All posts by Ray Barbier

I am just an average man who loves writing, thinking and trying to inspire kindness, love, understanding and Compassion in others and try to find them within myself.
Green Issues, Technology, The Conversation, Thought's on World Issues

Tracking CO2 emissions from space could help support climate agreements

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NASA’s Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO-2) satellite can make precise measurements of global atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) from space. (NASA/JPL-Caltech)

Ray Nassar, University of Toronto

The central objective of the Paris Agreement is to limit Earth’s warming to well below 2 C above pre-industrial levels, but preferably 1.5 C.

This challenging task will require policies and tools to enable every sector of society to drastically reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to eventually reach net-zero.

Enacting the most effective and efficient strategies to reduce emissions starts with knowing in detail where, when and how much of these greenhouse gases we are emitting, followed by implementing emission reduction policies and tracking our progress.

Is it possible to track carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and emission reductions from space? New research from my group shows that it is.

Why CO2 matters

CO2 is the primary greenhouse gas driving climate change. Burning fossil fuels for electricity generation, heating buildings, industry and transportation has elevated the CO2 in our atmosphere well beyond natural levels.

Currently, CO2 emission reporting is mainly done by accounting for the mass of fossil fuels purchased and used, then calculating the expected emissions — not actual atmospheric CO2 measurements. The finer details about exactly when and where the emissions occurred are often not available, but more transparent monitoring of CO2 emissions could help track the effectiveness of policies to reduce emissions.

Today GPS satellites help us to get around, meteorological satellites track weather systems and communication satellites relay TV, internet and telephone signals. It is time we use satellites to help tackle the biggest challenge that humanity has ever faced — climate change.

Satellites for measuring CO2

A global network of ground-based CO2 measurements began in 1957 and now consists of over one hundred stations around the world. Accurate and precise measurements from these stations have revealed a lot about changes in global atmospheric CO2 and Earth’s overall carbon cycle, but we can’t place these stations everywhere on Earth.

Satellites can observe the entire planet. Those that measure CO2 in the lower atmosphere near Earth’s surface (where CO2 emissions and CO2 uptake by plants happens) first began making measurements in 2002. Since then, they have been getting better and better at doing it, but there have been setbacks along the way.

About a decade of effort by NASA went into developing the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) satellite to make precise measurements of atmospheric CO2 across the Earth.

NASA's OCO undergoing development prior to launch
NASA developed the Orbiting Carbon Observatory satellite to make precise measurements of atmospheric CO2 across the Earth. (NASA/JPL), Author provided

In 2009, OCO was lost due to a launch problem. After sustained advocacy for a rebuild of this important climate mission, NASA secured new funding to launch the OCO-2 satellite in 2014 and OCO-3 to the International Space Station in 2019.

The OCO missions were designed to improve our understanding of vegetation’s CO2 absorption, also known as the land carbon sink. But what about fossil fuel CO2 emissions?

A new way to verify CO2 emissions

In 2017, I led a research team that published the first study showing that we can quantify CO2 emissions at the scale of an individual power plant using OCO-2 observations.

Since OCO-2 was not designed for this purpose, its coverage and infrequent visits were inadequate for operational global CO2 emission monitoring, but we can still quantify emissions in select cases when the satellite passes close enough and gets a good cloud-free view.

OCO-3 is very similar to OCO-2, but has an additional pointing mirror that enables it to better map CO2 around targets of interest like the Bełchatów Power Station in Poland, Europe’s largest fossil fuel burning power plant and CO2 source.

A Power Station
Bełchatów Power Station, Europe’s largest fossil fuel burning power plant. (Shutterstock)

With ten clear views of CO2 emission plumes from Bełchatów imaged by OCO-2 and OCO-3 from 2017-2022 analyzed in our new study, we were able to determine emissions on those days.

European power plants report hourly power generation but only annual CO2 emissions. Power generation fluctuates with electricity demand and generating unit shutdowns (for maintenance or decommissioning) and CO2 emissions are expected to exhibit proportional fluctuations.

