Nature

The Manatee

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The manatee, commonly called a sea cow, is a large fully-aquatic marine mammal. It can be as much as 9-15 feet long and can weigh 880-1,300 pounds. Females tend to be larger and heavier than the males. Baby manatees weigh 66 pounds at birth. It lives in shallow, marshy coastal areas and rivers in the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico, the Amazon basin, and West Africa.

It has a paddle-like tail that looks similar to a beaver’s tail and two flippers. It is slow-moving and curious. The eyes are widely-spaced. The ears are internal, but outside the opening is small. They can be found approximately four inches behind each eye. It emits a wide range of sounds to communicate. And it is believed that taste, smell, sight, sound, and touch are all used to communicate.

The manatee is an herbivore. Its main diet is freshwater and saltwater plants. It has a large, flexible prehensile upper lip which allows it to grip or grasp as it gathers food. It is also used during social interaction and to communicate. An adult manatee has no incisors or canine teeth. Its cheek teeth are replaced multiple times throughout its life. It typically has no more than six teeth in each jaw, similar to an elephant. It has a simple stomach, like the horse, with a large cecum in which tough plant matter can be digested. The intestines are approximately 148 feet long, unusually long for a mammal the size of a manatee. It uses its flippers to walk along the bottom while it digs for plants and roots.

The manatee breeds once every two years and gives birth, generally, to just one calf. Gestation is about 12 months and the calf is totally weaned from the mother in 12-18 months.

Except when with its young or a male following a receptive female, it is a solitary creature. Fifty percent of the day is spent sleeping submerged, though it surfaces at 20-minute intervals for air. The remainder of the day is spent grazing in shallow waters between 3-6 feet deep. It swims up to five miles per hour, but can, in short bursts, swim up to 20 miles per hour.

The manatee is intelligent and capable of performing discrimination tasks including complex associative learning like dolphins and seals, with good long-term memory. Its social interactions are highly complex which may be indicative of higher intelligence. Sadly, it is poorly understood by science.

The manatee’s worst enemy is man who is its main cause of death. Having a curious nature, it encounters man and is killed or harmed by propeller-driven boats and ships. Man also destroys its habitat. It hears at a higher frequency than most mammals its size and large boats emit sound at a lower frequency. This confuses the manatee and explains its lack of awareness when boats are around. However, when boats emit a higher frequency, the manatee will rapidly swim away. It also dies as a result of adverse temperatures, poor water quality, genetic diversity, disease, starvation, and crocodiles that eat their young. Red tide, microscopic algae, has a toxic effect on the manatee’s central nervous system.

If the manatee can manage to survive man, crocodile, and natural causes, it can live up to 60 years. What a magnificent creature!

Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manatee

Pico Island – Portugal

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Pico Island belongs to the Central Group of the Portuguese Azores. Unlike an island which is a single landmass, the Azores are considered to be part of an archipelago, a chain or cluster of islands found in the sea, and made up of volcanic materials. Though no one is quite sure when the island was first discovered, it is shown in the 1375 Catalan Atlas, and is believed to have been settled and inhabited in the 1480s.

Pico Island is the second largest, and possibly the youngest, of the nine volcanic islands in the North Atlantic Ocean. The island has black volcanic soil. It is 29 miles long and at its widest point nine miles wide. Boasting 94 miles of coastline, it is easy to access the sea. However, on the northeast and southeast sides of the island, the cliffs are unstable and frequent landsides occur. The island is a favorable habitat for Sterna hirundo and Sterna dougalli terns and the Calonectris borealis shearwaters. The coast itself is made up of rocky slabs and rolled pebbles; no sandy beaches, but many tide pools and natural inlets for bathing.

