NASA estimates that dust blown off Africa carries 22,000 tons of phosphorus to South America each year, supplying the rainforests with this much-needed nutrient. The 22,000 tons are a small fraction of the estimated 40,000,000 tons of African dust that reach the Amazon yearly in strong easterly winds. And you thought your coffee table was a problem.
One might think that dust storms are inherently destructive, and they can be locally. The drought and dust storms of the 1930s devastated farmlands and drove many people away from Texas and Oklahoma. The Dust Bowl lost millions of tons of soil to “black blizzards” that darkened the skies to the east and caused respiratory illness where it fell.
So, your dusty coffee table and desolated farmland indicate that dust can be a problem. But one person’s problem…
Water condenses on dust particles (called hygroscopic particles) in our atmosphere, forming clouds and bringing rain. The dry air from Africa, moving in the Saharan Air Layer, can quash the development of hurricanes in the eastern Atlantic and prevent potential storm destruction in Caribbean islands and the eastern coast of the USA. Seems there’s always an entangled benefit to a problem, as the physicists would say, a superposition. Dust here, rain there. Barren landscape here, lush rainforest there. Dry air here, no storms there. The effects aren’t immediate as in two entangled electrons, but they can occur over the course of a year or so.
You can draw whatever conclusion you want from this entanglement in nature. For me, there’s a simple lesson: The natural processes of place determine both the abundance and quality of life. In our hubris, we tend to believe we can transcend natural processes that dictate the nature of place. Yes, we have inhabited, even if only temporarily, all of Earth’s landscapes, and we have turned desert into farmland, but only at a cost and only as long as we can maintain our efforts. In doing so, in altering one landscape to suit our needs, we often degrade another. If you dust your furniture, you have to shake the dust rag someplace else. The entanglement of places altered by natural and artificial processes is inescapable. Altered places are as linked as dust and your coffee table.
One might think that dust storms are inherently destructive, and they can be locally. The drought and dust storms of the 1930s devastated farmlands and drove many people away from Texas and Oklahoma. The Dust Bowl lost millions of tons of soil to “black blizzards” that darkened the skies to the east and caused respiratory illness where it fell.
So, your dusty coffee table and desolated farmland indicate that dust can be a problem. But one person’s problem…
Water condenses on dust particles (called hygroscopic particles) in our atmosphere, forming clouds and bringing rain. The dry air from Africa, moving in the Saharan Air Layer, can quash the development of hurricanes in the eastern Atlantic and prevent potential storm destruction in Caribbean islands and the eastern coast of the USA. Seems there’s always an entangled benefit to a problem, as the physicists would say, a superposition. Dust here, rain there. Barren landscape here, lush rainforest there. Dry air here, no storms there. The effects aren’t immediate as in two entangled electrons, but they can occur over the course of a year or so.
You can draw whatever conclusion you want from this entanglement in nature. For me, there’s a simple lesson: The natural processes of place determine both the abundance and quality of life. In our hubris, we tend to believe we can transcend natural processes that dictate the nature of place. Yes, we have inhabited, even if only temporarily, all of Earth’s landscapes, and we have turned desert into farmland, but only at a cost and only as long as we can maintain our efforts. In doing so, in altering one landscape to suit our needs, we often degrade another. If you dust your furniture, you have to shake the dust rag someplace else. The entanglement of places altered by natural and artificial processes is inescapable. Altered places are as linked as dust and your coffee table.
RSS Feed