We confirmed this using OCO-2 and OCO-3 in our recent paper, which showed that satellite observations can track changes in facility-level CO2 emissions. This means that satellites can be used to verify (or refute) reported CO2 emission reductions that result from climate change mitigation — like mandated efficiency improvements, carbon capture and storage technology, etc.

OCO-3 observations of a CO2 emission plume from the Bełchatów Power Station in Poland on April 10, 2020 overlaid on Google Earth imagery.
A plume of high CO2 resulting from coal burning is evident down wind from the Bełchatów Power Station in OCO-3 observations. (Ray Nassar), Author provided

Emissions monitoring for the Paris Agreement

Our approach can be applied to more power plants or modified for CO2 emissions from cities or countries with OCO-2 and OCO-3. We can also try integrating the satellite observations with CO2 monitoring from the ground or aircraft.

While we are already working on this, advances will only be incremental until the launch of the European Commission-funded Copernicus Anthropogenic CO2 Monitoring Mission or “CO2M”. CO2M is comprised of two satellites, aiming to launch in late 2025.

These satellites will provide about 50 times as much coverage as OCO-2 and OCO-3 combined and will form the space component of Europe’s system for CO2 emissions Monitoring, Verification and Support (MVS).

CO2M will be a major advance, but just like successful global climate action, requires contributions from many countries. The long-term robust operational global monitoring of GHG emissions will need a constellation of satellites contributed by multiple countries as part of an integrated global observing system.

Hopefully, with new, more detailed and transparent tracking of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions to assess and guide us toward the most effective policies, society can achieve the emission reductions needed to reach net-zero in time.

Ray Nassar, Research Scientist at Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), Adjunct Professor in Atmospheric Physics, University of Toronto

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Random Thoughts

Random Thoughts 12-13-2022

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Elderly people are not disposable, they are the people who helped build this world you are enjoying now. Many of those we call elderly once built the cars we drive, and designed the buildings we live in. Some may have just cleaned the buildings we worked in or served coffee to our parents and grandparents before or after work. Heck, a good portion of the elderly is in the U.S. federal government and they even cast aside the elderly at times.

Seems like the focus is always on the children or the younger working-aged group of citizens when it comes to congress and our government. But then why should a senator who makes a 6 figure salary and has a guaranteed retirement from our federal government worry about social security or the welfare of the elderly citizens that still can vote and contribute to society through the experience they have and the wisdom they have gained.

My opinion is that if they want to cut the budget look to their own salaries and retirement packages, their perks for being in office, and the wasteful spending in the defense budget instead of trying to cut social security or veterans benefits. Cut out some of that pork barrel spending in bills passed, and do straightforward bills without all the little perks for their states that do nothing but gain them possible votes.

Don’t even get me started on how tired I am and probably most people are with the partisan bull that does nothing but keeps congress from getting anything meaningful or worthwhile done. Or how money from lobbyists keeps what the people want from being passed due to money coming before constituents to some people in congress.

No government is perfect, there is always some sort of corruption and/or under-the-table deal going on. Just wish those in congress would remember they are elected to represent all of the citizens not just the base of the party they are in or the lobbyists that paid them the most money. The Meaning of We the people of the United States in the constitution is that the government is for the people and by the people, not just one party, group, social group, or individual.

One of the problems is that being a senator or representative is seen as a career instead of a civic duty by many of them in office. They lost their way and serve money and party over the people who voted for them. Wonder if they would be different if they made minimum wage and couldn’t receive any money from lobbyists and if they had term limits similar to a president. Who knows, it is what it is and unless we get more politicians that do it for the people and not just for the party and money it will remain as it is.

More than likely Social security and other social programs that were created to help the less fortunate will be constantly underfunded and at threat of being sunsetted until there is some sort of change in congress. Sad those that worked all their lives and helped build America and funded the federal government will be considered as a burden on the government. Human lives should always be more important than party politics or satisfying the political base that got someone elected.

Well, that is the opinion of this near-retirement-aged man, agree or disagree it is what it is. I wish everyone Happy Holidays and pray we all can find peace and happiness in life.

