Also, go to www.sciendaily.com and search for "dead zone". There're a bunch of stories. Ranging from our intensive farming methods to urban runoff to oil extraction, humans are the threat.
Interesting articles, Jeff. I hadn't known about the dead zone in the Gulf. We've been killing off the Gulf for years with industrial/agricultural wastes from the Miss. River. The oil spill just adds to that. The oceans are among our most productive "farming areas".
One of the biggest pollutants is industrial agriculture. Kill food (fish) to grow food. Doesn't make much sense, does it? 40% of the nation's remaining seafood supply gone...in one quick swoop. Though industrial agriculture is killing the soils as well.
At some point, we'll either have to come up with ways to enable the planet to continue sustaining us...or we'll keep destroying it so it can't. I suppose when the day comes there isn't much on supermarket shelves, people will finally sit up and take notice...when its too late to repair the damage.
Sometimes, seeking maxium profit requires a maximum cost....often postponed... but the bill always comes due. The "free market" is going to get expensive.
Oil isn't the only thing that requires environmental protection laws...so does agriculture. Agricultural damages occur over a longer period of time. It isn't a dramatic, quick, one time event. It's an accumulation that ultimately becomes a critical crises. We won't be the first nation in history to undergo that. The planet is covered with their corpses from Babylon, to the Anasazi to the Maya.
Probably the Dept. of Agriculture should be revamped to sustain agriculture...and have Aquaculture...the oceans... added to it as a sub-agency. Industrial agriculture is very "efficiently" destroying agriculture and the capacity of the nation to feed itself. Destroying the ocean harvests as well isn't a wise thing to do.
At some point, we'll either have to come up ways to enable the planet to continue sustaining us...or we'll keep destroying it so it can't.
As you may have picked up I don't think that people will do what's necessary to avoid collapse because we've been deluded into thinking that we can't collapse the earth's systems simply because we haven't collapsed them. However, as can be seen by conditions such as Lake Erie we have the capacity to collapse systems. Luckily systems appear to have a certain resiliance that permits us to change our behavior and allow them to heal, as we did with Lake Erie. Therefore, there is the possibility that more people will recognize that our capacity to collapse systems is limited only by the boundaries of those systems and so can extend globally, as can be seen with greenhouse gas emissions and the currents that now carry the oil to the Atlantic and onwards to the Pacific, and make the necessary changes in their lives to help avoid collapse. That said, I tend to doubt it.
At some point, we'll either have to come up ways to enable the planet to continue sustaining us...or we'll keep destroying it so it can't.
As you may have picked up I don't think that people will do what's necessary to avoid collapse because we've been deluded into thinking that we can't collapse the earth's systems simply because we haven't collapsed them.
Indeed. I also think people in general have to go through some effort to try to understand their world, and that effort is not a natural one, especially so with modern civilization which is so thoroughly insular to the natural processes it would like to pretend it does not depend upon.
One of the most powerful experiential processes I've been involved with was working with inner city gang members brought to Northern Minnesota while in "reform detention" where they were put through a survival training course as an experimental form of reform therapy. That was in the late Seventies and was the predecessor to what has come to be called "ecopsychology." Many of those kids were changed by that experience. Here is a page with lots of links to some off-shoots of those early experimental programs: Adventure Therapy and Wilderness/Nature therapy.
Though the policies of the U.S. towards the environment took a decided anti environmental turn after Reagan was elected, the environmental awareness movement did not die. Though significantly and consciously marginalized by policy makers, It continued to evolve, though not as part of the corporate culture, which we can see has come to own and dominate this nation... and the world. I have a lot of different links available in this area of interest. It's out there, alive and well. I find it hopeful to know about. Overall though, I am not that hopeful it will beome a national policy. That's why I've turned my hope towards developing local awareness.
We now have the tools to see the total destruction of what we (humans) are doing to this planet. We also have visionaries willing to use some of those tools.
This is one of the most powerful and haunting uses of those tools, a 2009 documentary titled: HOME.
Here is a link to a youtube video of the entire documentary. If you have the access speed, you can watch it at 720i in full screen on a good sized monitor. If you have Realplayer installed on a decent and upgraded operating system, you can download the documentary and watch it at your leisure, and share it with friends. That's what I've done. It's a powerful learning tool.