There are two volcanos on the island, Topo and Pico. Pico is the tallest of the two reaching 7,713 feet. The last volcanic eruption occurred in 1963. Pico is susceptible to seismic events, and like other islands, earthquakes are common. Since settling Pico Island there have been only three significant tectonic earthquakes on the island: 1757 which caused major damage on the eastern side of the island, resulting in 11 deaths, and causing some property damage; 1973 when the earthquake, a magnitude 5.5, destroyed 2,000 homes leaving 5,000 people homeless; and 1998, a magnitude 5.8 and the last recorded for 30 years, was felt on Pico, but centered around Faial.

Pico has the largest area of intact native subtropical forests with high humidity, but stable, mild temperatures. These forests are made up of species of trees characterized by evergreen, glossy, elongated leaves. The island is the only one out of the nine where pasture land and meadows do not dominate the landscape. Sadly, like all the islands in The Azores, Pico suffered terrible deforestation. The forests were cleared away for housing, farming, livestock, and the wood industry. Many native plants have been destroyed by the introduction during the 19th century of a number of exotic plant species.

Pico’s climate depends on altitude and topographic variation. Like the other islands in the archipelago, the temperatures are mild, with high precipitation and humidity most of the year round. February is the coolest month and August is its warmest.

The total population of Pico Island as of 2021 is 13,895. The 1960s and 1970s saw an intense emigration surge from all the islands. Beginning in 1960, the population was at its peak at 21,837, a +6.5% increase from 1930 when it had taken a hard drop by -16.3%. However, in 1960, the population dropped by -29.1% and has continued to decline every decade by -1.8% to -4.5% through 2021.

Pico depends largely on Faial for its economy and social activities. Fishing is a main activity, capturing tuna for the canning industry, employing mainly women in the processing of the fish. Dairy farms provide soft paste for cheese factories. Tourism is an emerging activity helping to diversify the island’s economic base. The black volcanic soil has proven extremely beneficial to the growth of vineyards. Climbing Pico Mountain, whale and dolphin watching, and exploring the Gruta de Torres, the largest lava tunnel in Portugal, are just some of the favorite pastimes for tourists.

Though sin has caused much harm throughout nature, we can still see the hand of God in every living thing in this world.

“Sing to the Lord a new song, and His praise from the ends of the earth, you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it, you coastlands and you inhabitants of them! Let the wilderness and its cities lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar inhabits. Let the inhabitants of Seal sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains. Let them give glory to the Lord, and declare His praise in the coastlands.” Isaiah 42:10–12

Sources: wikipedia.org/wiki/Pico_Island; boundlessroads.com/pico-island-azores

Grass – God’s Carpet

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Poaceae is (true grasses) the most economically important plant family because it includes cereals, wheat, rice, oats, barley, millet, and maize used for staple foods and feed for livestock. Some of the species, such as bamboo, thatch, and straw, are used for building materials, and other species are a source for biofuel—for example, maize is converted to ethanol.

Lawns and pastureland are composed of true grasses and 46% of the world’s arable land (land used for crops) is covered by rice, wheat, maize, barley, and sugar cane.

It is estimated that there is 11,000 to 13,000 species of grass (Poaceae). These species include cereal grasses, bamboos, natural grassland, lawns, and pastures.

Grasses can be annual or perennial. During winter’s cold, snow, and ice, grass lays dormant beneath the ground with most species turning brown. The melting ice and snow provides the moisture necessary to bring it back when the warming temperatures of Spring awakens the blades and they begin to grow, breaking through the soil.

By summer, the ground is green with new grass. A soft, lush carpet of Kentucky bluegrass, fescue, buffalograss, zoysia grass, and crabgrass.

How many remember running barefoot through and digging your toes into the soft grass in the summer or the smell that fills the air after mowing the lawn?

I love the texts that use grass as an example of Jesus’ promises in which we can place our full trust. What a loving God who covers the world with His perfect carpet.

“The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of God stands forever.” Isaiah 40:8

“Thus, Christ interpreted the message which He Himself had given to the lilies and the grass of the field. He desires us to read it in every lily and every spire of grass. His words are full of assurance, and tend to confirm trust in God.

