The one where i ramble about change :)

”The only thing constant in life is change” 

One can only wonder at how true this fact is. Everything keeps changing around us every second. The atmosphere around you keeps changing every fraction of a second, and so does everything else around you. The only thing is that these changes are so miniscule in magnitude that you don’t realize the change. But then some changes are enormous, so prominent that they have an immediate effect on your everyday life, the change in the economic trend for example. 

I read the novel “State of Fear” by Michael Crichton recently, and found it awesome. It was wonderful reading that book. it was intellectual, racy, surprising and  was even thrilling in parts. There is a ‘small’ passage from the book that I would like to quote here

“Let's remember where we live, Kenner was saying. We live on the third planet from a medium-size sun. Our planet is five billion years old, and it has been changing constantly all during that time. The Earth is now on its third atmosphere.  

The first atmosphere was helium and hydrogen. It dissipated early on, because the planet was so hot. Then, as the planet cooled, volcanic eruptions produced a second atmosphere of steam and carbon dioxide. Later the water vapor condensed, forming the oceans that cover most of the planet. Then, around three billion years ago, some bacteria evolved to consume carbon dioxide and excrete a highly toxic gas, oxygen. Other bacteria released nitrogen. The atmospheric concentration of these gases slowly increased. Organisms that could not adapt died out. 

Meanwhile, the planet's land masses, floating on huge tectonic plates, eventually came together in a configuration that interfered with the circulation of ocean currents. It began to get cold for the first time. The first ice appeared two billion years ago. 

 And for the last seven hundred thousand years, our planet has been in a geological ice age, characterized by advancing and retreating glacial ice. No one is entirely sure why, but ice now covers the planet every hundred thousand years, with smaller advances every twenty thousand or so. The last advance was twenty thousand years ago, so we're due for the next one.  

And even today, after five billion years, our planet remains amazingly active. We have five hundred volcanoes, and an eruption every two weeks. Earthquakes are continuous: a million and a half a year, a moderate Richter 5 quake every six hours, a big earthquake every ten days. Tsunamis race across the Pacific Ocean every three months.  

Our atmosphere is as violent as the land beneath it. At any moment there are one thousand five hundred electrical storms across the planet. Eleven lightning bolts strike the ground each second. A tornado tears across the surface every six hours. And every four days, a giant cyclonic storm, hundreds of miles in diameter, spins over the ocean and wreaks havoc on the land. 

The nasty little apes that call themselves human beings can do nothing except run and hide. For these same apes to imagine they can stabilize this atmosphere is arrogant beyond belief. They can't control the climate. 

The reality is, they run from the storms. “

Just read that passage and you will understand the meaning of change, understand the importance of that change, and you will learn to appreciate it. The changes that I mentioned as ‘miniscule’ are in fact, just as big and important as anything else. Those changes keep us alive, help us move forward. Those may seem miniscule, but in the long run it is all that matters. 

Take time to think about this and work for a better cause – to keep this earth a safe place to live in, for us and of course for the future generations :)