Drastic Decline in Marine Life
July 30, 2010
Scientists may have found the most devastating impact yet of human-caused global warming — a 40% decline in phytoplankton since 1950 linked to the rise in ocean sea surface temperatures….
…“plant plankton found in the world’s oceans are crucial to much of life on Earth. They are the foundation of the bountiful marine food web, produce half the world’s oxygen and suck up harmful carbon dioxide.”
Addicted to Fossil Fuels
July 18, 2010
…So, you ride a bike or walk? Sure, you use far less energy. But the bike is made of coal (smelted aluminum and iron) and oil (tires, seat, plastic), then it is painted with oil. It’s a Gary Fisher, you say? OK, clear-coated with oil, or anodized with coal. Your Nikes or Chacos are pure oil, plus some coal (Chinese electricity) toted over on a smoky, Bunker No. 6-burning container ship. Your PV system (and mine): oil (plastic) and coal (aluminum), in combination with coal (electricity to make the smelt the silicon, refine the cadmium and tellurium), plus some more coal (electricity) to run the plant. And those coal plants which make the electricity to make these “clean energy” solar cells (of yours and mine) are over in China, where they can’t be protested. They’re out of sight and out of mind, unless you’re Chinese and breathing the effluent of a plant which no doubt has far fewer scrubbers and precipitators than those required in the US….
This Is What An Oil-Soaked Ocean Wave Looks Like
June 28, 2010
http://www.businessinsider.com/oil-spotted-waves-alabama-2010-6
As long as cars are driven, airplanes are flown, and other gigantic machinery propelled, we will see more and more of these waves. It is simply a side-effect of industrial civilization.
Sun Halo a sign from Gaia
May 17, 2010
Today, at around 11:45 AM, I was sitting outside in my backyard and happened to look up at a passing bird and noticed a massive circular rainbow behind it. I remarked, “holy s**t”, and walked to an open parking lot to get a better look. I saw a massive rainbow encircling the entire sun. Resembling a large eyeball in the sky.
After doing some quick research, I have discovered one was sighted in Salem, Oregon in 2008 around noontime. And another was sighted in Ceba, Phillipines, 2010. Meteorologists say it is a result of the sun’s rays being refracted by cirrus clounds. Religious folks say it is a sign from god. I have noticed the phenomenon before, but at night, aruond the moon. I assumed it was a result of increased moisture in the atmosphere due to glacial melt, warming bodies of water and plant respiration due to increased temperatures. A sign from god? Maybe from Gaia. Apparently they are fairly common, but in today’s society, we do not stop to look around. Instead we are focused on the pavement and our current task. “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop to look around, you could miss it.”
I have no idea if it is any more common than normal, but there is some valuable information on these phenomena here: http://www.atoptics.co.uk/halo/circular.htm
OVERSHOOT v1.8 Tracklist
April 19, 2010
Track info. Some of you may have received CDs entitled “Share” or something else. I do not have the track info posted for those versions, if you leave a comment I can direct you to the sources. “Overshoot” versions 1.4-1.75 do not have a track info list, but many tracks are similar. The sources can also be obtained by browsing the various links throughout this blog. Enjoy and spread the word!