Ray Barbier

Random Thoughts

Random Thoughts 12-12-2022

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In my lifetime I learned that there are so many people allowed to separate themselves from each other. We use labels to differentiate ourselves from one another, what religion we believe, what color we may be, our political party, nationality, and sex or sexual preference. We all get too wrapped up in what makes us all different from one another and that keeps us from seeing what we all have in common. We all are human beings and I think almost every single one of us wants to live a happy and productive life.

Most of us do not seek out conflict nor find pleasure in the suffering of others and most would rather co-exist with everyone else in harmony. There is always a small percentage that thrives in a negative atmosphere and revels in the suffering of others. We can not avoid those types of people, all we can do is deal with them when they become a threat to others and when they are not a threat to others we need to find a way to not allow them to ruin our day.

I remember how my grandparents were towards other people, they never judged people by what they were labeled, but by how they treated others around them. They taught me to do the same, see a person for how they act, and treat others. That is who that other person is, not their political party, color, and so on. I think some people just want everyone else to be just like them, and if they are not that’s when the trouble starts.

Lately I myself have been dealing with the “you’re old and I’m young” labeling and the discrimination that comes with it. It baffles me, I never looked at elderly people as anything but people. Age does not diminish a person’s worth nor their ability to contribute to society. If anything, being older gives them a sort of wisdom, and insight into things that the younger generation has yet had time to gain.

I am not yet to that elderly age, but I am getting closer every day, and boy the perception of time sure speeds up as I get older. Well anyways, what I was getting at is that we need to ignore all the labels we put on people and focus more on how people treat one another and realize that we all have something to contribute to this world we live in. And that we all need to help one another through this life since it can be a real challenge sometimes.

Be good to one another, find forgiveness for yourself and others.

Ray Barbier

The Conversation

Scientists discover five new species of black corals living thousands of feet below the ocean surface near the Great Barrier Reef

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Researchers discovered five new species of black corals, including this Hexapathes bikofskii growing out of a nautilus shell more than 2,500 feet (760 meters) below the surface. Jeremy Horowitz, CC BY-NC

Jeremy Horowitz, Smithsonian Institution

The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work.

The big idea

Using a remote-controlled submarine, my colleagues and I discovered five new species of black corals living as deep as 2,500 feet (760 meters) below the surface in the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea off the coast of Australia.

Black corals can be found growing both in shallow waters and down to depths of over 26,000 feet (8,000 meters), and some individual corals can live for over 4,000 years. Many of these corals are branched and look like feathers, fans or bushes, while others are straight like a whip. Unlike their colorful, shallow-water cousins that rely on the sun and photosynthesis for energy, black corals are filter feeders and eat tiny zooplankton that are abundant in deep waters. https://www.youtube.com/embed/MYncyEIDr10?wmode=transparent&start=0 The team of researchers collected 60 specimens of black corals over 31 dives using a remotely operated submarine.

In 2019 and 2020, I and a team of Australian scientists used the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s remotely operated vehicle – a submarine named SuBastian – to explore the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea. Our goal was to collect samples of coral species living in waters from 130 feet to 6,000 feet (40 meters to 1,800 meters) deep. In the past, corals from the deep parts of this region were collected using dredging and trawling methods that would often destroy the corals.

Our two expeditions were the first to send a robot down to these particular deep-water ecosystems, allowing our team to actually see and safely collect deep sea corals in their natural habitats. Over the course of 31 dives, my colleagues and I collected 60 black coral specimens. We would carefully remove the corals from the sandy floor or coral wall using the rover’s robotic claws, place the corals in a pressurized, temperature-controlled storage box and then bring them up to the surface. We would then examine the physical features of the corals and sequence their DNA.

Among the many interesting specimens were five new species – including one we found growing on the shell of a nautilus more than 2,500 feet (760 meters) below the ocean’s surface.

A robotic arm grabbing a thin coral off of a rock.
Researchers used the robotic arm of their rover to collect over 100 samples of rare corals and brought them up to the surface for further study. Jeremy Horowitz, CC BY-ND

Why it matters

Similarly to shallow-water corals that build colorful reefs full of fish, black corals act as important habitats where fish and invertebrates feed and hide from predators in what is otherwise a mostly barren sea floor. For example, a single black coral colony researchers collected in 2005 off the coast of California was home to 2,554 individual invertebrates.

