Seaweed on a local beach recently
What do memory and metrics have in common? This isn’t a philosophical knock-knock joke; it is my latest musing on time and climate change.
Memory is an internal subjective way for the mind to archive information including life experiences and visual impressions. Metrics–when they aren’t measuring poetic meters– are external standard units of measurement that can track data or measure the distance between elements in space.
It seems odd to me that metrics, which are quantitative, have a larger number of definitions than subjective memory.
Both depend on the past to give structure to the present and future of climate change
Ghost forests, glacier retreat, and present-moment perception ( for example: “I don’t remember this kind of heat when I was a kid“) depend on the archival natures of memory and metrics to validate the fact that Earth is altering its own rhythm to record changes.
A local example is the huge amount of seaweed that has been washing up on South Florida’s east coast beaches. Although small amounts of Sargassum have washed up on Florida beaches for centuries, most of this macroalgae stayed in the South Atlantic sea until 2011 when inundation events started. Shifting winds patterns caused by rising temperatures in addition to agricultural runoff from other continents make March to October ( roughly the no-tourist season in Florida) the seaweed season.
Folks who pay a premium to live on the ocean don’t like the mess; it smells as it rots, and little biting bugs and sea critters make it walking on it an itchy exercise.
There is, however another perspective that isn’t covered by memory or metrics
The large algae mats or weed lines as they are sometimes called provide shelter and shade for fish. They offset (to a small degree) some of the effects of rising sea temperatures. The mats provide food and protection from predators for turtles, fish and crabs. The macroalgae may be Mother Nature’s way of adapting to a new reality.
In order to keep up with an increasing rate of change humans can’t depend on memory of how life used to be or measurements of how life is now. Compare and contrast is just part of the answer to adapting to a new and constantly changing reality. We need to take a cue from Mother Nature and use what we have (even if it is seaweed) to bring balance to a new reality.
Rain over the ocean
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