The State Of The Oceans

You knew that there was a recent report on the state of climate change by a team of 100s of scientists from all over the world. You knew that they agreed that climate change is real, happening faster than previously thought, and was probably promoted by mankind's various activities. You knew that. And you've probably filed that one away somewhere in your "oh-well-it's-not-the-day-after-tomorrow" file drawer. OK. Your drawers about to get a little more crowded. Here's a new report on the state of the oceans. It's not good.

Basically, The International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO) has released this report that suggests that the ocean's role as earth's buffer is being seriously compromised. Buffer....where have we heard that term recently...oh yea - last week, about Wetlands acting as a buffer against storms, floods, excess water etc.  Oceans act as the planet's buffer by absorbing other potential shocks, such as pollutants, oxygen loss to ensure homeostasis on a planetary basis. So if ocean's abilities to act as a buffer are being compromised - well, that...can't...be....too...good, uh, I guess. No, it's not.

Here's the $64,000 quote from the report: 

"A “deadly trio” of warming, deoxygenation and increased acidification combined, the report found, are posing an even greater threat to the oceans than they would alone. While the carbon absorbed from the atmosphere promotes increased warming and acidification, pollution from sewage and fertilizer is creating algae blooms that decrease the oceans’ levels of oxygen. The report found that overfishing, too, threatens marine life.

The acidification, specifically, is “unprecedented in the Earth’s known history,” says the report, which found that the oceans are more acidic now than they’ve been for the past 300 million years. And carbon is being released into the ocean at a rate 10 times more quickly than the last time there was a major collapse of ocean species, 55 million years ago. As a result, the authors write, they have reason to believe that “the next mass extinction may have already begun.”

The next "mass extinction"? <gulp>. Didn't the LAST one wipe EVERYTHING off the face of the earth? (yup) Doesn't that mean that next time....we're included? (yup)

The report's conclusions, that there are accelerating areas of acidification (lower pH), eutrophic/anoxic areas (dead zones - you know why) and rising temperatures (and a single degree makes a large difference) all seem vaguely familiar - as if the same themes were present in last week's climate change report. Oh - they were.

Take a look at the summary of the report here: Summary Report on the State Of The Oceans. I don't expect you to read through the entire 11 or so pages, but skim the first few to get a sense of what it's about, and then I'd like you to read some of the five (5) summaries that begin on page 3. Find a topic of interest; one that you feel something about and write your response in the following format: 

1. What interested you about this topic
2. What you found most provocative, upsetting, concerning or frightening about this topic
3. What you would like to see the world do about this topic. (Really.)

Life came from the oceans. Will it end there as well? It's almost too much to process.

YIKES! - Are Carson's "Elixer's Of Death" Equivalent To Assad's Chemical Weapons In Syria?

"For the first time in the history of the world, every human being is now subjected to contact with dangerous chemicals, from the moment of conception until death."

 - Rachel Carson opening of Chapter 3, Elixirs of Death

Remember in our discussions last week I discussed the timeless nature of Silent Spring? I noted how Carson's work was cited in recent debates about the justification in re-introducing the use of  DDT to African countries? Well, just last week, another article appeared that set off another internet firestorm of flurry of Tweets, Blogs, and Shares.

Maria Rodale, CEO of Rodale, “the world’s leading health-and-wellness publisher,” and “the granddaughter of the founder of the organic movement in America" wrote an article on Huffington Post last week, suggesting common ground Assad's chemical gassing of the Syrian people (his own people, in his own country) with the continued use of Carson's "elixirs of death" to produce the crops that feed our own children.

It was pretty heady stuff. Here's the passage that really set Buzzfeed a buzzing:

“Yes, Syria has undoubtedly used chemical weapons on its own people. Maybe it was the government; maybe it was the opposition; maybe you [President Obama] know for sure. But here’s what I know for sure: We are no better. We have been using chemical weapons on our own children – and ourselves – for decades, the chemical weapons we use in agriculture to win the war on pests, weeds, and the false need for ever greater yields. While the effects of these “legal” chemical weapons might not be immediate and direct, they are no less deadly. … We’ve been trying to tell you for years that chemical companies like Monsanto, Syngenta, Dow, DuPont, Bayer Crops Sciences, and others are poisoning our children and our environment with your support and even, it seems, your encouragement. Just because their bodies aren’t lined up wrapped in sheets on the front pages of the newspapers around the world doesn’t mean it’s not true”

Wow.

So what do you think? Are the pesticides that we use weapons of mass destruction? Biocide against the world? Carcinogens that we're feeding our children? Or is her argument over-the-top; a bit of internet hyperbole designed to get people fightin' mad? Argue you position one way or the other, but (and this is an important but), use some of the information that you've gleaned from Chap 3 of Silent Spring to argue you point. You can supplement that with anything else you want - other research, personal beliefs/values, etc., but bring Silent Spring into your argument for or against the continued use of pesticides/herbicides in agriculture.

