The Oasis

The Singing Iceberg

Scientists from Germany's Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research have found a "singing" iceberg, as reported in the November 25th issue of Science. The singing iceberg was discovered accidently, while the researchers were monitoring earth movements in Antartica. The sound waves, which had a frequency of 0.5 Hertz, too low for the human ear to perceive, were picked up on the scientists' sophisticated recording equipment. But when the researchers played the sounds at a higher speed, they reported hearing sounds not unlike a swarm of bees or an orchestra warming up.

Naturally, I wanted to hear these mysterious ice voices for myself. Luckily, the researchers have made a sample of the sound available as a wav. file , so anyone can hear.

I didn't hear a swarm of bees or an orchestra warming up. To me, the sound is reminiscent of recordings I have heard of great whales communicating from the ocean depths or the infrasounds (sounds below human hearing) that elephants use to communicate with each other over long distances.

The iceberg researchers theorize that the sounds were produced after the iceberg became caught on the seabed. As water was forced through the cracks and crevasses, the ice mass began to virbrate, producing the singing sound.

Naturally, the news networks picked up on this nifty item, as they knew readers would be intrigued. And I suspect that most people, after they read the explanation of the sounds, won't think too much more about it. After all, the "real" cause of the singing iceberg has been explained. Case closed.

But perhaps we should be asking ourselves what the iceberg is trying to tell us.

Now before you dismiss this idea as utter nonsense, take into consideration that indigenous peoples of all lands "listened" (and still listen) to the voice of nature every day of their lives. These first peoples, like the Native Americans and ancient Hawaiians, managed to live on the land for generation after generation, without polluting and destroying their homelands. A better track record than we moderns have, I should say!

Ice seems to be communicating with us in other ways as well. Just this week, analysis of ice taken from a deep Antartic core that extends back 740,000 years or more, gave alarming new weight to the evidence that human activity, and not natural cycles, is the cause of the current global warming trend.

To listen to the voice of Nature is to acknowledge Nature as somehow being responsive, rather than just a collection of passive objects over which we can exert our human will.

So what is necessary for us to be able to hear again?

Although they were writing about trees in their 1994 Crosscurrents article, Brian Walsh, a theologian; Marianne Karsh, a forester; and Nik Ansell, a phiosopher; could well have been speaking about any element of our natural world when they said:

"Both the very nature of trees qua trees and the present ecological crisis require us to relate to trees in a way which goes beyond economic or even ecological self-interest. We need to go beyond notions of dutiful stewardship of resources to a relationship of coresponsiveness, intimacy, communion, mutuality, fellowship, and love with the trees themselves. A tree is not "merely an object in our world of experience but also a subject of relations in its own right. It is acted upon and it acts."

Let us open our ears so we can hear the very voice of the Earth as she sings to us...while she still has breath to speak.

My Bioregion: Late Fall

In an earlier Oasis post, I wrote about my local environment, my bioregion, to encourage you to look around your own natural environment throughout the year. I once again invite you to write about your own bioregion in the comments section that follows this post.

We modern people are so removed from the natural world, the rhythms of the moon phases, the shifting tides, that many of us don't have any idea of what is happening right outside our doors. The knowledge of those day-to-day changes, once so necessary for our very survival, has become reduced to a quick click on The Weather Channel to see how we should dress for the day.

A bioregion, a geographical area defined by its natural features, doesn't care a whit about political boundaries. Each bioregion is further detailed by the kinds of plants and animals and landforms that make up the area, with local human cultures included as well. By choosing to locate myself within a specific bioregion, I become part of a living community, located in a specific place. In fact, the very essence of bioregionalism is to cultivate a sense of place with the living land. Your bioregion can be thought of as your natural address on the Earth.

My particular bioregion, here just south of Atlanta, is the Georgia piedmont, which means "at the foot of the mountain" in this case the foothills of the Applachians. Home to a variety of ecosystems, the Piedmont is known for her old and weathered soils, known here as "Georgia red clay." Loblolly pine forests dominate the area's vegetation, but there are also a variety of other trees including tall oaks, hickories and tulip poplars.

This time of year, in late November, most trees have lost their summer's green. Still, a few of the great oaks cling to crinkled masses of leathery brown leaves, reluctant to part with a summer's work. The goldernrod blooms have faded, their golden yellow tops transformed into fluffy gray seedheads, a treat for wandering birds. A few bright red dogwood berries cling to bare branches, harbringers of a distant spring.

Turkey vultures soar overhead, their great wings catching the air in upturned V's, propelling their awkward bodies unsteadily through the blue sky. A murder of crows boils up from a distant stand of pines to mob a hawk, who flees the dark birds' wrath with a few easy strokes of her powerful wings. The faint sweet smell of fallen leaves fills the air. Acorns lie shining, scattered under the oaks, repositories of winter nutrients...miniature storehouses of the sun. I pick them up and examine the dark hulls for any wormholes, hefting the weight of the good ones in my palms and stuffing my jeans' pocket with a handful, as if my life depended on the harvest.

And so it does..and yours as well.

The Ancient Art of Wood-Air Bathing

Japanese researchers have discovered a marvelous benefit of walking in old-growth forests. When they allowed diabetic patients to amble through these ancient groves, their blood sugar values dropped!

The Japanese have a word for this walking through old-growth forests: shinrin-yoku or wood-air bathing. The researchers have identified, besides a drop in the blood sugar of diabetics, a whole host of healthful benefits associated with this practice.

When we think about the forests, most of us think about the sight of magnificent trees. But what about the wonderful smells associated with walking through their dappled shade? Scientists, in one Sierra-Nevada study, identified over 120 unique chemical compounds given off by trees, but could only identify 70 of them. As Joan Maloof, the author of Teaching the Trees: Lessons from the Forest, writes, "We are literally breathing things we don't understand; which also means, of course, that when we lose these forests, we don't know what we are losing."

There are only a few remmnants of old growth forests left here in the United States. But I like to think that walking in any forest, among any living trees, will benefit us. By breathing in, we take in the oxygen given off by the trees themselves...when we breathe out, our carbon dioxide goes to feed the leaves.

We literally become each other.

UCLA Study Validates Our Stress Resiliency Tool!

I was heartened to hear about the work of the UCLA psychologists who have shown that reflection on one's personal values can reduce stress. The researchers found that any positive self-affirmation can help to buffer stress.

Positive self-affirmations include values, personal relationships and qualities that are a source of pride.

This study gives indirect validation to our proprietary tool, the Stress Resiliency Index™ that we have developed for our wellness coaches to use with clients. By using this tool, the wellness coach helps the client quickly and easily identify their positive "resiliency qualities." The client then has these qualities to use when faced with difficult situations.

So during this holiday season, take some time to reflect on your positive qualities...your health will benefit.