Wednesday, June 22, 2011

The Rate of Change - Mass Extinction in the Ocean

Here's a video by CNN from their report:


Here's another interview with Dr. Alex Rogers, Scientific Director of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and professor at the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford:


Now, perhaps we would see some action on the issues of CO2 emissions and pollution, if only we could have a report from foresters and farmers that would substitute "trees and crops" for "coral reefs" and "ozone" for "acidification", perhaps we would approach the appropriate level of alarm for the equivalent rapid and far more visible destruction of vegetation that is presently occurring on land...oh, wait.  I forgot, that even though it should be far more obvious that trees are dying and crops are stunted from exposure to toxic greenhouse gas emissions - volatile organic compounds that form tropospheric ozone causing leaves to be small, speckled, shriveled, brown, and fall off, with tree bark that is cracked, splitting, corroded, oozing, smothered with lichen and marred by holes from interior rot and cankers bulging like cancerous tumors - the facts and research are being suppressed by the lumber and agricultural industries (think Georgia Pacific and Monsanto).

3 comments:

  1. Get the ethanol out!

    http://solveclimatenews.com/news/20110623/corn-ethanol-subsidy-veetc-feinstein-coburn-senate-budget


    catman

    ReplyDelete
  2. Gail, it seems to me from what I've read here and elsewhere that GW (and pollution, thank you for separating the issues) is clearly underway, which I've felt for years, but I also now feel that it is unfolding much sooner and much faster than I expected. The fact that the permafrost is melting, the way you connected that to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions really scares me. Do you have kind of prognosis? Does anybody? I live in the NE so volcanoes aren't a problem for me but it sure is weird that we're having Florida weather. I read that there are already 3-5 GW refugees. I used to spend a lot of time in the undeveloped world, where many people live in low coastal lands and get their food etc from the sea. When sea levels rise, they won't have anyplace to go. The northern part of SE Asia and the inland parts of Africa and S America are already impoverished and can barely sustain the people already there. India will be a nightmare as it's already so incredibly crowded, being there made overpopulation so much more vivid to me, it simply can't be described. I'll just say that in one city, there were so many people in the streets that we could only drive 5 miles an hour and there was human waste on the sidewalks. I gave a kid money once and was surrounded by kids, not to be cavalier about it but I felt a bit like Gulliver, fortunately a native man told the kids to disperse because I was scared; same thing happened to me in Vietnam. I'm in my 50s and really do not want to watch this catastrophe unfold, I've already lost the happiness that being out-of-doors used to give me, all I see is evidence of GW and the weather is so unnatural. And given the political situation, I don't see that there is anything to be done. Even if Obama were to try to keep some of his campaign promises (he hasn't mentioned GW in a long time), it's my understadning that under the WTO he can't. It's created a race to the bottom. I feel nothing but despair. If I could take action other than conservation and recylcing, or if I did't feel so isolated because so many people are in denial and dismiss my concerns as being paranoid, it would be a lot better but it is what it is.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anon, by coincidence, this morning following a comment from my last post, I've been watching videos by Lovelock and also one of his followers, Dr. Alder Fuller, who I never heard of before. He had been teaching in Oregon but has since moved to the Northeast. When I'm finished listening I'll try to cobble together a post about his work, but here are some links for you. He was ALREADY saying we have crossed tipping points years ago! Here are 3 brief sequential videos - he's very succinct - and lastly, a link to a radio segment he just did in October. He talks about the actions we should/could take, given that we are in for a hell of a lot of unpleasantness.

    First, here's a great interview with Lovelock who is very wise:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29Vip-PbuZQ

    And the rest are Alder:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-ghWG7msj8&feature=related

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGDfafmX6H8&feature=related

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2cZWJXWvQc&feature=related

    radio:

    http://www.archive.org/details/ESaldernew

    ReplyDelete

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