Recent research has begun to paint a picture of a deep sea that contains far more species than biologists previously thought. Considering there are only 300 known species of black corals in the world, finding five new species in one general location was very surprising and exciting for our team. Many black corals are threatened by illegal harvesting for jewelry. In order to pursue smart conservation of these fascinating and hard-to-reach habitats, it is important for researchers to know what species live at these depths and the geographic ranges of individual species.

A large, white, tree-like coral underwater.
Black corals don’t form large reefs like shallow corals, but individuals can get quite large – like this Antipathes dendrochristos found off the coast of California – and act as habitat for thousands of other organisms. Mark Amend/NOAA via Wikimedia Commons

What still isn’t known

Every time scientists explore the deep sea, they discover new species. Simply exploring more is the best thing researchers can do to fill in knowledge gaps about what species live there and how they are distributed.

Because so few specimens of deep-sea black corals have been collected, and so many undiscovered species are likely still out there, there is also a lot to learn about the evolutionary tree of corals. The more species that biologists discover, the better we will be able to understand their evolutionary history – including how they have survived at least four mass extinction events.

What’s next

The next step for my colleagues and me is to continue to explore the ocean’s seafloor. Researchers have yet to collect DNA from most of the known species of black corals. In future expeditions, my colleagues and I plan to return to other deep reefs in the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea to continue to learn more about and better protect these habitats.

Jeremy Horowitz, Post-doctoral Fellow in Invertebrate Zoology, Smithsonian Institution

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

creative commons, Random Thoughts

Random Thoughts 12-7-2022

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I am no expert at anything, I am just an average everyday guy who loves to think, write and be somewhat opinionated at times. I observe life and try to learn from it when I can as well. The last few years have been quite trying for me and others due to the pandemic, conspiracy theories, and the conspiracist behind them. The politically charged atmosphere is caused by the polarization of parties and followers as well.

The loss of relatives and friends during the last few years also have taken a toll on us that suffered such, trying to find some sort of normalcy in this chaotic time we live in is a chore, to say the least. Change is gonna happen and there is little we can do to stop progress and change, all we can do is try to nudge it toward a better outcome for all. All the violence and death from violence, we have seen in the last few years is a sign of fear and hate getting a hold of people.

Fear has its place, but it is not supposed to be the driving force in our lives, anger and hate really are unnecessary things that usually stem out of fear and past actions that caused pain. This is where forgiveness comes into play, to forgive is to let go of the pain caused by others more so than you granting the person who caused the pain a sort of pardon for their actions. Forgiving someone rarely ever makes a difference to the person who did the bad thing, but it does do wonders for the one doing the forgiving.

Fear, on the other hand, is usually created from one’s lack of knowledge, a bad experience that was bad enough to cause fear of it repeating, or an experience one wants to avoid due to some possible negative outcome and the desire to never have change/ desire of staying in what they see as a comfort zone. Fear can be a good thing in the sense it can keep you from doing something that could cause you or others harm, but if you let it fear can cause you to become stagnant and then you wind up missing out on the good things you could experience in life.

Being judgemental usually is a self-defense mechanism in most people, judge others before they can judge you kind of thing. Another fear-based reaction to the world and people around you. Also, it can be a mechanism used to control others, keep them feeling less important and less capable so they can not be a threat to you or your cause, etc. The problem with being judged is that if you do not buy into the judgment and don’t let it control or influence you then it is nothing but wasted words and time. Sometimes being judged by others can actually backfire on those doing the judgment, it can inspire some to go above and beyond to prove the accusers wrong.

Some political leaders love to use fear, anger, hate, and judgmentalism to their advantage, it can sway the masses and keep them divided so they are less aware of what may be going on and less capable of doing something about it if they chose to do so. Some examples are The big red scare in the 1950s, and the communists are coming, the communists are coming mentality. They created a common foe for the populace to rally against, something to hate so they were occupied and controlled by fear.

