by  Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Author’s program note. I had been up all night working on an article on global warming. The subject, serious, is draining, demanding, necessarily thought provoking, disturbing. As the sun began to rise, showing its intentions by the first light of a brand-new day, I wrote the last word… and went immediately into the Cambridge Common for air, for light, to be freed from the sobering realities of my midnight researches.

At this early hour, where the vestiges of night still prevailed, as if unwilling to leave, there was no one present… and this distressed me, for I was in need of a smile, a word or two of greeting, and (were I fortunate) a friend. For my night’s work had been long and distressful, spent considering the vulnerabilities of Earth and the growing likelihood that our species, having had our way with this planet, was unwilling, perhaps unable, to do what is necessary to save our only, our collective home. Yes, I needed a friend… and solace.

Then there it was… a sight I had seen for every one of my 65 years…  and which was there for me now in the full vibrancy of its joyous yellow. The dandelion. And as if it knew my need, it took me back at once to the springtime of my life when my thoughts were not cosmic or burdensome… but soaring, unfettered, generous, happy. All this one single dandelion, radiant in the mud, delivered to me,  glad to be of service. And I smiled, gloom lightened by the dandelion’s undoubted splendor in the grass, gracious gift to me so many times before; gracious gift to me again now bidding me face the world and its daunting troubles with more cheer… and even hope…

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, more sensitive than they might like to show, knew the friendship and power of the dandelion. In 1967 their Rolling Stones sang this:

“Dandelion don’t tell no lies Dandelion will make you wise Tell me if she laughs or cries Blow away dandelion.”

You’ll find this song in any search engine. Go now and listen carefully, to both the version by the Rolling Stones and the unexpected beauty of the one played by the London Symphony Orchestra. And understand this: a plant that can inspire such sentiments can surely be no weed but must be instead a thing of joy and beneficence.

Facts about the dandelion.

Taraxacum is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. They are native to Eurasia and North Africa, and two species, T. officinale and T. erythrospermum are found as weeds worldwide.

The common name dandelion comes from the French, dent-de-lion, meaning lion’s tooth. Like other members of the Asteraceae family, they have very small flowers collected together into a composite flower head. Each single flower is called a floret. Many Taraxacum species produce seeds asexually by apomixis, where the seeds are produced without pollination, resulting in offspring that are genetically identical to the parent plant.

These are the facts and as such are important… but no where near as important as what follows, for the dandelion, remembering me from a lifetime of visits with its ancestors, was candid about its situation and how little the people passing by know of it… and its myriad services to our kind. I listened in the pristine dawn to what he told me… for he needed to tell and I needed to hear…

Poets and dandelions.

Most of the many poets who have written about dandelions are women…. and whilst they undoubtedly mean well… they have grossly misunderstand the dandelion. And here he offered one cogent example after another, starting with these words from Helen Barron Bostwick’s no doubt unintentionally condescending poem “Little dandelion”, irritating the dandelion right from its title and irritating it throughout with its ill-considered aggravating descriptions: “Bright little Dandelion… Wise little Dandelion… True little dandelion” and many similar misunderstandings and provocations.

Dandelions, he told me, are resolute, bold, tenacious, determined pathfinders. How else had they covered the known world in an imperium greater than all the captains general of human history combined?

But there was more, much more to come as the eloquent dandelion warmed to his subject…

In her poem “To a Dandelion” Helen  Gray  Cone wrote of the “Humble Dandelion” while an equally uncomprehending Hilda Conkling said “Little soldier with the golden helmet.” As he rattled off the evidence so long accumulated and earnestly considered, his dew touched leaves quivered, for this dandelion spoke for all his aggrieved species. But here I, who had needed comfort just a moment ago, was able to give it, the truest measure of empathy and satisfaction.

