I have been flabbergasted by the utter lack of understanding and misdirection perpetrated on unsuspecting people regarding climate change. In my own life, I have been aware and up to date about research dating back to the mid seventies about both chlorofluorocarbons and carbon in the atmosphere. The first are the class of chemicals that slowly rise into the upper atmosphere, degrading the layer of ozone which protects us from ultraviolet radiation and the second is one of the chemicals that leads to the "greenhouse effect". Scientists posited nearly fifty years ago that increasing carbon in the atmosphere would absorb and trap more radiant energy, acting like a piece of glass between our planet and the Sun. We continue to learn, through research that the interactions are far more insidious. Rather than a nice warm terrarium, stable and secure, we live under an ocean of air, invisible for the most part but no less unstable.
Great currents of wind naturally stir things up in some areas around the globe and the doldrums set in at other places, allowing eddies and fallout of tiny particles to occur. One of these great transport mechanisms wafts fine particles of dirt and sand across the Atlantic ocean, depositing material blown up off the continent of Africa into the forests of South America. We humans alter the natural state of things by our impacts and add rising boluses of superheated air. We release chemical compounds of our making which are let loose routinely. Carcinogens, mutagens and teratogens, in deadly aerosol cocktails, expanding and stirring into this vast ocean compounds that will invade our bodies, take up residence in the food chain and outlive us.
Finally, there seems to be a rising awareness about such things. Not by the wealthy classes of people who have the most say in any potential for change, but among the 99%, who are beginning to demand change that will truly make a difference. This winter, the polar vortex, which is normally fixed over the polar region has broken loose, invading the mid latitudes of North America. We are seeing the Winter Olympics held in a region nearly devoid of snow, setting records for warmth across the arctic region and the trend line shows that more and more atmospheric instability is to be expected. Record cold, heat, winds, rain and drought are becoming more and more commonplace as the lives we lead, out of balance are having their effect on the entire ocean of air.
Our research has focused on the land masses because we live most of our lives upon them, but the more deeply we look at the oceans, the more cause we have for alarm. Carbon seems to be warming the oceans far faster than the atmosphere, leading to increased melting in polar regions, changes in ocean currents and new shipping lanes opening across the arctic region. Even the chemistry of the oceans is changing, but because our baseline data is sketchy at best, it is hard to establish good data on the speed and nature of the change. Human beings have fished out over 90% of many of the most prized fish in the seas, eradicated 90% of the forest cover in North America and Europe and 90% of the wetlands have been drained and filled as well. Growing awareness has led us to make changes in the past, but none as deep and sweeping as what is needed now to avert increasing catastrophic events like we have seen in Australia, California, Indonesia, Europe, and both the Gulf and Atlantic Coast. We know that the forests of the land are in desperate need of a more stable climate and that they need to be protected from invasive species, but the oceans are under assault as well. The Great Barrier Reef is being transected by development and it seems that nearly every day we hear of another oil spill, pipeline rupture or chemical spill.
It is time to stop letting these stories wash over us, draining away our ability to care or do something about it. We must double down in our quest to find a rout to sustainability. Not the kind that business has co-opted and used to placate the consumer, but the real kind that can produce goods and services without negative consequences for the planet and her people. Jung hypothesized that there had to be a suicide gene, just as powerful as the survival gene, without this, we would be like all other creatures and not overburden our resources for the sake of always having "more" wealth, power and status. Perhaps if we understood that each and everything we consume has an origin, a life before it comes to us and a final result once used up, we would be less likely to abuse and neglect the systems that make our lives possible.
Great currents of wind naturally stir things up in some areas around the globe and the doldrums set in at other places, allowing eddies and fallout of tiny particles to occur. One of these great transport mechanisms wafts fine particles of dirt and sand across the Atlantic ocean, depositing material blown up off the continent of Africa into the forests of South America. We humans alter the natural state of things by our impacts and add rising boluses of superheated air. We release chemical compounds of our making which are let loose routinely. Carcinogens, mutagens and teratogens, in deadly aerosol cocktails, expanding and stirring into this vast ocean compounds that will invade our bodies, take up residence in the food chain and outlive us.
Finally, there seems to be a rising awareness about such things. Not by the wealthy classes of people who have the most say in any potential for change, but among the 99%, who are beginning to demand change that will truly make a difference. This winter, the polar vortex, which is normally fixed over the polar region has broken loose, invading the mid latitudes of North America. We are seeing the Winter Olympics held in a region nearly devoid of snow, setting records for warmth across the arctic region and the trend line shows that more and more atmospheric instability is to be expected. Record cold, heat, winds, rain and drought are becoming more and more commonplace as the lives we lead, out of balance are having their effect on the entire ocean of air.
Our research has focused on the land masses because we live most of our lives upon them, but the more deeply we look at the oceans, the more cause we have for alarm. Carbon seems to be warming the oceans far faster than the atmosphere, leading to increased melting in polar regions, changes in ocean currents and new shipping lanes opening across the arctic region. Even the chemistry of the oceans is changing, but because our baseline data is sketchy at best, it is hard to establish good data on the speed and nature of the change. Human beings have fished out over 90% of many of the most prized fish in the seas, eradicated 90% of the forest cover in North America and Europe and 90% of the wetlands have been drained and filled as well. Growing awareness has led us to make changes in the past, but none as deep and sweeping as what is needed now to avert increasing catastrophic events like we have seen in Australia, California, Indonesia, Europe, and both the Gulf and Atlantic Coast. We know that the forests of the land are in desperate need of a more stable climate and that they need to be protected from invasive species, but the oceans are under assault as well. The Great Barrier Reef is being transected by development and it seems that nearly every day we hear of another oil spill, pipeline rupture or chemical spill.
It is time to stop letting these stories wash over us, draining away our ability to care or do something about it. We must double down in our quest to find a rout to sustainability. Not the kind that business has co-opted and used to placate the consumer, but the real kind that can produce goods and services without negative consequences for the planet and her people. Jung hypothesized that there had to be a suicide gene, just as powerful as the survival gene, without this, we would be like all other creatures and not overburden our resources for the sake of always having "more" wealth, power and status. Perhaps if we understood that each and everything we consume has an origin, a life before it comes to us and a final result once used up, we would be less likely to abuse and neglect the systems that make our lives possible.
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