Sure communism was something to worry about to a degree during that time, but to be honest, there was very little they could have really done to the government. Sometimes I think it was more the big money/corporations that propagated the fear since they had the most to lose financially if communism were to blossom here in the USA. The concept of communism looks okay on paper but as we have seen in communist countries it doesn’t always work out the way it appears it will in the real world.

Fear is something we need to learn to control within ourselves and hate is something we should never embrace, hate tends to divide people and cause nothing but pain and turmoil. Anger on the other hand, though not a good thing to embrace, has its place as long as it’s short-lived and doesn’t result in violence. Anger is an emotion that comes out when you have pain be it emotional or physical and you need that anger to protect yourself for that moment. If you hold onto anger too long then it becomes hate.

If it were a perfect world, we would never feel anger or fear and we would never see hate. We would only love one another and be one big happy family, always helping one another through life. Unfortunately, it is not a perfect world, so we have to work hard at keeping fear and anger to a short-lived experience and hopefully as minimally experienced emotion. We also have to work hard at not being judgemental and or being negatively affected by being judged by others. We also need to be Compassionate, show unconditional love, and be understanding/tolerant toward one another.

Ray Barbier

creative commons, Poems and Writings, Random Thoughts

Random Thoughts 11-26-2022

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Life is like walking down a network of roads leading in a multitude of directions. We all want to choose the road that leads to a brighter future and a grand destination, but life is a fleeting thing and the trip eventually will come to an end. So the destination for our physical existence is all the same for each one of us, it is the end of life we will eventually find. That is when the next journey begins and from a religious standpoint, we should be prepared for that journey.

The Journey of life is the gift we have been given since birth, our chance to be an individual and share who we are with the world we live in. Of course, life is also our teacher as well, for this is much we need to learn along our journey. Navigating all the social situations, and relationships we have and finding out who we are is part of the process of life as well.

What we stand for, who we are, where we want to go, how we want to treat others, and how we live this life are some of the things we must decide along the way. Will we live life in fear or will we live life to the fullest, will we treat others with respect and love them unconditionally or will we be judgemental and cold towards others and embrace selfishness?

This life is yours to live and do as you desire, but remember there is a reaction to each action you take, so try your best to be a positive influence on the world and be compassionate towards others. Be forgiving and when you must judge do it with much compassion and love for how you judge others you too will be judged in the same manner along the way and in the end as well. Karma always has its day and what you sow you will surely reap down the road.

I wish you peace and blessing on your journey through life, I hope you will avoid the pitfalls of greed, envy, jealousy, and hate. I pray we all learn to walk the path of life in peace and with compassion and understanding for one another as well. Be good, Be yourself, and may you be a guiding light for others in these dark times.

Ray Barbier

creative commons, Random Thoughts, Thought of the day

Random Thoughts 11-19-2022

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In my lifetime I have witnessed many tremendous changes in society and the world we live in. I watched the telephone go from rotary dial to touch-tone and eventually to smartphones down the line. I watched computers go from gigantic room-sized units stacked across a wall to the size of a smartphone as well. Vynal records to 8-track tapes to cassette tapes, then to CDs, and eventually to digital formats such as MP3s.

Technology has come a long way since I was born way back in 1967, but it seems we still have a long way to go as a society. It seems we still are dealing with the same fears, prejudices, and division, some look the same some have just changed their outer appearance but they all are still there. Great visionaries such as Martin Luther King who dreamed of a world where we could live without judging one another due to our color, social status, or financial situation gave us hope to hold on to.

But we still hold on to labels, stereotypes, and the illusion that we all are so different we can not live together. We are all the same in the fact we want to be happy, and live life with enough abundance we never are in need or want. We all want our children to grow up and have happy productive lives without conflict or fear. Until we let go of the past and walk beside one another as equals into the future we will be trapped in this cycle of mistrust and fear. Learn from the past, don’t live in it, and carry the baggage from what was into what can and may be.

We face the problem of everyone thinking what they believe is the right way to live is the only way. As humans we all have been born with the right and ability to choose our own paths in life, no one has the right to dictate to another how to live, love, or worship. As long as the way you chose to live does not hinder or harm another then you have all the right in the world to live your life the way you desire.