I did not merely regard but fully perceived this agitated friend. So I whispered these words, to be carried and delivered by the lightest of breezes… “There is more knowledge of you than you may know, more reasons to be of the good cheer you have shared with me than you may have ever known or considered.” And  here I recited the always insightful and soothing words of a man who had, like me, truly perceived more in the dandelion than their littleness… This man was the Great Republic’s great poet Walt Whitman. These were his simple, evocative words from his masterpiece “Leaves of Grass”  (1855):

“Simple and fresh and fair from winter’s close emerging/ As if no artifice of fashion, business, politics, had ever been/ Forth from its sunny nook of shelter’d grass — innocent, golden, calm as the dawn/ the spring’s first dandelion shows its trustful face.”

“I remember… yes, I remember.” And  tears of remembrance mixed with the dew.. for these generous sentiments, celestial, obliterated an ocean of misstatements and misunderstandings, a single word of generosity and genius providing an infinity of bliss.

And so we understood each other, this bright yellow dandelion accoutered in radiance and I. We had both found a friend and been refreshed, each giving the other what he most needed then, all that was necessary to trek our laborious path. Thus we parted, happy with our chance encounter, our lives enhanced, our burden bearable again:

“Little girls and boys come out to play/ Bring your dandelions to blow away/ Dandelion don’t tell no lies/ Dandelion will make you wise.” And no one knows it better than I…

*** We invite you to post your comments to this article below.

About the Author

Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., providing a wide range of online services for small and-home based businesses. Services include home business training, affiliate marketing training, earn-at-home programs, traffic tools, advertising, webcasting, hosting, design, WordPress Blogs and more. Find out why Worldprofit is considered the # 1 online Home Business Training program by getting a free Associate Membership today at http://www.worldprofit.com

George Kosch, Worldprofit’s Bootcamp Instructor, kicked off today’s Home Business Bootcamp Training session with a revealing  discussion on why people quit a business opportunity.

New Members were directed to the VIDEO for Beginners posted in the Worldprofit Member area under the training section so as not to get off track.

Following this discussion, George dove right into the focus of today’s session – the big picture. Specifically what you need to do and why you need to do it to build your successful online business. Considerable time was spent trying to help people understand why list building is so critical to making sales.

George revealed today what he thinks is a $10,000 strategy for list building and profiting from your blog. If you missed the LIVE training today, you will want to watch the recorded version to hear for yourself this powerful money-making strategy.

Other topics covered in today’s Home Business Bootcamp Training:

Blogging
Commenting
PLR Products
ClickBank
List Building with optin subscribers
Aweber
Sign up Bonuses
Get Response
Worldprofit’s Offer Builder
Drop Box
Landing Pages
JV Zoo OTO Secret Weapons
Worldprofit Goody Bag

George spent some time making Members aware of some powerful resources included in the Worldprofit Membership.

George reminded Members that Worldprofit regularly buys PLR Products than makes them available FREE exclusively to Silver and Platinum VIP Members. This is an under-utilized resource that many members aren’t even aware of! Currently we have over 200 valuable products that you can download FREE! The products cover money-making and learning topics including blogging, article marketing, link building, traffic generation, ad copy, social media, Google and much more. The value of these products alone is well over $2,500 so take advantage of this!

The Article Marketing Directory is another valuable resource at the fingertips of Worldprofit Members. Currently we have over 525 articles available for you to use in your blogs, for article marketing, your website etc.  We post new articles several times a week so you always have access to new and unique content. Search engines LOVE this stuff and is powerful for helping with your search engine ranking.  If you are not using this resource – go have a look.  You will find the Article Directory in your Member area under the MONEY MAKERS section.   You can learn just by reading these articles and list build and earn by promoting them.

Offers are the key to drumming up sales. Who doesn’t like to get something for free!  The Offer Builder is yet another resource that Members have access to within the Worldprofit Member area.  This tool has one purpose: to help you make sales.  Find the Offer Builder in your Member area under the left menu, select RESELLERS CLUB, there you will find the link.  Start creating your own bonuses to make sales, use the free products as giveaways to keep a grumpy person happy.  All the resources to do so are in your Member area.  Are you starting to see why building your list is so important? Promote an offer to your list, include an offer, get a  sale!

