The Making of a Plastic Continent (School Lesson)

The Making of a Plastic Continent  
Dr Abe V Rotor

  

The main Plastic Vortex as big as the state of texas - and growing - lies north of Hawaii off the coast of Canada and the US. "Islands" of plastics coalese into the vortex. Dutch scientists propose to convert the floating debris into a livable environment.  Satellite photo below shows ocean currents and gyres responsible in creating the vortex.   Canada is directly affected as indicated in the North Pacific Gyre. 

 Another gyre in the North Atlantic is poised to form another Plastic Vortex along the east coast of the US and Canada. If this happens we might expect a graver consequence as plastic merges with seaweeds that comprise the huge Sargasso Sea. (See lowermost photos, from the Internet) 

NOTE: There are other gyres three in the south hemisphere, all potential spawning grounds of floating garbage.

 

 

 

Relate these events with the following: 

1. Pope Francis Laudato Si (Praise Be), a call to save the Earth

2. Canada exporting trash to the Philippines

3. Earth Summits - review and prospects

4. Culture of Consumerism

5. Waste management models 

6. Personal concern and action

7. Global Leadership challenge

8. Autotoxicity - myth of fact?

Study the following photos (Internet).  

Write the appropriate caption of each photo.  (Class assignment and reference for discussion in school.} 

Communion with Nature - Ten Ways

If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere.
Dr Abe V Rotor

 

Parakeets, Safari World, Thailand

Lovely, friendly -  kindest words ever be,

whereas their kin are wild and free;

lucky in man's judgment these pair  may be

if only we understand their plea

for freedom to the wild, to their ancestry

and away from the artificial tree.  
  

Tamboili shells, former St. Paul Museum

I'm standing on the world's narrowest isthmus,

among archives and fossils of history,

where I can hold the Pacific and the Atlantic

oceans half the world apart and free;

I cross the time and distance barrier

with these chroniclers singing to me

the unending roars of the tides,

tides on the street, tides of the sea.

Sunken Pier, Puerto, Sto. Domingo, Ilocos Sur

Behold! a jellyfish as looking glass

unfolds a third world scene:

half terrestrial, half aquatic,

solid and liquid in between,

third matter in colloidal form -

strange the world is ever seen. 

Baby sitting: Fluppy, angora rabbit at home

Here is seeing the world in dreams;

half awake, half asleep,

on two planes -  fantasy and reality,

rather than counting sheep,

to unload life's burden at the end of day -

a heaven sent li'l rabbit.

 

Rare walking stick insects, Museum of Natural History,

UPLB Laguna

Dragons in fairy tales and religious fictions -

they are fierce, they're enemies of mankind;

in fossils and movies they scare the children;

little do we think of them friendly and kind,

devouring pests, singing lullaby in dull air;

misjudged, they're harder and harder to find.

  

Baby orangutan, Avilon Zoo, San Mateo, Rizal

Monkey on my back, that's what people say

when what we say logic we lack;

genes may vary, yet the same to this day,

indeed, a monkey on our back.

  

Viewing telescope, Mall of Asia, Pasay Metro Manila

Yes, creatures but man, are getting fewer, farther apart;

changing the old game with art of glass and steel;

where you can't get near, when you can't touch and feel,

technology comes to fill, yet empty still. 

 Red shelf mushrooms, Sacred Heart Novitiate, QC

Flaming red in the night and in bright light -
what secret have you Ganoderma? 
and yet your light cannot make the dead rise
again, the tree felled by cold heart,
lying unknown and forgotten in its demise.

Crustose lichen on a tree trunk, Silang Cavite 

Crust blankets the tree with powdery green,

 strange indeed to the inquisitive, 

that this is a model of symbiosis,  

for tree and lichen together they live.  

Violin and aquarium fish, Don Antonio Heights 2, Diliman, QC  

Music is universal - that is worthy of praise,
 to all creatures the "Mozart Effect"
that brings us all together in work and ease,
friend and foe, master and subject,
sans division and color in war and peace.

Lesson on defunct Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid (People's School-on-Air) 738 DZRB AM Band, 8 to 9 evening class Monday to Friday

Earth Day (April 22) - Reflection: A Cross in the Sky (Lent Part II)

Passion of Nature: A Cross in the Sky 
Dr Abe V Rotor 

Skeleton of an acacia tree, QC

I have lost you forever,
now a silhouette in the sky,

spreading a gospel to remember

for the mindless passerby.

You lived half of your life,

yet fullest at the Throne;

earning it well with strife, 

where every seed is grown.

The birds now a flock, 

the child a man; 

you bid them all the luck,

and now you are gone.

In youth you sheltered me,

a thought I can't be free,

I atone for your brevity, 

with a thousand-and-one tree.~

Published Light in the Woods by AVRotor UST 1995

Ilokano Verses: Ullaw (Kite)

Dr Abe V Rotor

Kite flying ahead of the maturity of grains results 
in poor harvest. Detail of mural by the author


Ullaw nasapa,
Ubbing agkakatawa,
Umpes ti dawa.

(Early kite flying and boisterous
urchins predict empty grains.)


Author gathers wild mushroom believed to have
been spawned by thunder and lightning

Kimat, gurruod:
Panagbuteng, panag-raem,
Igges, u’ong. 

(Lightning, thunder spawn fear
and respect, vermin and mushroom)

Angin ammianan,
Kannaway agsangpetdan,
Nepnep umayen. 

(Wind from the South brings in
herons nd monsoon rains)

Agkankanta
'Diay kakawkawayanan,
Angin abagatan. 