Freedom of choice and free will are fundamental rights we are born with and should never be taken away from someone. Of course, with those rights, you have a great responsibility. Everything you do and say you are responsible for the outcome of said words and actions. Everything has some sort of reaction or consequence and you must face and accept responsibility for the outcomes.

If you disagree with how someone else lives their life you can express your disagreement but after that, you should accept the other person’s choices and respect their right to live by their choices. This is not condoning their actions, it is simply accepting they have the right to choose that path in life.

This is how my mother taught me in my childhood, she would tell me if I made a choice that she may have seen as wrong for me, or in general, she would simply point out the consequences for the action or choice and tell me to decide and face the music when it’s over. Usually, I would listen to her and choose correctly, sometimes I wouldn’t and I faced the consequences if not immediately, eventually down the line.

She never condemned me for my wrong choices nor did she condone them. She gave me the ability to choose for myself and that in itself was showing me respect as an individual human being. Luckily for a child, his or her parents have unconditional love and patience so it makes it easier to allow such mistakes to be made and let their child grow. Unfortunately, it seems much harder to have that compassionate and unconditional love for strangers and others in our lives.

If were to see each other as a family, distant relatives, or similar maybe we could learn to have more patience and show more compassion for one another. We must learn to live together as brothers and sisters or we may wind up dying together as fools to paraphrase Martin Luther king’s words of wisdom. We need to learn to put away those fears, wipe away the tears of past mistakes, and reach out to one another so we can build a happier future for our children and the future generations to come.

Peace and Blessings

Ray Barbier

Random Thoughts

Random Thoughts 11-14-2022

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What is behind all this violence we have been witnessing on the news as of late? School shootings, Political unrest, and attacks on political figures and their family along with murders across the nation and the world? Why has it come down to violence and what can we do to bring things back to a more peaceful world are the questions I ask myself and everyone I talk with.

Some violence is fueled by political extremism but the majority I believe is done by individuals with either an unhappy life situation or someone with mental and/or emotional problems. There is also the financial inequity and inequality that plays into the mix as well. Seems many younger people are unhappy, depressed, or feel as if they are being oppressed and they tend to focus all that unhappiness and rage on a person or place that brought them some sort of traumatic experience such as being bullied, feeling left out, or unwanted.

Shooting up a school or university is not going to solve any problems and usually winds up ending the life of many innocent people along with the troubled individual committing the act of violence. I think they know it won’t solve their problem but they get to the point of desperation and just want to lash out and go down in a blaze of some sort of twisted glory or something. It is hard for others to really know what they were thinking and what motivation they may have had.

Seems that we need more focus on the mental and emotional well-being of our youth, if we focus on the problems they have in early life they may be better equipped to deal with problems in the future and that may help us avoid a good portion of the violent crimes committed by teenagers and very young adults. Far as guns are concerned I see no reason for a teenager to possess a military-grade weapon and I also feel that there should be some sort of mandatory training involved in possessing any military-style assault weapon.

We need to work on getting the divide between the extremely rich and the poor and making the minimum wage more of a living wage. Take it from someone who has worked the majority of his life making at or near the minimum wage, there is no way even at full-time hours one can live life at such wages without some other income or help. The question is do we increase the Minimum wage or do we find a way to lower the cost of living, either way, would solve a lot of the disparity out there and probably would help lower crime in general.

Politicians need to work on using less polarizing messaging to reach their base and stop being so partisan when governing. They are there to represent not only the party they are in but those that they serve in their state, regardless if those people are one party or another. Listen to the people, and do what they call for you to do above what the party you are affiliated with desires. Compromise with the opposing party when governing and finding common ground. This is what we the people pay you in congress to do.

Doesn’t matter what political party you are with, what religion you do or do not follow, your color, sex, or even sexual preference, or which sex you identify with, you are part of the people that those in congress are supposed to represent. We all are citizens, we all belong to this great nation we live in and no one is above another in our nation. We are supposed to be the beacon of light for the rest of the world and it’s time for us to get back to acting like it.

