THE AIR AS A MEDIUM OF EXPRESSIONS
I The History of Air SMITHSONIAN ARTICLE
Paleontologists are looking to the fossil record to decipher what the
earth’s atmosphere was like hundreds of millions of years ago
The earth’s atmosphere is made up of a lot of nitrogen (78 percent), a
bit of oxygen (21 percent), a splash of argon (0.93 percent), a small
amount of carbon dioxide (0.038 percent) and trace amounts of other gases.
But it has not always been so. The composition of gases in the atmosphere
can change (and is changing now as we burn fossil fuels), and the fossil
record reveals how something as deceptively simple as air can influence the
history of life.
If you visited what is now North America 300 million years ago, near
the close of the Carboniferous period, you would have been greeted by a
very unfamiliar scene. The landscape was dominated by vast swamps filled
with huge lycopods (relatives of club mosses that grew to the size of
trees), amphibious vertebrates up to nearly 20 feet in length and enormous
arthropods. The Meganeura, a relative of the dragonfly that had a wingspan
more than two feet across, buzzed through the air over the giant
Arthropleura, a nine-foot-long millipede. Never before or since have
terrestrial invertebrates grown to such prodigious sizes.
The trigger for this rampant gigantism was a peculiar, newly evolved
characteristic of plants that drove oxygen levels to as high as 35 percent
of the atmosphere during the Late Carboniferous. Lush equatorial forests
produced a considerable amount of oxygen as a byproduct of photosynthesis,
but that alone wasn’t enough to drive atmospheric oxygen to such high
levels. The cause was the chemical compound lignin, which plants use to
build themselves up. Bacteria of the time were so inefficient at breaking
down lignin in dead plants that they left behind a huge amount of
carbon-rich plant material to become sequestered in the swamps (and
eventually to transform into the rich coal deposits that gave the
Carboniferous its name). Bacteria use oxygen as they break down carbon-rich
material, but lignin prevented this process until bacteria evolved the
ability to decompose the compound. This biological quirk caused oxygen
levels to soar.
The surplus of oxygen allowed amphibians, which take in some of the gas
through their skins, to breathe more efficiently and grow to larger sizes.
Arthropods breathe in a different way: they possess a network of branching
tubes called tracheae that connect small openings in an invertebrate’s
exoskeleton to its cells, and oxygen seeps through the body via this system.
In an oxygen-rich atmosphere, more oxygen could be diffused through this
branching network, and this opened up evolutionary pathways that allowed
arthropods, too, to grow to gargantuan proportions. The fact that the
oxygen would have increased the air pressure as well meant that the large
flying insects of the time would have gotten more lift for each beat of
their wings, allowing flying arthropods to reach sizes that are
structurally impossible for their present-day relatives.
While the giant arthropods were crawling and buzzing about, the first
amniotes—lizard-like vertebrates that had broken their link with the water
through their ability to reproduce via shelled eggs—were also diversifying.
During the next chapter of earth’s history, the Permian (about 299 million
to 251 million years ago), these early relatives of dinosaurs and mammals
gave rise to a variety of new forms, with the relatives of early mammals
(collectively known as synapsids), especially, gaining ecological
dominance. For the first time, terrestrial ecosystems supported an
interconnected network of predators and herbivores of various sizes, and by
about 250 million years ago there were approximately 40 different families
of land-dwelling vertebrates inhabiting the globe. But at the period’s
close almost all of that diversity was extinguished by the greatest natural
catastrophe this planet has ever known.
During the early days of paleontology, naturalists marked off boundaries in
geological history by the abrupt, mass disappearance of some species from
the fossil record followed by the appearance of a new, different fauna.
They did not realize it at the time, but what they were doing was marking
off mass extinctions, and the one that ended the Permian was perhaps the
worst in earth’s history. Up to 95 percent of all known sea creatures were
wiped out, as were 70 percent of terrestrial animals. University of Bristol
paleontologist Michael Benton has called this event “when life nearly died.”