Throughout the training, George took questions from participants. All questions are encouraged.

IMPORTANT NOTE for NEW Worldprofit Members: If you are brand new to Worldprofit and feeling a little overwhelmed by the amount of information you have been provided, or the various terms being use, we urge you watch the BASIC TRAINING VIDEO. The basic training video covers terms you should know, the basics of our program and what you need to focus on to get on track to making money online with the Worldprofit system. Find this video in your Member area, on the TOP MENU select TRAINING then click on the link for the video that is marked as the MUST WATCH BEGINNER’S VIDEO. If you have any questions submit a Support form so we can also help you that way.

Thank you to each of you for participating in today’s LIVE interactive Home business bootcamp training. We had lots of questions today and we encourage this. The LIVE training is the perfect opportunity to tap into George Kosch’s expertise and get direct instant answers with on-screen demonstration.

A few comments from today’s Home Business Bootcamp participants about the training and latest Worldprofit innovations being developed for Members.

Arthur: Thank for the lesson
Richard:  I love it
Ned: Thanks much!
Liz: Thank you George
James: Thank you George and Sandi for all of your support and ongoing development of our platform. I really appreciate it!

Recording of April 6th, 2012 Bootcamp Training:  The recording of today’s session will be posted later today to the Member area (under top menu TRAINING) for the convenience of those not able to attend the LIVE training or who arrived late.

Next LIVE Home Business Bootcamp Training: April 13th at 10 AM CT.

For more information on Worldprofit’s Home Business Training and Earn at Home programs, get a free Associate Membership at http://www.worldprofit.com
We have some free goodies for everyone who signs up as a free Member.   

by  Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Author’s program note. Future historians, if any of Clio’s ranks remain, will scrutinize this period of our planet as the days when Earth reached its tipping point and began its descent to the unimaginable horrors of the Apocalypse. At least this is the sobering prediction of the International Panel on Climate Change, founded in 1988 by the United Nations. This article highlights this panel, its work, its dire predictions… and asks you not only to contemplate what is happening to us all… but what you can do to save yourself, your family and the pied a terre in the Cosmos for our vulnerable species.

But first, go to any search engine and smile. For not all weather predictions are cataclysmic. Take the one made in 1982 by The Weather Girls, also known as Two Tons o’ Fun. Their hit — their one and only hit — was called “It’s Raining  Men” and featured two plus-size African-American women cavorting with scantily clad boy toys falling from a beneficent heaven. It was cheeky, irreverent… and a superbly good dance song. When this ancient body was much younger and more limber, I cut the rug with it myself. Listen to it now…. because it’s the last thing in this article that gives you absolutely nothing to worry about.

About the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

March 28, 2012 this Nobel Prize-winning panel of climate scientists released its latest bomb shell, in the form of a 594-page report. This report represents an important development in its work. Up until now, the panel has focused on the slow, inexorable rise of temperatures and oceans as part of global warning. Their work, while important and telling to anyone who could read between the lines, didn’t attract much notice. Indeed, since it was the work of scientists and climate wonks who never met a somnifacient phrase they didn’t like, their important work went largely unread.

But this year and this report are very different.

This report is the first to examine the less common but far more noticeable extreme weather changes, which in recent years have been causing $80 billion annually in damage. As Stanford University climate scientist Chris Field, one of the report’s top editors, says, “We mostly experience weather and climate change through the extreme. That’s where we have the losses. That’s where we have the insurance payments. That’s where things have the potential to fall apart.”

“There is disaster risk almost everywhere.”