Put our differences aside, hold out our hand to our neighbor with no conditions and be the great people I know we all can be.

Peace and Blessings to all

Ray Barbier

Random Thoughts, Thought of the day

Random Thoughts 11-8-2022

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To love someone is to accept them as who they are, be there to help them if they need and accept their love and help in turn. Too many people think love is all about what they want in a relationship or how the other person should be. Love is more about what you can do for the other person, it’s more selfless than self-serving. Being in a relationship means being a partner not a boss or critic of the other person and learning to work together to make life better for you both.

Every person has faults and a negative side, and as long as the relationship isn’t abusive in nature you should work around those bad traits and try to help one another through them. Even an abusive relationship may have hope as long as it is not one that is intentional and severe, but I would avoid staying in an abusive relationship due to the risks involved to one or both parties.

People forget how fortunate they are to have a partner in life, and the easily forget how hard it is to stand alone for most of us out there. Being a person who spent up till about his 30s being alone, I do know how hard it is to face life alone, it may not be impossible, but it sure is nicer when you have someone by your side to help you through it and someone for you to help as well.

The Ego is one of the biggest roadblocks to a happy relationship, being stuck in that what about me, I want kind of mentality makes it hard to put your relationship first and your partner before yourself. If both sides follow the rule of putting the other before themselves in the end neither side will ever be without or be found lacking that which they need.

The ego, Self-centered mentality spawns in us as children, and in time it usually fades in most people, but some never outgrow that mentality and it makes it hard to have a good relationship for and with them. We all have a little of that selfish side in us, most of us learned how to put it in check for the most part.

Usually getting married and having children teaches most of us how to be more selfless, though not all of us are blessed with that fate, and some even who have been still don’t grasp the concept of putting those you love before yourself. I think we should just apply the golden rule to relationships, Treat your partner as you would love to have them treat you. If we all followed that rule in our love relationships and even in everyday ones, this world probably would be a much nicer place to live in.

Well, the concept is nice, and may just be an unrealistic hope of a dreamer, but one must keep hope in this world. Peace and blessings to you all

Ray Barbier

Random Thoughts, Thought of the day

Random Thoughts: 11-07-2022

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We all went through a rough few years with the pandemic, the Ukraine war, and with all the political polarization around us. Many of us stayed glued to the tv and computer screens etc. watching the news, opinion-based shows, and conspiracy-themed shows as well. Constantly being bombarded with information geared to either stir up fear, doubt, and/or anger.

Some of us became numb and indifferent to it all, and others got pulled into the madness of it all and not sure what is a fact, opinion, or what is lies. This has taken a toll on many people’s emotional and mental health to one degree or another. Proof of this is all the violence we are seeing now that is either political or fear-motivated.

As Americans we value freedom of speech, but when does freedom of speech reach the point it becomes pure out hate and fear-mongering? Well, that is the price of freedom of speech, we must allow even ideas that do not fit in our frame of what is correct in order to preserve the right for what we agree with to be presented.

Photo by Matheus Bertelli on Pexels.com

But, just because you have the right to speak does not mean that you will not be met with opposing views, resistance and god forbid someone resorting to violence. The part people forget about a right, is with that right comes responsibility. What you say and do will have consequences, some that you may not forsee or even could prepare for. Reason why people need to cool down and think about what they say and do when things get so heated and polarized.

With all we have had to face in the last few years, we all could use a nice break from all the fear and anger. I myself have chosen to keep my news and opinion watching on tv and internet etc. down to a very minimum. I am returning to watching the world from my small bubble and enjoying nature, family and friends. It sure is nicer than getting all wrapped up in the stuff that is constantly thrown at me via tv and internet.

Politics and religion are topics that stir up many feelings in people, since they seem to be personal subjects most take to heart. I think it is fine if someone beleives different than I do. We all have the right to believe how we choose, and we should respect that right for others as well. In the end I will quote Dune “Fear is the mind killer” becuase it is very true. Fear keeps one from being able to think things through and move forward.

Peace and blessings to all

Ray Barbier