Presently, the preservation of the environment is mandatory, on one hand, pollution and destruction of the natural places where wild animals and plants live (the ecosystems that constitute the habitats of living beings), and on the other hand, the global warming (increase of global medium temperature). The latter, as numerous studies try to demonstrate, since the 70's of the 20th century, results from the accumulation of CO2 (carbon dioxide; 2 oxygen atoms - O2 - and one carbon - C) in the atmosphere, due to burning of fossil fuels. Because this phenomenon is mainly “visible” when taking into account a considerable number of years, there are many people who doubt its existence, and even its real cause. For example, rising sea waters are one of the phenomena most cited as evidence; therefore, it is good to realize that it is already a reality ... the fun, fascinating, for the most curious, is to understand how this fact is proved: it is simple, there are structures, maregraphs, by the sea, like in Cascais (Lisbon - Portugal), which measure the difference between the “height” of the waters at high tide and at low tide, with the midpoint being the “0” (zero) point of altitude on the maps, from which the altitude of the mountains in land are determined... Now, as these structures started operating in 1882, we know that until today, the average sea level has risen about 20 centimeters. The estimate, until 2100, is that it will rise by approximately one meter. Fascinating ... it is also to know that the comparison of the current temperature is made in relation to its average value between 1850 and 1880, since it takes at least 30 years to calculate reliable "atmospheric" values. Additionally, these years were before the Industrial Revolution, a time when the steam engine revolutionized factory production and transport, and with its use the consumption of coal went up a lot, leading to the 1st great release of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere, due to human activity! We do not have original photos of the maregraph, but we invite you to a fascinating virtual visit, using the Cascais Town’s Hall page:

https://www.cascais.pt/noticia/mareografo-de-cascais-a-medir-mares-desde-1882

In Portugal, for example, there is still another one in Figueira da Foz and, in the rest of the world, these structures also exist in many countries.

We also share this photo at the Garden of the Museum of Natural History in Lisbon:

Enjoy.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/01/world/australia/fires.html

Tragedies.

Enjoy!

Light of this year,
All over me
All over the sky,
Create on me eternal strength,
Make this happiness a state of mind
A Forest of lights spreading light,
Glowing whisper, enduring smile,
Let me be your pupil.
Darkness always eyes' opposite,
Sun, heat me with your art and heart.
An Art of iris' color, heart's emotions.
Mary Happy Time:
To all my friends, my readers :-)

Enjoy.

A poem soon ...

Libera - "The Song of Life"

Milos Karadaglic - "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds"

Enjoy.

Red

Red is my blood, platelets,
as Autumn's leaves,
as my dreams, hopes,
from a breathing person,
who dies, lives, writes, fails, rewrites.

Red is a blue's opposite:
the blue's heat.
Is the irrigation of wings' veins, 
I ought to have, a sky would be,
dawn's color, the flame of life,
a desire of a peaceful heart, that
bombs red through time.

I am Red, even though
no eye can see it;
a dream is here, nobody can see it:
as my blood as my end.
And, maybe there's no end only stars.
And stars are a pipe dream of dreams.

Enjoy.

Imagine water…

I see myself a sphere, translucent,

Cold, like a moonless night,

Falling helpless, and the air,

freezes my bristles, made of crystals.

I break myself hitting a branch, scatter myself,

I fall in the dust; I give myself:

Fertile again.

by Rui M. September 16 and 17, 2019

Enjoy.

XCIV.

They that have power to hurt and will do none,
That do not do the thing they most do show,
Who, moving others, are themselves as stone,
Unmoved, cold, and to temptation slow,
They rightly do inherit heaven's graces
And husband nature's riches from expense;
They are the lords and owners of their faces,
Others but stewards of their excellence.
The summer's flower is to the summer sweet,
Though to itself it only live and die,
But if that flower with base infection meet,
The basest weed outbraves his dignity:
For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds;
Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.

Enjoy.

These days the many fires in the Amazon have been news and have raised numerous issues related to the environment, management and also related to the people who live in it and want to continue to be there. We are facing a challenge that is much more than a challenge regarding the conservation of a given ecosystem. To some extent, it is similar to the protection given to cork oaks in Portugal as a protected species that it is forbidden to cut, and this can be seen as an interference with the property and management rights that an owner will have over his own assets. The interesting thing is not so much this aspect of reality, because we understand the prohibition due to the importance of the tree, but the possibility that the owner has to derive income from this tree, through cork sales. Looking at the Amazon we can see this challenge with the same eyes and come to the same conclusion: even those who have an economic interest in deforestation of the Amazon rainforest when they realize that they can also subsist, and have the same standards of life with a fully conserved forest they will want that same conservation. Regarding the conservation of the Amazon rainforest, if the problem of its destruction can be considered global, even if the main potential problem is to the countries in which it exists, or may cease to exist, global support for its conservation seems to make sense.

We also invite you to get to know the winner poem of Anthology “Nature 2018-2019”

The Lady of Coram by Claire O' Connell from Ireland

Who is she wish of hand?

Fainted lady of Coram,

Calling to the frozen abyss,

Hush to the dead-

-Fast asleep.

Floating frozen ocean shore,

Lost of sight and broken sea floors,

Simple words that string the line,

Gain of nothing; lost of the divine.

She taunts them to escape frozen shores,

Under her rule of taunting pain,

Giving false hope to the frozen souls,

The lady of Coram owns the game.

What is her aim but to win?

She surely carries out her task,

Stay a moment and hear her callous laugh,

To silence the lost is her forte,

All the souls trapped in ocean ice,

Victims of directed fallen Angels winged in black,

The being of many names traps them,

Still to me she is the lady of Coram,

Calling to the dark I hear their roars,

It’s all I ever really hear,

Frozen soul, Ocean Sea,

I wait for the sun to set the shore alight,

Still all that is before me is the Ocean Coram,

I walk away all alone,

I ignore the lost and frozen,

Does that make me worse?

Still under all the façade-

Am I just like her - the lady of the dark.

Enjoy.