Odinism & The Environment – Atmosphere

The atmosphere surrounding Midgard is one of mother Jorths greatest gifts to us. It gives us air to breathe, without which we would die, it gives us weather systems which are essential to the survival of mankind and our eco-systems. Without rain plants would die, water would stagnate, we would die of thirst, without wind many plants could not pollinate and would die out. The list for the advantages of our air and weather systems is very long indeed but should and could never be understated.

The atmosphere surrounding primitive Midgard was very different to what we have today, its composition would have been dominated by Nitrogen, Water and Carbon Dioxide, there would have been a presence of Methane and Ammonia also. Oxygen would only have been present at trace levels. The main shift in our atmosphere occurred when Mother Jorth evolved Photosynthetic organisms, these convert Carbon Dioxide and water into carbohydrate and oxygen. The Oxygen is released into the atmosphere but the carbohydrate is retained and later can be oxidised back to its original state or decay and become buried in sediments, effectively removed permanently from the atmosphere. What all this achieves is a decrease in Carbon Dioxide and an increase in Oxygen. Our current atmosphere (at least the Troposphere) is made up of Nitrogen (78.09%) Oxygen (20.95%) Argon (0.93%) and Carbon Dioxide (0.03% Variable). Mother Jorths respiratory system is a perfect cycle, there is a substantial two way flow between Midgard and the Atmosphere, the rates of exchange are equalled by removal and addition.

However, Human intervention is removing this stable condition, especially with regard to certain atmospheric gases, namely Carbon Dioxide & Monoxide, Oxides of Nitrogen, Chlorofluorocarbons (CFC’s), Oxides of Sulfur and Methane. The concentration of these gases is rising very rapidly, Methane for example is increasing at a rate of about 1% per year. We are systematically and effectively poisoning the lungs of Mother Jorth.

The air that we breathe is not the only concern, the concentration in the atmosphere of these gases have other consequences such as Acid Rain, Smog, and Ozone depletion which of course leads to climate change a very serious problem.

The water of unpolluted rain, snow, hail, mist and fog is not pure H2O, it contains small amounts of dust and dissolved solids and gases, one of these gases is Carbon Dioxide. Carbon dioxide is an important element of rain water as it maintains the Ph of clean rainwater at about 5.6 so even unpolluted rain is acidic (Ph <7), Acid Rain is usually precipitation with a Ph of <5. The main primary pollutants that cause acid rain are Sulfur dioxide and Oxides of Nitrogen The main secondary pollutants are Sulfur Trioxide, Sulfuric acid and nitric acid, these are of great concern as they form strong acids in the aqueous environment (see Water article).

Acid rain has very little impact on human health, instead its main environmental impacts are on water, vegetation, soil and buildings. There are theories (as yet unproven) that acid rain is the cause of the decline of forest areas over Europe and North America.

So how are these pollutants introduced to the atmosphere? Mainly through industry, chimneys belching out black clouds containing most of the gases we have read about, car exhausts, aerosol gases etc and with deforestation there is limited photosynthesis to absorb the carbon dioxide. Not all atmospheric pollutants are man made, many are naturally occurring such as major volcanic eruptions, vast forest fires such as those in Australia etc. The main difference is that the respiratory system of Mother Jorth has been dealing with this since the creation, he has her own anti-bodies to sort the problem. But Human kind has increased the burden to unmanageable amounts. The depletion of Ozone is a direct consequence of our own actions, as a result global warming and climate change is becoming a terrible certainty. If the ice pack at Greenland was to melt it would raise the level of the sea by 7.5 meters, and even if global warming was stopped the ice would never reform, it would be too late. Is this the gift we wish to give to our children and grand children?

The articles I have done on Soil, Plants, Water, and Atmosphere could each have been hundreds of pages long, but I feel the message is more important than figures and scientific jargon. Healing Mother Jorth is the most important problem facing mankind today, and it has to be on a global level, it is no good just working to heal Europe or America, if one area dies, like cancer, it will spread and we will all suffer. Climate change is too big a subject to cover in this article, it will be a separate article to come soon.

Hail The Aesir & Vanir
Hail The Rite
Hail Mother Jorth