The Moon's Voice

"The Tide is another kind of eloquence. It's the moon's voice on earth, spoken in perfect synchrony. What the moon does, the tide does. What the moon is, the tide is. Shifting by day but repeating a larger pattern, the tide mirrors the moon's paradox of change and changelessness. In its repetition, it personifies eternity. In its constant flux, it reminds us of what we can't control. It reminds us that our fortresses are impermanent."  - Jonathan White*

I found Jonathan White's book, Tides: The Science and Spirit of the Ocean, fascinating. Most of us have noticed somewhere and at some time that tides are integral to way we understand large bodies of water. Not just oceans and seas, but also large lakes like Michigan or Superior. I've spent hours pouring over tide and current charts plotting navigational way-points; I've sat on beaches waiting for tides to shift for diving. I've walked the mile long spit that appears when the tide is low outside my back windows. And over all these years, I've thought I knew as much as I needed to know. The most important thing I knew was that the tides are an implacable and unforgiving force that anyone who spends time on the sea ignores at one's own peril.

White's book certain punctuates that statement - and explores and expands the layman's understanding of tidal forces not onlyfor our navigation needs but also the ways in which the tides impact the planet itself. He visits points around the globe were the tides are not a whisper in the background but a full tilt, center stage player that demands respect and caution. Tidal bores in China, 50+ tidal ranges in Canada, 60 foot waves off the coast of California, and 18 knot currents in Skookumchuck Narrows in our own B.C. backyard. The author interweaves his globetrotting observations with the science, myth and history of tides while also sketching the human lives impacted by these tidal forces.

Personally, I enjoyed deepening my understanding of all the variants that actually create our tides. It's not just about the sun and moon. The notion that even in the Pacific - the eastern side of this great expanse of water is about three feet higher than the western side. (Those trade winds really do push the water around).  He talks about resonance and all the permutations of alignment, weather, pressure, underlying structure - how all of this goes into the computations for tides - and it still can be wrong. Its fascinating how natural systems adapt and continue to change in relation to tidal forces.

And yes, he talks about climate change in a way that tries to address whatever side you choose regarding human impact. "The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), published a report in 2013 that predicts a sea level rise of ten to thirty-two inches by this century's end" (p. 268).
This is a very conservative consensus, but because it represents the research of thousands of scientists, like any scientific truth, it is seen as authoritative. What makes science different than a belief system is that it does depend on agreement, critical thinking, and sometimes contentious dialogue - but consensus it is. What is also accepted in this consensus is that we have signed on for a roller coaster ride with rising temperatures and rising tides for the next few centuries - and that is IF we made drastic changes today.

That is dire and yet, the earth has gone through cataclysmic changes over its existence before. Life, in some form of another, survives. Whether or not humans can continue to live on this planet will be something for future generations to discover. What I do think is happening - what shocks us, makes us deny, has us arguing, is what I would call a paradigm shift. Paradigms - a way of looking at the world - doesn't change over night. It takes thousands of outlying data points to deal with the inertia of beliefs. For the first time, the generations living right now (about 3 or 4 by my count) are becoming aware that we, humans, actually have the capacity to not only wipe out most every living creature current abiding here but we can also change the planet's ability to be an conducive environment for our species future. The earth's carrying capacity seemed infinite, resources seemed infinite, food sources, energy sources, safe places to live - infinite. We've counted on our species ingenuity and adaptability to control the natural systems that we like to think we are no longer part of.

Until the tide comes in.



*pg. 55
Tides: The Science and Spirit of the Ocean by Jonathan White.