Climategate?

This whole climategate issue seemed to fall out of the media eye pretty quickly. I haven't heard anything about it on a major media outlet in several weeks, although since returning home from school I have certainly been watching less of the news.

Several other university students I've talked to in my department expressed concern about how this would impact pending climate or environmental legislation. I have to say, it weirds me out that even in a state as liberal as Massachusetts I kept seeing ads that were anti-environmental legislation (notably all paid for by the American Petroleum Institute).

Personally, I think this whole climate scandal was an attempt to darken the skies over the Copenhagen summit. American and foreign oil companies want to block any legislation that might have an impact on their profits, and they don't see too far beyond the next fiscal year in my opinion. Taking email correspondence out of context is a very dangerous thing, and I hope that people don't read too far into this scandal without knowing the whole story.

Unfortunately, I think that won't be the case. The public appears to be very skeptical of science in general, not just climate science. It's important for scientists to make their information more understandable to the public so that people can form their own opinions instead of blindly following the twisted propaganda that they're fed.

The bottom line is that these oil companies and other polluting industries are about to get their way, and everyone who believes in keeping this world healthy and safe for future generations absolutely HAS to step up and help keep pro-environmental legistlation on the table. If we lose this battle and keep emitting carbon like we've been doing for the last 100 years, things are going to heat up real fast. We have to look beyond the next 10 or 20 years and see how our behavior will impact the next 100 to 200 years and farther. Climategate or not, we have to accept the reality that our behavior may be and most probably is drastically altering the world we live in so many ways.

Growing up Girl Scout... not really

So I thought I'd do a short post on one of the biggest aspects of Geology, field work. Last semester I took my first field class. I didn't really know what to expect, except it was a 4 1/2 hour time commitment every Thursday. I soon learned that I'm pretty ill - equipped for that sort of thing.

I spent 13 years in Girl Scouts. I went 'camping' and hiking and did outdoorsy stuff, but I was never prepared for making a pace and compass map in a foot and a half of snow on uneven terrain. Or scrambling up a blocky basalt slope at a 70 degree angle and clinging to a tree for dear life. I fall all the time while hiking and I'm usually the one holding up the group. I've even had to slide on my butt down the side off a cliff because I couldn't figure out where to put my feet and have a 50 year old man assist me back up. I suppose I'm a little bit of a geologist failure in that regard.

I do understand the importance of fieldwork though. It's much easier to imagine the local geologic history of an area when you're staring at a massive wall of conglomerate instead of a little chunk in the lab. Topographic maps are pretty helpful as well, even though I greatly disliked having to map outcrops on them for my class. The little lines are so TINY and close together! I hope that my second fieldwork class coming up next semester will be a little easier on my legs and balance skills. It's nice to get out and explore the area surrounding UMASS, especially since i'm not a Massachusetts native.

And hey, in a year, I went from only having "hiked" on national park trails (and a snowcap out on Mt. Rainer) to clmbing down steep waterfall gorges and being chased off an exit ramp outcrop by the state police. I've even had to trek through underbrush! But, I've gotten to see 2 snakes (and pet!), a salamander, a millipede (ew!), porcupines, and a random chimney in the forest.
Successful? Yes.

And Now For Something Completely Different

So even though this was intended to be primarily a Geology related blog, I've decided to post about something completely unrelated in a late night caffeine fueled rant (and hopefully get some more views).

As some may know, I'm a fairly successful seller on Ebay. I have been selling since I was 18 and working hard to build a good reputation with my customers. The not so brilliant minds behind the corporation have also been working hard to undermine small time sellers like myself with weird, useless, and expensive changes to the listing policies. Aside from only giving good visibility in search results to sellers who ALREADY have high volume sales and don't need it, now Ebay is taking away optional shipping insurance. Sellers are now REQUIRED to pay for the insurance instead of leaving it up to the buyer (and out of the 300+ transactions that I've been a part of, maybe 12 of them have involved purchasing shipping insurance). Ebay's answer to this: just raise your shipping costs or start your items higher. Well, geniuses, buyers already complain about shipping costs even when they're well under the true cost, and if people start their items higher then less people will bid on them. Once again, only large scale businesses can absorb these extra costs. Thanks a lot, Ebay, eventually only large businesses will be able to sell and Ebay will become another Amazon.com.

I'm going to do some skillful cross promoting here - this links to my Ebay My World page if anyone's interested to see what I'm selling (changes weekly of course) http://myworld.ebay.com/karajaco

Just to tie this into geology, here's a nice picture of some rock from my Petrology trip in May. (fault shatter zone in Maine with some feet for scale bars)

"What are you going to do with THAT?!"

So the most common question I get asked after informing people of my choice in majors is "What are you going to do with a degree in THAT?!" I decided I'd do a short post on potential jobs that I know about in my field.

I'm currently on track to get a bachelor of sciences degree in Geology, but I'm focusing on more general earth systems instead of strictly geology. I am able to bypass classes like Structural Geology and Computer Mapping by taking Climatology and Astronomy, for example. This track was designed for people who are going into teaching, but it also works for people who are interested in Pre-Med/Dental and like geology, or Pre-Law (like me!)

So, for future reference, I can get a job in environmental law or as a consultant for companies who need knowledge of the law combined with practical knowledge and skills. Vague, I know. I can also work in the field on various projects having to do with mineral content or location of groundwater or my personal favorite, using the history preserved in rocks to piece together what the ancient world looked like. Or I might want to get a job in the Seismology field so I could help predict earthquakes and the evil minions that go along with them.
So for all you naysayers, I have Options! (it's always good to have options)

PS. I'd like to post a relevant link - a compadre in the Umass geosciences department is spending several weeks in Svalbard, this sad little island above the Arctic Circle where it's still only like 40 degrees even though it's summer and the sun won't set for another month or something like that. He's got a blog too, so since it's relevant to geology AND he's a pretty chill guy check it out: http://researcharctic.blogspot.com

Pilot - First Post

So this is my first post. Yay. Since this is the beginning of my blog, I thought I would talk about where the beginnings of my interest in Geology began.

Dumont, NJ. A humble backyard on a small plot of land. Obviously not my house, because we have a less than small plot of land.
I used to dig up my aunt's backyard day after day looking for 'dinosaur teeth.' For years, I thought I was totally weird, but since I've grown up and gone to college I've met a couple other people who used to undertake large archaeological excavations in their backyard before they were old enough to register for Neopets.

Actually, it goes back a little farther than that. I was three years old the year that my parents took me to Bushkill Falls, the self-proclaimed "Niagara of Pennsylvania." Obviously, it has some merit to its title since the park has such a profound impact on my life. After that trip, I became obsessed with waterfalls. Even 17 years later I'm still not entirely sure what it is about waterfalls that I love so much, it has something to do with the whole water/gravity interaction though. My parents even considered taking me to a psychologist because they were concerned about my fixation. Apparently, all I ever drew were waterfalls, and not just imagined ones - I reproduced ones that I had seen, and rather accurately for a little kid.

I still love waterfalls, but it blossomed into a love for the field of geology itself. I love how complex the inner workings of the earth are. I spent my childhood reading every book in the Cresskill library about volcanoes and earthquakes when the rest of my classmates were reading Freckle Juice. Since I'm loaded with free time at the moment, I am bringing my joy and wit to the world. Yes, you should be grateful.