“So wide was Christ’s view of truth, so extended His teaching, that every phase of nature was employed in illustrating truth. The scenes upon which the eye daily rests were all connected with some spiritual truth, so that nature is clothed with the parables of the Master.” Christ’s Object Lessons, 19, 20

“Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the over, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” Matthew 6:30

Sources: wikipedia.org/wiki/Grass; wikipedia.org/wiki/Poaceae; americangardener.net/types-of-grasses-for-lawn

What I Do Not See

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Everywhere we look in this world, we see examples of God’s love and creative power, beautiful even though they are marred by sin. For example, I can look out the window of my office at Steps to Life and see green grass, blue sky, a hedge row of trees. But, between the glass in my window and the hedge row of trees, what don’t I see?

I can see the gravel in the road between my house and the ministry office building, but what I don’t see, unless I look very carefully and closely, is the nest of the killdeer. These intriguing birds build their nest in rocks, and their eggs are colored and marked in such a way that they blend right in with the rocks that make up their resting place until the eggs hatch.

Gnats. Those annoying tiny insects that fly around all the time. You can hear them when they fly close to your ear, but unless they land on your arm or are joined together in a flying platoon, you can’t see them. They are attracted to moisture like puddles of water, garbage cans, overripe fruit. They are also attracted to us—our perspiration, tears from our eyes, our body heat.

I can look out my window on any given day and see the trees swaying in the wind. I don’t see the wind, but I can observe its effect on everything outside.

If I have my window open, particularly in the morning as the sun comes up, I can’t always see just where they are, but I can hear the meadowlarks singing to welcome the day. This is my favorite bird song.

I can smell the rain, even when it isn’t raining yet right where I am.

I can watch the clouds as they drift across the sky, barely able to perceive their movement because they drift both in the direction the wind blows them, but also changing shape. One minute I might see a dog in the clouds, but in another, an elephant or bear.

If I leave the building and walk around campus, I might see some ducks or geese floating around our pond. I can see them, but I cannot see their feet moving much quicker than their movement around the pond might suggest.

Steps to Life owns several acres of ground. I can see a couple through my office window. What I don’t see are all the various insects that live on and in the ground. It is estimated that each acre of ground is home to around 400 million insects of all different varieties and species, and that is a conservative estimate. It depends on the type of soil and the region where you live.

All of this made me think about heaven. I cannot see heaven right now, but the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy paint magnificent word pictures for me so that I can imagine it, even in my sin-marred imagination.

I think of the Holy Spirit. I cannot see Him, but I can see the effect He has on me and others who allow Him to perform His transformative work in our lives.

I cannot see the angels, but I am alive today because they have protected me many times that I know of, and I’m sure many more times about which they will tell me later.

I have not seen Jesus, but I know that He left heaven to save me, and you. One day, we will see His face and hear His voice, but until then, we can look around this world and see, hear, touch, and smell, all the miraculous things He has given us to remind us of His love.

Did You Know?

If you live in the Amazon Rainforest, you might be sharing your little acre with as many as 70,000 different species of insects.

The Octopus

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The octopus is an eight-legged mollusk with 300 species and is classified as a Cephalopoda. It is bilaterally symmetric with two eyes on the top of its head, and a beaked mouth at the center point of its eight legs. It has a closed circulatory system keeping its blood inside the blood vessels. It has three hearts:

  • Systemic – circulates blood around the body. It becomes inactive when the octopus is swimming.
  • Gill – these two branchial hearts pump blood through the gills.

Its blood contains the copper-rich protein haemocyanin to transport oxygen, making the blood viscous (thick) and requires greater pressure to pump it throughout the body. This protein is why its blood is blue.

The average lifespan of an octopus is four years.

The thing we likely know best about the octopus is that when it is in danger, it shoots ink with a water jet from an ink sac under its digestive gland. The ink passes through glands that mix it with mucus so that it ends up as a dark blob surrounding it. Melanin makes the ink black.