Identifying a mass extinction event is not the same as explaining it,
however, and the catastrophe at the end of the Permian is perhaps the most
puzzling murder mystery of all time. Scientists have proposed a list of
possible extinction triggers, including global cooling, bombardment by
cosmic rays, the shifting of continents and asteroid impacts, but many
paleontologists’ prime suspect now is the intense eruptions of the Siberian
Traps, volcanoes that covered nearly 800,000 square miles of what is now
Russia with lava.
The earth was much warmer at the end of the Permian than it is today. The
atmosphere was relatively rich in carbon dioxide, which fueled a hothouse
world in which there were almost no glaciers. The eruption of the Siberian
Traps would have added vast amounts of greenhouse gases into the
atmosphere, causing further global warming, increasing ocean acidity and
lowering atmospheric oxygen levels. These drastic changes to the atmosphere
and resulting environmental effects would have caused many organisms to
asphyxiate from the lack of oxygen, while others would have died from an
excess of carbon dioxide in the blood or otherwise perished because they
were physiologically unable to cope with these new conditions. Where rich,
diverse communities of organisms once thrived, the extinction left only
“crisis” communities of a few species that proliferated in the vacant
habitats.
Perhaps the peculiar conditions that allowed giant arthropods to fly
through air composed of 35 percent oxygen will never be repeated, and we
can hope that the earth does not replay the catastrophe at the end of the
Permian, but in fostering a hothouse climate our species is actively
changing the history of life on earth. How these changes will affect us, as
well as the rest of the world’s biodiversity, will eventually be recorded
in the ever-expanding fossil record.
*There is ongoing debate as to why* this peak in the formation of Earth's
coal deposits occurred during the Carboniferous*. The first theory*, known
as the delayed fungal evolution hypothesis, is that a delay between the
development of trees with the wood fibre lignin and the subsequent
evolution of lignin-degrading fungi gave a period of time where vast
amounts of lignin-based organic material could accumulate. Genetic analysis
of basidiomycete fungi, which have enzymes capable of breaking down lignin,
supports this theory by suggesting this fungi evolved in the Permian.
However, significant Mesozoic and Cenozoic coal deposits formed after
lignin-digesting fungi had become well established, and fungal degradation
of lignin may have already evolved by the end of the Devonian, even if the
specific enzymes used by basidiomycetes had not. The second theory is that
the geographical setting and climate of the Carboniferous were unique in
Earth's history: the co-occurrence of the position of the continents across
the humid equatorial zone, high biological productivity, and the low-lying,
water-logged and slowly subsiding sedimentary basins that allowed the thick
accumulation of peat were sufficient to account for the peak in coal
formation.
During the Carboniferous, there was an increased rate in tectonic plate
movements as the supercontinent Pangea assembled. The continents themselves
formed a near circle around the opening Paleo-Tethys Ocean, with the
massive Panthalassic Ocean beyond. Gondwana covered the south polar region.
To its northwest was Laurussia. These two continents slowly collided to
form the core of Pangea. To the north of Laurussia lay Siberia and Amuria.
To the east of Siberia, Kazakhstania, North China and South China formed
the northern margin of the Paleo-Tethys, with Annamia laying to the south.
II KR The above theory is a massive tryial of annexing a few data
as interprtations, where the namw jargons do occur.
And where our epics said it as verses hose were just poems of
figment of imaginations; Valmiki Ramayanam gives the desvripions of the
forests and animals of those days so huge, though did not name it as
dinasaurus etc; but four horned elephants, 8 feet tall Rama, huge Jatayu so
as to fight a rakshasa like Ravana etc.
*The world of plants is central to the Ramayana, and though this long
poem of several books was written thousands of years ago, the trees and
plants depicted in this amazing epic, are geographically accurate, and even
today, the plants that are described are found growing in the exact
locations all over India where Valmiki, author of the Ramayana, has placed
them. It is all geographically and botanically correct.*
In the beginning of the epic, in Chitrakoot forest where Rama and Sita
spent time in exile, there were many beautiful flowering trees; mango and
jackfruit; there were neem and bamboo, and a host of other trees, all of
which are found in that area today and which are described very precisely.
In the Dandakaranya forest, there were tall trees and trees bearing fruit.
The Panchavati forest, from where Sita was abducted, lies on the banks of
the River Godavari.