Should chemical weapons be of equal concern - whether we use them on insects, plants, or people?

A better planet? Don't Give Up On Your Dream

I know that last week's post was kind of a bummer - but I thank all of you who submitted such thoughtful and reflective responses. Particularly given the fact that it was the first week of school!

This week we move into our studies on water as a precious natural resource. As I was working on course materials, I found my self distracted (as all of you have experienced yourselves) by the on-line updates about Diana Nyad. Who, you may be asking, is Diana Nyad? Funny you should ask: let me tell you. While the answer has something to do with water, it really has more to do with the human spirit.

Nyad is an athlete. Nyad is a long-distance swimmer. Nyad is a newly anointed Jedi knight. You see, back in the late 60s, Nyad was thrown out of college for jumping out of the fourth floor window of her dormitory. With a parachute. She played some football. Did some swimming. And set out to break some records. She succeeded. Nyad was the first person to swim around the island of Manhatten, which took about 8 hours to complete the 28 miles She fought strong upstream currents on one side of the island which is surrounded by the East and Hudson Rivers on the last leg of their journey back to the Atlantic ocean.

In 1978, I was 24 years old and living in San Francisco when I heard about "some crazy chick who's gonna try to swim from Cuba to Florida". That, needless to say, was Nyad. Swimming in a 20x40 cage to protect her from the sharks that infest the Gulf waters, Nyad battled against fierce currents and winds that pushed her way off course. She swam for over 70 miles, and over 40 hours non-stop before doctors put an end to her being thrown against the bars of the shark cage by the pounding of the ocean waves. The following year, 1979, she swam from Bimini island to Florida without a wet suit, setting a record that is still on the books today. In the years that followed, Nyad continued to swim, authored several books, worked for news organizations and became a motivational speaker. But the dream of doing the seemingly impossible - to swim from shore to shore, from Havana to Key West continued to gnaw at her soul.

The years rolled by, and Nyad continued to get older - as humans do if they have that good fortune. In July 2010, at the age of 60, Nyad continued to push herself in a grueling series of training swims designed to allow her one more shot at achieving her dream. The public was amazed, bemused, and somewhat worried about the sanity of this "old woman athlete" (no longer "a young chick") to do such a crazy thing. When asked why she was doing it, Nyad replied ""Because I'd like to prove to the other 60-year-olds that it is never too late to start your dreams." It wasn't until August 2011, over a year later, that Nyad had the right conditions for her attempt, low winds, slow currents, and most importantly very warm waters. She tried again. After 29 hours in the water, Nyad was stung repeatedly by box jellies and her respiratory system became distressed. Still she swam on - until her medical team said "no more".

These are big, $500,000 operations that are privately funded - Nyad swims with a guide boat, a medical team, her trainers/coach and other support staff to ensure her safe passage in dangerous waters. A staff person in a kayak parallels her swims with shark repellant in an attempt to keep those marine carnivore away from this five foot tall dynamo. Nyad tried again in September, and once again, was foiled by stings from box jellies and Portuguese Man-Of-Wars.(Men-Of-Wars?) In 2012, citing the inspiration of Michael Phelps' multiple wins at the Olympics, Nyad went into training and made a fourth attempt at the 103-mile Cuba to Florida swim. She was 62 years old. This time, she didn't use a shark cage. Unfortunately, the sea jellies continued to sting, and storms resulted in her swimming off course.

CNN carried live coverage of her fourth attempt. There was a lot of publicity, and a lot of media tie-ins which generated revenue for her attempts. This time, the disappointment and let down was palpable. People began to question Nyad's sanity. Folks wondered aloud about her "need" to do this. "She has tried so hard, and accomplished so much - why can't she just let it go?". "Because I'd like to prove to the other 60-year-olds that it is never too late to start your dreams."

On the morning of August 31, two days before I began writing this, Nyad made another attempt - her fifth - to achieve her dream. And this time, she accomplished it. Yes, there were jellies. No, there weren
t any sharks. Nor was there a shark cage. Just a five foot tall, now 64 year old woman athlete in protective mask, bodysuit, and booties to provide protection against those jellies. That, and a whole lot of courage. Nyad swam for 53 hours. Nyad swam 110 miles. Nyad swam from Havana to Key West, FL. Let me put that in some visual perspective (you may want to click on the map):

Words fail me when I think of what this woman has accomplished. I am in awe of her strength, her will, and her athletic prowess. Most of all, I am in awe of her tenacity. Writers and artists have always struggled to portray man's/woman's relationship to the stormy strength and malevolence of sea. Melville wrote the novel of all novels, Moby Dick as a metaphor for man's attempts to lord over the mighty forces of nature. The bible tells of Noah and the "giant fish" (whale). Debussy composed La Mer, portraying the ocean's power with the sonic power of an orchestra's. Turner sought to capture the mystery of the sea in his painted seascapes. And pirates sang sea "shanties" to pass the many hours,   and ward off their fears of the demons that lurked below the ocean's surface, surrounding them in the still of the dark night.