The arms are lined with suckers (suction cups) used for gripping, manipulation, catching prey, and movement. The Giant Pacific Octopus has 280 suckers on each arm (2,240 total). Each sucker has two parts:

  • Infundibulum – the fleshy, outer rim that is flexible and capable of changing shape, conforming to different surfaces.
  • Acetabulum – the hollow, dome-shaped center that acts like a plunger.

Being an invertebrate (a creature without vertebrate), the octopus can deform its shape to allow it to squeeze through small spaces and gaps. If you have ever seen a video of an octopus working its way through a very small hole on a boat to get away, you would have to agree it’s a little creepy. They trail their arms behind them to propel themselves by water jet propulsion.

With thousands of “specialized cells” under its skin, the octopus is master of disguise. These cells are called chromatophores and help the octopus to change color in an instant. In addition, it has tiny areas of skin called papilli that extend or retract changing the texture of its skin to match its surroundings. The most impressive shape-shifter is the Mimic octopus. This fellow doesn’t copy its surroundings; it disguises itself as another animal, the kind predators avoid. It contorts its body, modifies its behavior, and arranges its arms in a way that allows it to impersonate a wide variety of venomous animals—lionfish, banded sole, and sea snakes to name a few. Unlike pretending to be a rock, this impersonation allows the octopus to move away from danger.

The octopus has a complex nervous system and excellent eyesight. Studies have found that they are among the most intelligent and behaviorally-diverse invertebrates.

The octopus is compared with a dog in terms of intelligence. In experiments, the octopus has solved mazes and performs tasks for food rewards. They are able to get in and out of containers. A lab had an octopus in a tank and in a separate tank other fish. The fish kept disappearing, so they installed a video camera and discovered that the octopus was escaping its tank, opening the lid of the fish tank, eating all the fish, replacing the lid, and returning to his own tank. Octopus also use tools—rocks, broken shells, broken glass, and bottle caps.

They also have the ability to recognize people. At the University of Otago in New Zealand, a captive octopus took a dislike to one of the staff. Every time she passed his tank, he squirted her with a jet of water. Seattle Aquarium biologists tested a group of octopus over a period of two weeks. One person fed the group regularly. Another touched them with a bristly brush. At the end of the test, the octopuses had determined that the one who fed them was nice and they behaved differently with that person than they did with the mean person. This proved that an octopus is capable of distinguishing between individuals, even when they wear the same clothes.

The most amazing thing about the octopus is that it has nine brains:

  • Central brain – located in the frontal area of its head in a donut shape around the esophagus. This brain is responsible for sending high-level signals to the arms.
  • Mini-brains – one for each of its eight arms. The arms of the octopus are directed by a mini-brain specific to it, each arm performing a different task. The arms can punch, lift, and pull up to 100 times the octopus’ own weight. They also touch, dig, and catch prey.

In a way, the octopus is like us with God. We all have our individual brains and we live according to their directions, but if we are connected to God, our “mini-brains” can follow His directions.

“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 2:5

“God permits every human being to exercise his individuality. … Those who desire to be transformed in mind and character are not to look to men, but to the divine Example. God gives the invitation, ‘Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.’ By conversion and transformation, men are to receive the mind of Christ. Everyone is to stand before God with an individual faith, an individual experience, knowing for himself that Christ is formed within, the hope of glory.” The Signs of the Times, September 3, 1902

Sources: nhm.ac.uk/discover/octopuses-keep-surprising-us-here-are-eight-examples-how; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopus; animalsfyi.com/why-do-octopuses-have-9-brains-8-arms-3-hearts-and-blue-blood-surprising-facts; aquariumwhisperer.com/octopus-suction-cups]

Did You Know?

The octopus has feelings and can feel pain.

Pacific striped octopus use scare tactics to catch their prey. It creeps up to its prey, taps it on the shoulder causing it to jump away from the arm that touched it into the seven waiting arms.

I Will Be a Mighty Oak Someday

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The acorn. Both a fruit and a seed. Produced by oak trees, they have a distinctive shape, a hard shell, and a scaly cap called a cupule. This nut-like fruit is critical for oak tree production and contains one or two large seeds inside this tough outer shell. They are food for many varieties of animals, including squirrels and birds, particularly in winter.