[The north wind (amihan)
makes the bamboos creak.]

Denggem ti kanta:
Arado nga sumilsilap,
Andidit ken kuriat.

(Listen to the chorus of plowshare,
cicada and crickets, indicating good crop year.)

Bangir inaladan,
Sanga marmargu-uyan,
Amin mairaman.

(All shares bounty of a branch
across the fence.)

Agbarbaraniw,
Nagatud nga nasapa,
Gumurgura.

(Early pruning retards
growth of the plant.)

Makaguyugoy,
Pul-oy iti mumalmalem,
Sirok mangga. 

(It’s conducive to take siesta
under the mango tree.)

Minuyungan,
Agri-ing dagiti bittuen,
Maturugen

(Stars are seen under bare
trees in fall.)

Agawidkan,
Bulong ti akasia
Nakaturugen.

(It’s time to go home when
the leaves of the acacia tree start to droop.)

Kalgaw nalpasen:
Saan nga masapulan
Lapis ken papel.

(Summer is over - it's hard
to go back to school.)~

Take a Break with Nature

Take a Break with Nature

Dr Abe V Rotor 

 Flowers of macopa (Eugenia jambalana), TechnoHub, QC

From flowers meek and dull

to red, red fruits after,

transition beyond the eye

to trace and compare.

Siesta on a tree hammock, UST Manila

The hammock does not rock

and sway in cantabile',

yet takes you to the clouds,

and your troubles away.

 Aerial tubers of Dioscorea sp make a crown - and a clown. Don Antonio Heights 2, QC 

What do you know - 

roots growing tubers in the air

from a frail vine

instead from a large tree!

I wouldn't ask why

if this is indeed divine.   

Forest diorama on Mt Makiling, UPLB, Laguna

A forest in a forest in replica,

reminder of man's folly;

when diorama is all that's left,

and only archives to stay.    

   

Author's grandchildren stroll at the orchard of their family residence

 in San Vicente, Ilocos Sur 

Nature links the generations through the trees 

planted many, many years ago;

for which they are regarded heritage trees, 

living monuments of a kind lolo.*

                                          * grandfather 

Earthworm, the Secret of Green Thumb

Earthworm, the Secret of Green Thumb
"Without the work of this humble creature, who knows nothing of the benefits he confers upon mankind, agriculture, as we know it, would be very difficult, if not wholly impossible.” -  Charles Darwin
Dr Abe V Rotor 

 Amynthas sp., a common Asian earthworm often cosmopolitan 

                                   and introduced around the world.  UST Botanical Garden,  Manila 

.

Piles of earthworm casting, fresh in early morning, dries up 

and often  gathered for garden soil.  UST Manila 

A lazy farmer I’m, lazy is the word,
When every one is busy in this world.

Among them a degenerate annelid,
That does nothing all day but dig.

In the night gleans the lawn of waste
And grinds it into organic paste.

That nourishes all that lives around
And me always on the run.

With no time to farm, yet a farmer;
I’m Rip Van Winkle’s brother.

For I rely on the lightning and rain
That make the field green and golden.

Seasons to fallow the fields in summer
Then wake them up from slumber.

The bees that make flowers into fruits,
The Rhizobium feeding the roots.

The yeast that makes the finest brew
The rainbow’s promise in its view.

The sun the source of light and life
That unburdens a farmer’s strife.

And the earthworm, my farmhand
Takes over below the ground.

A lazy farmer I’m, lazy is the word,
When every one is busy in this world.

And if my friends call me a Green Thumb
It’s the earthworm, true though dumb. ~
 -------------------
“Nobody and nothing can be compared with earthworms in their positive influence on the whole living Nature. They create soil and everything that lives in it. They are the most numerous animals on Earth and the main creatures converting all organic matter into soil humus providing soil’s fertility and biosphere’s functions: disinfecting, neutralizing, protective and productive.” ..- Anatoly M. Igonin21, Ph. D., Professor at the Vladimir Pedagogical University, Vladimir, Russia

It's still kite flying season - before the rains come

It's still kite flying season - before the rains come
Dr Abe V Rotor

Flying Kites at Harvestime, detail of mural by the author 2007

Mandala, detail of mural by the author

Clear against the blue mountain far

Are specks of yellow, red and blue,

And white, and the many colors they make.

Swaying like birds, rising and swooping,

Suspended in time and space,

If not for the sinking sun.

The wind is fair, the grain is golden now,

Else the old folk would complain:

Don’t call the wind when the grain is young.

But kids that we were cared for nothing,

Except our kites at all cost to fly

From the other end of the string.

Up, up they soared into the sky,

Dwarfing Babel, trailing the Apollo-

Flight only our dreams could follow through.

My kite took me away to the city and beyond-

Years had passed and I see kites flying again,

Familiar they seem, but in another time.~

Your first work is a masterpiece

Your first work is a masterpiece 

Dr Abe V Rotor

Old photograph of one of my earliest paintings. I never saw 

this painting again. (oil on plywood, 10" x 12") circa 1965

Don't throw away your early work 

if not in favor of your judgment

or of others; you are not the critic

nor they, but time and art,

for it could be your masterpiece,

the window of your soul,

its expression at the break of dawn,

when light is fresh and pure. 

and through the years to old age,

your work unfolds to the world,

the stirrings of your youth

seeking perfection in dream.

And imperfection is all it shows, 

a felled tree half buried lives on

in a hill of flowering weeds,  

eternal and beautiful.~