The conclusion of Field and fellow panelists is stark and cannot be misunderstood. Thus, you can almost hear the instructions given to participants at the start of their important work…

“Friends and colleagues. Our many previous endeavors reported facts in a calm, deliberative fashion. We knew what the findings meant… but because we were not explicit in our conclusions almost no one else did. Thus we assuaged our consciences by reassuring ourselves that we had done our work… and it was for others to draw the implications and do the necessary follow-up work to make sure that the science we knew became the basis for necessary policy changes. But this is no longer enough. We must not only be accurate fact finders, but absolutely clear on what this means and what must be done. In other words, we must go beyond the usual role of scientist and behave as a citizen of the world committed to saving our planet by doing what is necessary before it is too late.”

On this basis, the panel has produced what is to date their most important and influential work.

Item: Some places, particularly parts of Mumbai in India could become uninhabitable from floods, storms, and rising seas. In 2005, over 24 hours nearly 3 feet of rain fell on the city, killing more than 1000 people at once and causing massive damage. Roughly 2.7 million people live in areas at risk of flooding.

Item: Many other cities are also at high risk including Miami, Shanghai, Bangkok, Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City, Myanmar’s Yangon (formerly Rangoon), and India’s Kolkata (formerly Calcutta).

Item: Entire countries like the Maldives are at risk, facing submersion because of rising seas and fierce storms.

Said Field, “The decision about whether or not to move is achingly difficult, and I think it’s one that the world community will have to face with increasing frequency in the future.”

At risk.

This report is unique because it emphasizes managing risks and how taking precautions can work. In other words, it not only highlights risks but is explicit in its recommendations about how to handle them. In fact, the panel report uses the word “risk” 4,387 times… and gives examples of how various cities and countries have learned from them, thereby providing solutions and models for other challenged entities.

Item: Field pointed to storm-and-flood-prone Bangladesh, an impoverished nation that has learned from past disasters. In 1970, a Category 3 tropical cyclone named Bhola killed more than 300,000 people. In 2007, a stronger cyclone killed just 4,200 people. Despite the loss of life, the country is reckoned a success story because it was better prepared and invested in warning and disaster prevention.

By comparison, a country that was not so prepared, Myanmar, was hit with a similar-size storm in 2008, which killed over 138,000 people. This avoidable disaster makes it clear why the work of this panel is so important. Over 138,000 people might well be alive if the repressive government of Myanmar focused less time and money crushing its people and more on the early warning and other tools needed to diminish the horrific weather effects that batter them so often and which this report makes clear will worsen in the years ahead.

The worst is yet to come… unless…

The study — all 594 pages of it — is a Pandora’s box of looming catastrophes. Tropical cyclones — including hurricanes in the United States — will get stronger because of present-day and worse-to-come climate changes. Heat waves and record hot temperatures worldwide will increase with increased downpours in Alaska, Canada, northern and central Europe, East Africa, and north Asia.

Action now… or worldwide grief later.

In the face of so much alarming news, all supported by exact science, it is easy to opt out, confident there is nothing the average person can do but wait and hope. Such a conclusion is not only wrong but calamitous. Here’s what you can do:

1) Urge school officials to disseminate these findings so that young people, who have so much to lose, can be informed.

2) Ask your elected representatives what they are doing to stem the tide and give us meaningful measures, not just partisan rhetoric that is so out-of-place in solving this problem.

3) Make every day “Earth Day”, a top priority. For there can be no progressive change of any kind if the very Earth is threatened, at risk, and increasingly vulnerable.

And I tell you this: when all the water is polluted, when all the air is toxic, when every once fertile acre is arid, we shall still have money. For unlike all the other elements, God-made, money is man made; so let’s spend what is necessary to ensure that our one and only home — Earth — remains as secure as possible, as verdant and productive… a place not of lamentation and anxieties but where all the crucial weather information can be sung by Weather Girls who tell you, “According to our sources, the street’s the place to go/ Cause tonight for the first time/ Just about half past ten/ For the first time in history/ It’s gonna start raining men!” And that’s a fact.