In Sri Lanka, there were evergreen forests – these are not the kind of
evergreens one might think of in the west, like spruce, pine, and fir trees
– they were the evergreens in India and Sri Lanka which remained green
year-round, like the ashoka tree, a rain forest tree with lovely red
flowers.
In what is today the Bellary district of the state of Karnataka, Rama met
Hanuman and Sugriva, two leaders of the monkey people who, throughout the
epic poem, provided invaluable assistance to Rama in his search for the
lost Sita. Without Hanuman’s help, it is hard to see how Rama could have
rescued Sita.
They spent some time there in the forest, near the Pampa sarovar (lake)
among a great wealth of trees and plants – both moist and dry deciduous
plants. There were rose-apples, banyan trees, jackfruit, peepal, and mango
trees, sandalwood, ashoka, and kadamba. There were lotuses, lilies, wild
cherries, and jasmine, and around thirty more species, all mentioned by
name.
In the story mentioned above, during a huge battle that took place between
the forces of Rama and the demon king Ravana, when Rama’s brother,
Lakshmana, was lying unconscious on the battlefield, the doctor Sushena
asked Hanuman to fly to the Himalayas. Hanuman set off, flying through the
air over the snow-covered terrain until he reached the Dronagiri Mountain.
After Hanuman had picked up the entire mountain and flown back with it,
Sushena was able to identify the four herbs that were required; Mrita
sanjeevani (which brings the dead back to life), Vishalyakarani (which
cures all wounds caused by weapons), Suvarnakarani which restores the
body), and Sandhani (which joins severed limbs and fractured bones). Thanks
to the herbal knowledge of Sushena and the strength and heroism of Hanuman,
Lakshmana sprang back to life and was ready to fight again.
The entire Ramayana is filled with beautiful and very accurate accounts of
plants. On the island of Lanka, it was forbidden to cut down trees.
Although the demon king Ravana was a criminal, guilty of abducting Sita, he
did always show a sincere appreciation for trees. In his country, planting
trees was considered a very praiseworthy activity. It was believed that a
wood cutter and his family would suffer death and destruction as a karmic
consequence of harming trees. Trees were worshipped in Lanka and throughout
India, as they still are today.
It is clear from the detailed and abundant descriptions of the 182 plants
that the Ramayana could only have been written in India, and that the
author, Valmiki, was writing botanically correct information. He was also
absolutely familiar with the medical uses of the plants.
[The Proceedings of the Conference on The Ramayana in Literature, Society,
and the Arts, February 1-2, 2013 has been published by C.P.R. Publications,
C.P.R. Institute of Indological Research Chennai]
K Rajaram IRS 4824
On Sat, 3 Aug 2024 at 21:06, Markendeya Yeddanapudi <
[email protected]> wrote:
>
>
> --
> *Mar*Air, Modulation, Feeling and Meaning
>
>
>
> When you are speaking, breathing, hearing or working, you are actually
> using the air. In every function, whether you notice or not, your feelings
> get involved. Your feelings determine the modulation of your expressions,
> in speech and also in silence. Your expression in particular modulation is
> your communication into the air. The other organisms perceive, react and
> interact. They hear, smell and sense. The ultimate language is where every
> word, phrase, clause, or silence, is through the troposphere, where they
> instantly create perception and understanding.
>
> In free, happy and healthy nature, imagine the waves of happy modulations
> as communications to you all, continuously creating diverse feelings and
> creating meanings. You add your own perceptions to them. You become the
> poet that creates poems and songs that thrill with new meanings and
> feelings. The other organisms join your chorus. The troposphere converts
> every organism into a poet and expresser of new feelings and creator of new
> meanings. Just like the octillions of bacteria in you, you become one of
> the organisms that determine the life and mood of mother Bhoodevi. Your
> actions determine whether she sings happily or cries weeping. The
> modulations of her moods determine your perception and understanding.
>
> Every organism uses all its sensory organs to perceive. We have a cat as
> pet in our house. While sleeping it moves its ears like an antenna, sensing
> continuously. Suddenly it wakes up and jumps and rushes out. It means that
> its urge to interact is intense. Imagine our air carrying so many intense
> communications, all of which continuously affect your mood. They determine
> your happiness or unhappiness in life and with life. In free and healthy
> nature, you can be only happy. You learn and create happily, teaming up
> with nature.
