love, forgive, look out for, and maybe to show others there is hope and another way.
More places to be energy efficient
So, everyone is being encouraged to use energy more efficiently. Don’t waste it, buy appliances that use it better. Even businesses are trying to use less or use energy more efficiency.
Did you know there is another place where things can become more efficient? I’ve never thought about this one.
The electrical power grid was not designed for efficiency. It was not designed to have information return from the user on power consumption - and so has no way to tell if you’re using more or less.
Some of this is changing with smart meters, but there is much more that can be done.”Some of those plants operate on idle to be ready for periods of peak demand, which is like keeping an extra car running in the driveway.”
Maybe we don’t need more power plants - we just need the grid to be more efficient!
The bathtub is full!
Imagine with me a bathtub. A big, old, clawfoot bathtub. The tap is on and the drain is also open. However, the water coming into the tub is greater than what is flowing out of the drain. So, naturally, the bathtub is filling up. At the same time, the tap has continued to be opened more and more, so the difference between what is coming in and what is going out is increasing.
Since this is a big tub, there has been room to keep all the water. But now, the tub is very full and close to overflowing. What can be done?
Shift this analogy to the climate. Our emissions of greenhouse gases has been greater than what the climate can capture. The tap is open further than what the drain takes out. There are also other places which can ‘capture’ these greenhouse gases - these are called ’sinks’ by climatologists. This is the bathtub and it had a lot of room.
There is evidence that these ’sinks’ are filling up. The bathtub is full. What we need to remember, is that in order to get the level of the bathtub away from the edge where it will overflow, we need to have the tap’s flow to be less than what out the drain.
Which means our level of greenhouse gas emissions needs to be more than just stabilized. We’ll still overflow if all that countries around the world do is no longer increase their emissions. We need to lower the total emissions around the world so that we are emitting less than what the climate can ‘absorb’. This way, the bathtub will slowly start to drain.
There is more and more technology which will allow us to change the way we live or the way we produce products so that we do not emit as many greenhouse gases. These are already available for us to use. We just need to make these changes in our practice. And hopefully the image of the bathtub helps us to understand why!
Sterman from MIT talks much more about this bathtub and what we can do.