They take five to 24 months to mature depending on the specific species of oak. There are 38 acorn types, so the species of oak that will grow can be identified by the outer characteristics—its color, shape, type of cupule, and size—of the acorn.

The Cupule

The cup of the acorn is either scaly, smooth, or hairy. The cupule of native North American acorns have overlapping scales.

Shape

The typical shape of an acorn is round or oblong, and some have pointed tips while others have smooth-rounded tops.

Color

Mature acorns are either purplish-red, reddish-brown, light or dark brown, or black. Green acorns are immature.

Size

Acorns are typically one to six centimeters long. The small acorn nut is about 0.5 of an inch. The largest acorn from the burr oak can be 2-3 inches in diameter.

Acorns are edible and can be roasted and ground into flour. They can also be used to make a caffeine-free, coffee-like drink. Raw acorns contain bitter-tasting tannin. Tannin can be toxic to humans. The acorn should be leached to remove the tannin to improve taste, and safe for human consumption.

The sweetest acorns, and those containing the lowest levels of tannin are found in the pin, burr, east coast white, and cork oaks. The largest acorns are produced by the east coast white, burr, and California black oaks. The fattiest acorns, used to make acorn oil, are from the eastern red and black oaks. The smallest acorns come from the chinquapin and cherry bark oaks.

How to Plant an Acorn

Remember that acorns come in a variety and different acorns will produce different oak trees based on the criteria above. Collect your acorns for planting after they have fallen from the tree (avoiding green acorns). Wait until the second drop, as the acorns in the first drop often are of poor quality. Gather your acorns promptly as they dry out quickly and will be inviable.

All types of acorns should be planted in the fall. Gather twice as many acorns as the number of seedlings you want to grow. Not all will germinate. Discard the acorns if the cups are attached, are damaged in any way, or are moldy or rotted. Plant the seeds right away. If you can’t plant right away, spray them with water to keep them moist, but not wet, in a ventilated plastic bag, stored in a cool place.

Initially, soak the acorns in cold water. Viable acorns will sink and remain at the bottom of the bowl. Floating acorns are no good for planting and should be discarded. Plant the acorns in commercial potting mix based on peat moss. This is the safest way to start healthy seedlings. Use small pots, planting two acorns sideways in a pot. Water them until the water runs out of the drainage holes. Cover the pots with a screen or hardware cloth. Keep the seeds moist until the onset of winter, and keep it weed and pest-free.

Once the seedlings appear, cut off, do not pull out, the weaker of the two about two weeks after they emerge. Plant the stronger seedling in a two-quart nursery pot with large drain holes. The soil should be a half-and-half mixture of potting soil and garden soil, adding one teaspoon of slow-release fertilizer in the soil.

Once the seedling has developed a strong root system, it’s time to plant in its permanent location. Dig a hole three times the diameter of the container at the same depth and place the sapling in the hole and fill in. Water the sapling and spread a thick layer of mulch around the tree, leaving a two-inch space between the mulch and the tree trunk.

Sources: biologyinsights.com/are-acorn-trees-and-oak-trees-the-same; leafyplace.com/types-of-acorns; thespruce.com/plant-acorns-grow-oaks-5203188

Did You Know?

Acorns are also known as oaknuts. Only oak trees can produce acorns.

Leaching acorns to remove the tannin is accomplished by soaking them in water, draining, and repeating until the water runs clear.

Oak saplings are a favorite food for deer and other wildlife. Place a mesh tree guard around the tree for at least three years to protect it.

Nature – Blue Skies Shining on Me

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Why is the sky blue?

The sky is blue because of a phenomenon known as Rayleigh scattering—named after Lord Rayleigh, the British scientist who explained the process first in the 19th century.