The documentary is shot entirely from above, a perspective we have only had of the earth in the last hundred years. A tool that is both part of this culture of destruction and at the same time a tool that can be used to help save ourselves by allowing us to visualize and more clearly imagine what we do. If only we can extract ourselves from the eco and socio pathology of our institutions, and our generally unquestioning role in our part of what those institutions do. A daunting task. A pathological private tyranny called a "transnational corporation" is just one of those institutions. Our governments can certainly be other examples.
jeffbiss wrote:
However, as can be seen by conditions such as Lake Erie we have the capacity to collapse systems. Luckily systems appear to have a certain resiliance that permits us to change our behavior and allow them to heal, as we did with Lake Erie. Therefore, there is the possibility that more people will recognize that our capacity to collapse systems is limited only by the boundaries of those systems and so can extend globally, as can be seen with greenhouse gas emissions and the currents that now carry the oil to the Atlantic and onwards to the Pacific, and make the necessary changes in their lives to help avoid collapse. That said, I tend to doubt it.
I am dubious too. I believe most people will not move past the first stage of facing inevitable loss, which is denial. My efforts to talk about this catastrophe taking place in the Gulf and it's extensive implications have alienated me, I hope temporarily, from some friends. Most of them are progressive and believe somehow this civilization can be saved. My biggest concern is we may cause a sudden release of methane in the methane crystals as the arctic and the ocean warms. I can imagine a global warming that may be irreversible, on the order of taking us towards a Venus atmosphere. Hopefully I'm just too imaginative.
Here are some of the worst current Dead Zones in the aquatic biosystems of this planet:
Dead zones can occur for several reasons, such as more phytoplankton, restriction of natural water flow, fertilizer run-off, other pollutants and rising sea temperatures.
An increase of phytoplankton means more organic matter, which leads to an increase of bacterial respiration. This takes more oxygen out of the water forcing other marine life to find oxygen elsewhere or die, hence, creating a dead zone. Fertilizer run-off and other pollutants contain high levels of nitrogen, which is a nutrient for phytoplankton and contributes to an increase in their numbers.
When natural water flow is restricted, the levels of oxygen are not replenished as quickly; therefore, the oxygen is used by bacteria and marine life faster. Water flow restriction is usually caused by natural disasters, like drought or hurricanes, or man-made obstructions, such as dams.
Rising ocean temperatures can also cause dead zones because oxygen dissolves slower in warmer water Red Orbit: Fish at Risk From Ocean Dead Zones (September 30, 2008)4
They all can be traced back to the activities of fossil fuel based industrial civilization that expanded exponentially on the planet during the Twentieth Century.
And as poly duly notes, industrial agriculture, formerly misnomered as "the Green Revolution" is the heart and soul of this fossil fuel based anomaly known as "civilization."
People who want to live in cities (the basic concept in "civilization") need to ask themselves if their cities are sustainable. That's going to cause a lot of confusion and the ones who profit from extraction and production processes are not going to want to give up on their access to their wealth. They also own the media. The very instruments of public programming and propaganda.
Ren wrote: "My biggest concern is we may cause a sudden release of methane in the methane crystals as the arctic and the ocean warms. I can imagine a global warming that may be irreversible, on the order of taking us towards a Venus atmosphere. Hopefully I'm just too imaginative"
---------
Global warming is causing permafrosts to melt...releasing methane. Methane has an effect 20 times greater than CO2 in a global warming.
Comments
Also, go to www.sciendaily.com and search for "dead zone". There're a bunch of stories. Ranging from our intensive farming methods to urban runoff to oil extraction, humans are the threat.
Interesting articles, Jeff. I hadn't known about the dead zone in the Gulf. We've been killing off the Gulf for years with industrial/agricultural wastes from the Miss. River. The oil spill just adds to that. The oceans are among our most productive "farming areas".
One of the biggest pollutants is industrial agriculture. Kill food (fish) to grow food. Doesn't make much sense, does it? 40% of the nation's remaining seafood supply gone...in one quick swoop. Though industrial agriculture is killing the soils as well.
At some point, we'll either have to come up with ways to enable the planet to continue sustaining us...or we'll keep destroying it so it can't. I suppose when the day comes there isn't much on supermarket shelves, people will finally sit up and take notice...when its too late to repair the damage.
Sometimes, seeking maxium profit requires a maximum cost....often postponed... but the bill always comes due. The "free market" is going to get expensive.
Oil isn't the only thing that requires environmental protection laws...so does agriculture. Agricultural damages occur over a longer period of time. It isn't a dramatic, quick, one time event. It's an accumulation that ultimately becomes a critical crises. We won't be the first nation in history to undergo that. The planet is covered with their corpses from Babylon, to the Anasazi to the Maya.
Probably the Dept. of Agriculture should be revamped to sustain agriculture...and have Aquaculture...the oceans... added to it as a sub-agency. Industrial agriculture is very "efficiently" destroying agriculture and the capacity of the nation to feed itself. Destroying the ocean harvests as well isn't a wise thing to do.