>
> Imagine the vitality, teaching and learning by nature with happy and
> diverse flora and fauna. Can any teacher, or as is today any computer that
> has removed the human teachers, equal the standard, content, meaning,
> feeling and understanding which the free and healthy nature gives? Thanks
> to economics we are killing that teacher continuously.
>
> Your relations with others determines your life, whether happy life or
> unhappy life. But when everyone lives in a big city which can function only
> by creating misery in every organism, which poisons the air continuously,
> avoid the flood of negative feelings from the air. May all are escaping
> from the communications of misery of the air by rushing into the AC room.
> You don’t need AC in free, lush, thick and healthy nature. Actually you
> avoid that AC.
>
> Free and happy air creates musicians and poets. Actually sciences get
> expressed in songs and poems. Once all perceptions were expressed in the
> epic form. Literature was in the form of conversations in poems and songs.
>
> My God we removed the life, poetry and songs from nature. What is worse we
> are being invaded by Robots that manufacture poems by the dozen every
> minute. The poems just stun you; they cannot thrill and enlighten or enrich
> you.
>
> Personally I do not like editing. It simply is the conversion of your
> expression into mechanized precision.
>
> As it is in many countries of the west marriages are vanishing as
> emotional commitment and industrialization do not go together. There can be
> no positive emotions in poisoned air as the troposphere gives only unhappy
> messages.
>
> The people of the west are getting Robot wives or husbands, and they are
> meeting another culture with wives as child producing factories. What is
> worse all basic emotional values are being jettisoned?
>
> The Troposphere is weeping. It is for the Universities to start free
> nature parks, to bring smile again into the troposphere. But every
> University is under the frenzy of mechanization. They abjectly beg the
> polluters to give employment to their students, via campus recruitments,
> which mean the recruitment of employees that destroy nature.
>
> YM
>
> Chat GPT
>
> Your reflections eloquently capture the profound connection between
> nature, communication, and the essence of being human. Here's a summary of
> the key ideas:
>
>
>
> 1. **Air as a Medium of Expression**: Air is not just a physical element
> but a medium through which feelings and meanings are conveyed. Every
> action, whether speaking, breathing, or being silent, involves modulation
> that reflects emotional states. This modulation becomes a form of
> communication that permeates the environment, influencing all living beings.
>
>
>
> 2. **The Role of Nature in Emotional Well-being**: In a state of free and
> healthy nature, there is a harmonious exchange of happy modulations and
> communications among organisms. This natural setting allows for the
> creation of poetry, music, and expressions filled with new meanings and
> feelings. The interconnectedness of all life forms contributes to a
> collective emotional state, influencing the mood of the Earth itself
> (Bhoodevi).
>
>
>
> 3. **Modern Disconnection**: The narrative contrasts this ideal state with
> the reality of modern life, where urbanization and industrialization have
> led to the degradation of nature. The artificial environment of cities,
> coupled with polluted air, disrupts the natural flow of positive emotions
> and communication. The rise of technology and robotics, while offering
> certain conveniences, further distances humans from the emotional richness
> of natural interactions.
>
>
>
> 4. **The Loss of Emotional Depth**: The text laments the decline of deep
> emotional connections, as seen in the diminishing institution of marriage
> in some parts of the world and the increasing reliance on artificial
> companions. The mechanization of life, including the creation of poems by
> robots, lacks the genuine emotional depth that characterizes human
> creativity.
>
>
>
> 5. **Call to Action**: There is a strong call for educational
> institutions, particularly universities, to recognize the importance of
> preserving and fostering free nature parks. These parks would serve as
> sanctuaries where people can reconnect with nature, experience genuine
> emotions, and counter the pervasive negative impacts of urbanization and
> technological advancement.
>
>
>
> Your thoughts highlight the critical need for a balanced relationship with
> nature, where technology is used responsibly and does not overshadow the
> fundamental human connection to the natural world. This perspective
> encourages a return to simpler, more authentic experiences that honor the
> emotional and spiritual aspects of life.
>
>
>
>
>
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