Sunlight, as it reaches Earth’s atmosphere, is made up of various color wavelengths, like in a rainbow. As it passes through the atmosphere, it interacts with nitrogen, oxygen, and other air molecules scattering the wavelengths in all directions. Each wavelength is different. Blue and violet, because of their shorter, choppy wavelength, scatters more effectively, but also, our eyes are more sensitive to blue light, which is why we see a blue sky during the day. However, the time of day and atmospheric conditions can also have an active influence on the color of the sky.

At sunrise, the sun’s light passes through a thick layer of atmosphere. The blue wavelengths are scattered and this allows the longer red, yellow, and orange wavelengths to dominate the sky. This enables us to see the beautiful hues of these colors as they blend together until the sun is fully up.

There is so much more to know regarding how the different colors in the sky are made. I hope you’ll look at these two sources, and others, to learn more.

Did You Know?

All light travels in a straight line. Unless something gets in the way.

Did You Know?

The wavelengths of color that compose the sun’s light are the same as those that make up the rainbow.

It is also interesting to note that the colors in the light that God made to sustain our planet, and His rainbow, the symbol of His covenant promise with man to never destroy the entire Earth again with a flood, are composed of the same colors.

Sources: https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/blue-sky/en/; https://www.space.com/why-is-the-sky-blue

Can Animals Predict the Weather?

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Some animals may have the ability to predict changes in the weather. However, in reality, it is more likely that weather affects animal behavior rather than animals predicting the weather.

To understand how weather affects animals, we have to understand that the effects depend on local conditions and environment. For instance, you would see a different reaction by an animal to rain in the desert than you would if the same animal was in a rainforest—dry climate vs. wet climate.

Heavy rain can affect an animal’s ability to see and hear clearly, smell, and even regulate their body temperature. This could interfere with an animal’s ability to survive.

Insects cannot fly during a rainstorm. You might observe increased activity in the bug communities as they prepare to hunker down until the storm passes. This results in an increased subordinate response from the birds who take advantage of this more abundant bug smorgasbord. This also results in greater activity among prey birds such as hawks and eagles, and mammals whose diets include the smaller birds.

Birds fly low to the ground when there is an increase in air pressure, a predicator of stormy weather on its way. But recent research has found that it might just be that birds hear infrasound (a low-frequency noise) coming from a nearing storm, even days in advance, causing them to high-tail it out of the area until the storms have passed.

According to Ernest Seton, professor of animal science at State University, cows become agitated and nervous, bawling, and crowding together or seeking shelter when they sense a coming storm. They will suddenly switch direction while grazing, facing into a coming storm. They possess a remarkable ability to accurately “predict” the timing and direction from which a storm will come by detecting subtle shifts in barometric pressure or electromagnetic forces.

Dogs can hear thunder long before the human ear can, and with a nose—possessing as many as 300 million olfactory receptors compared to the human nose which only possesses 5 million—they can smell the moisture of coming rain, and can quite possibly sense static electricity and changes in barometric pressure.

Oceanographers are probably the only folks who would know this, but research shows that sharks dive deeper into the ocean when a hurricane is on the way. Researchers believe, though not conclusively proven, this is because of ear sensitivity which enables them to detect changes in the water and air pressure that accompany hurricanes and tropical storms.

There are documented instances of land animals heading for high ground in anticipation of a tsunami, flood, or earthquake. This is likely because they sense atmospheric and barometric changes, auditory signals, and heightened sensory perception—they can feel minute, low-frequency vibrations in the earth that humans do not notice until it is too late.

The Bible gives us an example of how the weather affected animal behavior.

“The beasts, exposed to the tempest [the Flood], rushed toward man, as though expecting help from him. Some of the people bound their children and themselves upon powerful animals, knowing that these were tenacious of life, and would climb to the highest points to escape the rising waters. … As the waters rose higher and higher, the people fled for refuge to the loftiest mountains. Often man and beast would struggle together for a foothold, until both were swept away.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 100

Sources: nature-mentor.com/weather-animal-behavior; science.howstuffworks.com/nature/slimate-weather/storms/10-ways-animals-supposedly-predict-the-weather.htm; berrypatchfarms.net/what-do-cows-do-when-a-storm-is-coming; scientificorigin.com/how-animals-sense/disasters-before-they-happen

The Worst Year Ever

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The year 1899 is considered the worst for Major League Baseball. That season, the Cleveland Spiders played 154 games, winning 20 and losing 134.

