Blue Planet Journey

Bondi Beach I’ve been in Sydney for the past 4 days.  The weather has varied from a high of 98 degrees F to a low of 67, with a mixture of lightning and rain, wind, high humidity, and sun.   We were hoping Caroline wouldn’t blow off the bridge! This was the weather 3 hours before that photo of Caroline in the wind ! Other than a bus trip to Bondi Beach, we’ve spent most of our time so far around Darling Harbour.  This time has included running and walking, finding a grocery store, visiting the Australian National Maritime Museum and the Sydney Aquarium, and just getting oriented.  Oh, and hanging out at a local cafe playing word games, drinking an Estonian pale ale.   Darling Harbour has cafes, pubs, and restaurants galore,  That attracts lots of people, and the people produce lots of waste.  For the most part, you see little food waste on the ground.  However, there are numerous indications that there is an active manageme...

Panoramic view of Hanauma Bay When I lived in Honolulu in 1999, we visited the Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve and Marine Life Conservation District often.  At some point, Jeff Kuwabara, who was in charge of the education program at the time, shamed me into volunteering.  Since 2000, I have volunteered at Hanauma Bay every time I have visited Oahu.  Caroline and I volunteered yesterday, and we will volunteer again when we return in February. Gavin Awai took this photo for us! Hanauma Bay has changed a lot since we started volunteering in 2000.  We used to put a tarp up on the beach, lead tours to discuss the marine life and the geology, and pick up debris.  Every time it rained, our tarp became extremely popular!  A huge focus was keeping visitors from walking on the reef.  Soon, manager Alan Hong's dream was completed, and the Marine Education Center was opened.  Among other things, all visitors to the bay were required to view an edu...

It is 5:30 AM in Honolulu as I write this, and I've been up since 4.  With the 3 hour time difference between Utah and Hawaii, my brain will take a few days to adjust to the new rhythm of life, as well as the different photoperiod. Oahu is made up of the remains of 2 massive shield volcanoes, the Waianae and the Koolau volcanoes.  The Koolau emerged from the ocean about 2.9 million years ago.  Later, half of the Koolau volcano collapsed into the ocean, in one of the largest landslides on the planet. When the volcano quit growing 2.1 million years ago,  erosion took over as the dominant process shaping the land.  Volcanoes making up Oahu Apparently a third , older volcano was part of this formation process for Oahu, but it has submerged entirely. ••• It's 70 degrees F this morning, with a bit of a breeze.  I'm wearing shorts, but it's cool enough that I'm wearing a fleece coat as well.  Since it is 19 degrees in Logan this morning, ...

Edward Abbey wrote that we live on a "little blue planet."  Both Carl Sagan and I would agree with that, but from a human perspective, there is a lot of space out there.  For example, right now my daughter and son-in-law (number 2 son) live 1833 miles from where I am in Utah.  My number 1 son lives in northern Peru, 3885 miles from me.    Later this week, I'll be in Honolulu, 3008 miles from Logan, and a week after that, I'll be in Sydney, Australia, 8044 miles from Logan (and terribly far from family). Our ability to roam the globe, quickly and efficiently, is both a function of technology and inexpensive energy.  I recognize the carbon footprint associated with my choices.  For example, one calculator estimated that my flight from Salt Lake City to Honolulu (via Denver) would have a carbon footprint of 0.44 metric tons of  carbon dioxide equivalent. We've had solar panels since August, 2010, and our panels have produced enough energy to...

I don't expect to write in my blog every day, but the weather conditions today reminded me of what I'm leaving behind this winter.  Northern Utah has some of the worse air in the nation during our regular inversions .  We are on track for a week or two of increasingly bad  PM 2.5  readings.  The cause?  Primarily, it is a combination of vehicle use and dairy farms. The ammonia from livestock mixes with vehicle-produced NOx, resulting in the precipitation of ammonium nitrate and other compounds.  " PM 2.5  particulates are fine, inhalable particles or droplets with a diameter of 2.5 microns or smaller. These fine particulates, which are about 30 times smaller than the width of a human hair, can travel deeply into the lungs and cause both short-term and long-term health effects" ( https://deq.utah.gov/Pollutants/P/pm/pm25/ ) .  Logan encourages people to avoid idling their vehicles during these inversions, combining trips, not buildi...

"The highest treason, the meanest treason, is to deny the holiness of this little blue planet on which we journey through the cold void of space."   Edward Abbey I live on a portion of the planet that contains a lot more brown and green than blue.  But our planet's surface is about 71% water-covered, and most of that water is in our oceans .  Note my voyage begins at the place that was so inspiring to Edward Abbey, Arches National Park ( Desert Solitaire: a season in the wilderness ).  But even Abbey recognized that we live on a "little blue planet." Next week I begin a 5 month journey that has me exploring some parts of "waterworld," but even then I will spend most of my time on terra firma .  I should be within a few kilometers of the sea at all times, if not in it or under it.  This blog will document my Blue Planet Journey. I'll start in Hawaii, then head off to Australia.  Before I return, I'll visit Australia on multiple o...