Retired Monk - "Ideology is a disease"
As you may have picked up I don't think that people will do what's necessary to avoid collapse because we've been deluded into thinking that we can't collapse the earth's systems simply because we haven't collapsed them. However, as can be seen by conditions such as Lake Erie we have the capacity to collapse systems. Luckily systems appear to have a certain resiliance that permits us to change our behavior and allow them to heal, as we did with Lake Erie. Therefore, there is the possibility that more people will recognize that our capacity to collapse systems is limited only by the boundaries of those systems and so can extend globally, as can be seen with greenhouse gas emissions and the currents that now carry the oil to the Atlantic and onwards to the Pacific, and make the necessary changes in their lives to help avoid collapse. That said, I tend to doubt it.
As you may have picked up I don't think that people will do what's necessary to avoid collapse because we've been deluded into thinking that we can't collapse the earth's systems simply because we haven't collapsed them.
Indeed. I also think people in general have to go through some effort to try to understand their world, and that effort is not a natural one, especially so with modern civilization which is so thoroughly insular to the natural processes it would like to pretend it does not depend upon.
One of the most powerful experiential processes I've been involved with was working with inner city gang members brought to Northern Minnesota while in "reform detention" where they were put through a survival training course as an experimental form of reform therapy. That was in the late Seventies and was the predecessor to what has come to be called "ecopsychology." Many of those kids were changed by that experience. Here is a page with lots of links to some off-shoots of those early experimental programs: Adventure Therapy and Wilderness/Nature therapy.
Though the policies of the U.S. towards the environment took a decided anti environmental turn after Reagan was elected, the environmental awareness movement did not die. Though significantly and consciously marginalized by policy makers, It continued to evolve, though not as part of the corporate culture, which we can see has come to own and dominate this nation... and the world. I have a lot of different links available in this area of interest. It's out there, alive and well. I find it hopeful to know about. Overall though, I am not that hopeful it will beome a national policy. That's why I've turned my hope towards developing local awareness.
We now have the tools to see the total destruction of what we (humans) are doing to this planet. We also have visionaries willing to use some of those tools.
This is one of the most powerful and haunting uses of those tools, a 2009 documentary titled: HOME.
Here is a link to a youtube video of the entire documentary. If you have the access speed, you can watch it at 720i in full screen on a good sized monitor. If you have Realplayer installed on a decent and upgraded operating system, you can download the documentary and watch it at your leisure, and share it with friends. That's what I've done. It's a powerful learning tool.
The documentary is shot entirely from above, a perspective we have only had of the earth in the last hundred years. A tool that is both part of this culture of destruction and at the same time a tool that can be used to help save ourselves by allowing us to visualize and more clearly imagine what we do. If only we can extract ourselves from the eco and socio pathology of our institutions, and our generally unquestioning role in our part of what those institutions do. A daunting task. A pathological private tyranny called a "transnational corporation" is just one of those institutions. Our governments can certainly be other examples.
I am dubious too. I believe most people will not move past the first stage of facing inevitable loss, which is denial. My efforts to talk about this catastrophe taking place in the Gulf and it's extensive implications have alienated me, I hope temporarily, from some friends. Most of them are progressive and believe somehow this civilization can be saved. My biggest concern is we may cause a sudden release of methane in the methane crystals as the arctic and the ocean warms. I can imagine a global warming that may be irreversible, on the order of taking us towards a Venus atmosphere. Hopefully I'm just too imaginative.
Here are some of the worst current Dead Zones in the aquatic biosystems of this planet:
Here are some of the causes:
They all can be traced back to the activities of fossil fuel based industrial civilization that expanded exponentially on the planet during the Twentieth Century.
And as poly duly notes, industrial agriculture, formerly misnomered as "the Green Revolution" is the heart and soul of this fossil fuel based anomaly known as "civilization."
People who want to live in cities (the basic concept in "civilization") need to ask themselves if their cities are sustainable. That's going to cause a lot of confusion and the ones who profit from extraction and production processes are not going to want to give up on their access to their wealth. They also own the media. The very instruments of public programming and propaganda.
Ren wrote: "My biggest concern is we may cause a sudden release of methane in the methane crystals as the arctic and the ocean warms. I can imagine a global warming that may be irreversible, on the order of taking us towards a Venus atmosphere. Hopefully I'm just too imaginative"
---------
Global warming is causing permafrosts to melt...releasing methane. Methane has an effect 20 times greater than CO2 in a global warming.
http://article.wn.com/view/2008/09/12/Melting_permafrost_may_hasten_global_warming/
Even worse could be the melting of seabeds in the arctic regions. Ren's concerns aren't so far-fetched:
http://www.climatechange.com.au/2005/09/20/methane-release-caused-massive-global-warming-180-million-years-ago/
Is Nero playing the fiddle while the planet plunges into something becoming irreversible?
Retired Monk - "Ideology is a disease"