2008 was the worst year in National Football League history. The Detroit Lions was the first team to lose every game in a 16-game season.

In 1917, the US experienced the worst inflation in its history, when annual inflation reached 17.84%.

From 1939–1945, the world was involved in the worst, most lethal war in history. When World War II ended it is estimated that as many as 80 million people had died—including 21 to 25 million military deaths.

For more than a year, much of the world experienced literal darkness—day and night, extreme cold, economic stagnation, and plague. Known as the Late Antique Little Ice Age, the year was AD 536. A mysterious fog had covered much of the Northern Hemisphere blocking the sun, causing temperatures to drop, destroying crops, and killing people. Why? What was the cause of this fog?

In 2018, researchers discovered that the fog was created by a volcanic event. A report in the journal Antiquity concluded that there was a cataclysmic volcanic eruption in Iceland (Other sources are not as convinced it was Iceland, but certainly somewhere in the Northern Hemisphere.) Volcanic ash, sulphur, and debris were propelled high into the atmosphere and then carried by the wind across most of the Northern Hemisphere; spreading ash thousands of miles, coating Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Asia. This eruption was big enough that it altered the global climate patterns of the time. Procopius, the Byzantine historian, described the darkness as, “the sun gave forth its light without brightness, like the moon, during this whole year.” He said the sun seemed to be in constant eclipse.

His and other accounts of the darkness weren’t taken seriously until the 1990s, when researchers decided to look at the trees in Ireland. Examining the tree rings, they discovered that something weird happened around AD 536. The summer temperatures in Europe and Asia were 35°F–37°F colder; the coldest temperatures in the previous 2,300 years. It even snowed that summer in China. “In the first year of the Tai dynasty [536], snow fell in the summer, and the crops failed.” Nan Shi, Chinese Chronicle. Michael McCormick, a Harvard history professor, noted that, “It was a pretty drastic change; it happened overnight. The ancient witnesses really were onto something. They were not being hysterical or imagining the end of the world. It was the beginning of one of the worst periods to be alive, if not the worst year.”

Roman politician Cassiodorus wrote, “We marvel to see no shadows of our bodies at noon.” And described the sun as being “bluish” in color. The moon had lost its luster and, “the seasons seem to be all jumbled up together.” “We have had a winter without storms, a spring without mildness, and a summer without heat.” The effects of this Little Ice Age were made worse by two other massive eruptions in 540 and 547, preventing western Europe from recovering until 660 and 680 in Central Asia.

Then, as if darkness, drought, and economic calamity weren’t bad enough, in 541 the bubonic plague hit the Roman port of Pelusium in Egypt, rapidly spreading until it had killed one-third to one-half of the Eastern Roman Empire.

Less heat and fewer of the sun’s rays were reaching the Earth. After the eruption in 540, temperatures continued to drop and photosynthesis slowed, people died, insects and animals could not survive.

Unable to feed their armies, empires began to collapse, leaving them unable to protect themselves from marauding neighbors. It took decades for the European and Asian continents to recover.

Whether the volcanic eruption in 536 had any real affects on the Americas is harder to tell. There is some evidence that there was a global drop in temperatures in these societies, and excavations have found skeletal remains from 6th century Mesoamerica that indicate malnutrition in the remains of children and young people, and this would align with drought and famine.

A chain of events that began with a volcanic eruption, and ended after decades of chaos—snow in the summer, darkness, seasons scrambled, the deaths of millions of people. Is it any wonder why people of the time thought it was the end of the world?

Caveat: I was intrigued by this subject, but I am in no way making a position statement either for myself nor the Steps to Life Ministry on climate change as it is viewed today.

