News from the Earth.

According to the JPL and NASA, the quake in Japan has: moved Japan closer to the US; shortened the day by a microsecond or so and; shifted the axis (1 and others). Don’t worry, though. These minor changes are normal results of major plate shifts. The interesting thing is that a mass as large as Earth can be changed at all by a surface action.
When the Chinese announced the building of the huge dam and lake complex, the Three Gorges Dam, calculations showed that this mass of water would change the rotation time, the shape and the axis of the Earth. They built it and it did those things. With no noticeable effect on anything except the 1.8 million people they moved and a reduction in flooding. This complex generates a huge number of megawatts of electric power. The trade off is seen as a good thing for China. Now they can have more people.
Reforestation is moving forward in many places in the world even as deforestation continues to increase.
Fresh water supplies continue to be stressed as more and more people are born and more live longer. The population increases continue to stress the Earthly infrastructure. So what? So nothing, that’s what. I just think it is amazing that human activity can measurably change the face of the Earth. Oh, and new data indicates more melting of the ice sheets and glaciers. This should be good, no? More fresh water? Wrong. That fresh water goes into the oceans and just causes a slight rise in sea level.
All in all we are seeing a positive feedback mechanism at work. Some things, like quakes and tsunamis are independent of human activity while others are a direct or indirect result of our activities. Whatever you think about the political stances you have to be glad that you won’t live to see the next 100 years. Hold on tight folks, there is a bad moon rising. Read the lyrics to Fogerty’s song and see if you don’t get a little chill.

Lyrics: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/c/creedence+clearwater+revival/bad+moon+rising_20034328.html
1. http://news.softpedia.com/news/Japan-Earthquake-Shifts-Earth-s-Axis-Shortens-Days-189265.shtml
Image: http://www.notkeren.com/writing/2009/07/bad-moon-rising/