Throughout history, adventurers set out to face the great unknown where the sea met the horizon. Columbus sailed into the unknown to discover the "New World". Thousand of immigrants, our ancestors, set sail across thousands of miles of ocean to an unseen horizon with dreams of freedom and liberty, a country where the "streets were paved with gold". Those days of the truly great journeys are over. There are so few things which remain unknown, undiscoverable without the click of a button. And in an age when wealthy tourists scale Everest as a "bucket list" activity, there are few remaining adventures that truly remain "undo-able". Yet Nyad's swim from Cuba to Florida was said to be undo-able. I am old enough to remember the taunts that "that chick" Nyad endured in the 1970s. And yet today, that same woman - at the age of 64, an age when The Beatles suggested "you could knit a sweater by the fireside" - Diana Nyad accomplished the impossible. In so doing she has reminded us all of something very important: It is never too late to start your dreams.

There are times when the news about climate change, habitat destruction, or something else may seem overwhelming or depressing. But keep in mind that one person CAN make a difference. One person CAN achieve the impossible. And one person can capture the world's attention, and change the world. To all of you, my students, I say: Go for it! Dream. Dream big. In your comments reflect on some of your own dreams, for the planet, for your community, or for yourself. (And don't despair if they don't appear right away - I'll be moderating comments to ensure that we don't get spammed!)

Well, let's just jump right into the frying pan, shall we?

Figuratively speaking that is. In two ways. First, because this is the initial post in the BRAND NEW TA Environmental Science blog (Yay!), and second because things may be heating up on the global warming front (Awww). Again, heating up figuratively. (This probably serves as a good point in the course to say that I'll try to refrain from using the term "global warming" in class, since the warming aspect in some parts of the world will be matched by cooling, or other trends, in other parts in the world. The preferred term that captures the overall changes posited is "climate change").

Just a few days ago, on August 19, the New York Times published an article previewing the work of the International Panel on Climate Change. This panel was made up of several hundred (!) scientists, working under the aegis of the United Nations, and includes some Nobel Prize winners. The upcoming report is the fifth time that the panel has published a report since 1988, and the news is not good. Basically, the panel rebukes those who doubt climate change, or speak of the process slowing down. The panel states that temperatures are continuing to rise in many areas. So are ocean levels. In fact, this huge committee reached consensus on stating that sea levels have the potential to rise more than three feet by the year 2100. This level of change would flood major cities across the globe, including Miami, New Orleans, New York, and Boston. Not to mention Shanghai, Venice, Sydney, and London.

 What's striking about this report is that for the first time, the panel members laid the blame on us. The report states that human activities, particularly those resulting in increased emissions, are the principle cause of the climate changes being observed and recorded. What are those changes? Well, carbon dioxide levels, up 41% since the end of the 19th century, have increased at a faster rate in the past 20 years than has ever been seen in human history (at least as far as we can tell using ice core samples retrieved in the arctic and antarctic - I'll talk a bit more about this in class). And if you were born after April 1985, as all of you were, you have never experienced a single month of "below average" temperature.

Think about that for a second. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (our country's main weather and sea conditions information source) reports that 2012 was the warmest year - ever. (I'm assuming that they are referring to "ever" in the sense of human history. My guess is that the earth was a lot warming when the dinosaurs were roaming around the planet chomping on 30 foot tall ferns).

The main concern is that every increase, every single degree of temperature, adds a tremendous amount of heat energy to the planet. This energy has an exponential effect on other systems. This means that a 1X increase will cause a 10X increase in say, ocean temperatures, that would then cause a 100X increase in something else. Looking at things exponentially, the possibility that human activities may lead to an increase in temperature of up to 5 degrees in the coming 200 years has the potential to be catastrophic. We may not be around to be effected by its full impact, but is that the type of environment we want to leave to our children's children?

 Every major scientific academy in the world, or at least 99.8% of them, agree that climate change is real and that it is happening now. Some scientists however question the role of mankind and human activities in creating this situation (or at least, in making it worse). There seems to be consensus that the panel has tried to be conservative in their predictions. In fact, they have even laid out some scenarios in which the temperature and sea level increases might be bad, though not nearly as catastrophic as many think. What to do, what to do.

Well - what should we do? How should we react to this news? I invite you to watch the video clip that I have embedded below, titled "The Most Terrifying Video You Will Ever See". It's a 9 1/2 minute long lectur-ette (not counting whatever ad YouTube as in front of it which I encourage you to skip!) and well worth seeing. After you watch the video, I'd like you to reflect on what I wrote, and what was presented in the video. After thinking about for several minutes, I'd like you to post a comment on the blog that reflects your personal response to the question: "What should we do?". One paragraph to relate your response to the video, and another with your top 3 choices about changes that you, or all of us, can make in our lifestyles right now to help things out a bit. Because, the thought of doing nothing at all is, frankly, terrifying.