Did You Know?

The plague of 541 was known as the Plague of Justinian because he was the ruler of the Byzantine Empire at the time. Some estimates suggest that 10% of the world’s population died during this time of plague.

Did You Know?

A team of researchers matched ice records of chemical traces found in ice cores from Greenland and Antarctica with the tree ring records of climate, and found that nearly every unusually cold summer over the last 2,500 years was preceded by a volcanic eruption.

Sources: clrn.org/what-is-the-worst-record-in-nfl-history; Wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_worst_Major_League_Baseball_season_win-loss_records; madisontrust.com/information-center/visualizations/when-in-us-history-were-the-highest-and-lowest-inflation-rates; nationalinterest.org/blog/reboot/5-worst-wars-all-human-history-170840; history.com/article/536-volcanic-eruption-fog-eclipse-worst-year; science.org/content/article/why-536-was-worst-year-be-alive; justhistoryposts.com/2026/06/10/a-brief-moment-of-historys-worst-year-ever

Do Animals Understand a Smile?

by

Smiling is a natural form of communication. Words are not always necessary to convey a pleasant feeling. None of us can really know what is going on in someone else’s life, and a smile can say, without a single word, I care. But are human beings the only living creatures of God’s creation that can smile?

What does science say about the ability, or lack of ability, of animals to smile? And, do animals understand when we smile at them?

Well, do they? The short answer is an unequivocal: it depends. Maybe yes, and maybe no. It depends on the animal. We smile when we wish to express happiness, amusement, even sarcasm, but how animals perceive our smiles—the reason we smile—can vary widely across the animal kingdom.

Take a lion, for instance. I imagine if you were on safari in Africa and ended up in a situation where lunch would be just you and a hungry lion, a smile might not change the lion’s mind about his main course. You would still be lunch. However, a lion raised by humans in a home setting just might see a smile differently than his wild kin.

Christian, an African lion, was born on August 12, 1969, in captivity and purchased by John Rendall and Anthony Bourke later that year. These two young men raised Christian in their apartment for a year until he grew so large that he required a larger space to live in. John and Anthony worked for Harrod’s department store in London, and they acquired the permissions and permits to create a living space for Christian in the basement of Harrod’s. For another year, Christian lived with his human fathers. John and Anthony were allowed to exercise Christian in the Moravian church graveyard and took him on trips to the seaside (imagine the surprise while you’re soaking up the sun and see a full-grown lion walk by.)

Sadly, due to the cost of his care and his growing size, it soon became apparent that Christian could no longer live in London. When the movie Born Free was being made, John and Anthony met Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna, the human stars of the movie, and they directed them to George Adamson, a British conservationist who advocated for lions in Kenya. He and his wife had raised Elsa the lioness the real star of Born Free. Together they made the decision to reintegrate Christian into the wild at the Kora National Reserve.

John and Anthony accompanied Christian to Kenya and stayed a few months while Adamson began his integration back into the wild by introducing him to an older male named Boy and a young female cub named Katania. This formed the nucleus of Christian’s pride. However, life can be unkind in the wild and Katania was killed by crocodiles. Boy was severely injured and no longer had the ability to socialize with other lions and humans, and Adamson had to euthanize him. This left Christian alone, the only surviving member of his pride. But, with patience and time, Christian was able to establish a pride in the region around Kora.

So, what does Christian’s story have to do with smiling? Sometime around 1974, John and Anthony returned to Kenya to visit their old friend. Adamson thought Christian might not remember them. Would he? They went out into the bush and soon found Christian and his pride. At first, he was cautious in his approach. I assume they called to him, with smiles and excited voices. When Christian recognized who they were, he ran to them, stood up on his back legs, and wrapped his front legs around them in a marvelous, bear hug, nuzzling their smiling faces. I imagine Christian was smiling, too, in whatever way lions smile.

Sources: enviroliteracy.org/animals/do-animals-understand-when-we-smile; wikiepedia.org/wiki/Christian_the_lion