1. Dmitry Orlov on Radio Ecoshock with Alex Smith
2. “The Good Times Are Killin’ Me” by Modest Mouse
3. Matthew Stein on The Reality Report with Jason Bradford
4. Dennis Meadows on Radio Ecoshock with Alex Smith
5. Dmitry Orlov on Voice America with Jay Taylor
6. Paul Kingsnorth on Radio Ecoshock with Alex Smith
7. Colin Campbell on Zone 5 with Graham Strouts
8. Paul Ehrlich lecture “The Dominant Animal“
9. Paul Kingsnorth on Radio Ecoshock with Alex Smith
10. John Michael Greer on Radio Ecoshock with Alex Smith
11. James Howard Kunstler lecture
12. James Howard Kunstler on the C-Realm Podcast with KMO
13. Good Morning Beautiful by Deftones
15. Richard Heinberg on Reality Report with Jason Bradford
16. Bill Wilson on Peak Moment Television with Janaia Donaldson
17. Charlie Hall on Peak Moment Television with Janaia Donaldson
18. Charlie Hall on Peak Moment Television with Janaia Donaldson
19. Charlie Hall on Peak Moment Television with Janaia Donaldson
20. Jay Hanson on The Reality Report with Jason Bradford
21. Jay Hanson on The Reality Report with Jason Bradford
22. James Howard Kunstler on the C-Realm Podcast with KMO
23. Richard Heinberg lecture, “The Energy Transition”
24. Richard Heinberg lecture, “The Energy Transition”
25. Michael Parenti lecture, “The Hidden Ideology of Mass Media”
26. James Howard Kunstler on The KunstlerCast with Duncan Crary
27. Kurt Cobb on Radio Ecoshock with Alex Smith
28. Ross Gelbspan presentation
29. Keith Farnish on Radio Ecoshock with Alex Smith
30. “Everybody’s Got to Learn Sometime“ by Beck
31. Colin A.M. Duncan on Against The Grain with C.S. Soong
32. Richard Heinberg on the Reality Report with Jason Bradford
33. James Howard Kunstler on the C-Realm Podcast with KMO
34. Paul Kingsnorth on Radio Ecoshock with Alex Smith
35. Jan Lundberg on the C-Realm Podcast with KMO
36. Old Future by John Gorka
37. KMO of the C-Realm Podcast reading a quote by Tim Bennett
38. Dmitry Orlov on Radio Ecoshock with Alex Smith
39. Sally Erickson on the C-Realm Podcast with KMO
40. “Hole in the Earth” by the Deftones
41. Richard Heinberg lecture, “What Will We Eat After the Oil Runs Out?”
42. Rick Munroe interviewed by Kathleen Petty on CBC Radio
43. Dmitry Orlov on Voice America with Jay Taylor
45. Bill Wilson on Peak Moment Television with Janaia Donaldson
46. David Blume on the C-Realm Podcast with KMO
47. “Be Healthy” by Dead Prez
48. Adam Schick of Linnea Farm interviewed on Deconstructing Dinner
49. Dmitry Orlov on Radio Ecoshock with Alex Smith
50. Dmitry Orlov on Radio Ecoshock with Alex Smith
51. Paul Ehrlich lecture, “The Dominant Animal”
52. “Nothing But Flowers” by Talking Heads
53. Erik Assadourian on Radio Ecoshock with Alex Smith
54. Charles Eisenstein on the C-Realm Podcast with KMO
55. Dmitry Orlov on Business Matters with Thomas White
56. Charles Eisenstein on the C-Realm Podcast with KMO
57. Dmitry Orlov on Radio Ecoshock with Alex Smith
58. Erik Assadourian on Radio Ecoshock with Alex Smith
59. Charles Eisenstein on the C-Realm Podcast with KMO
60. James Howard Kunstler on the KunstlerCast with Duncan Crary
61. Jan Lundberg on the C-Realm Podcast with KMO
62. “Anniversary of an Uninteresting Event” by the Deftones
Plastic Bag
March 31, 2010
‘Alarming decline’ in England’s biodiversity
March 22, 2010
England becoming a country of ‘beauty spots rather than beauty’, and must act fast to address declining biodiversity, says the government’s environment watchdog
Nearly 500 species of animals and plants have become extinct in England as a result of human activity since 1800, according to a report by Natural England.
In the first ever audit of England’s lost and declining species, 12 per cent of land mammals, 22 per cent of amphibians and 24 per cent of butterflies were shown to have been lost.
Seven of the species, including the Irish Lady’s Tresses orchid and the Pashford Pot Beetle, have been lost in the last 10 years and some, including the Great Auk and Ivell’s sea anenome, are now globally extinct.
The populations of a further 943 species are at precariously low levels including the northern bluefin tuna, the Natterjack toad and the red squirrel, which Natural England says could become extinct in the next 20-30 years without urgent action.
http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_round_up/437727/alarming_decline_in_englands_biodiversity.html
Observed and Projected Temperature Rise
By the end of the century, mid-continental temperatures will rise between 2.5 and 13 degrees, on average, depending to a large extent on what happens in Copenhagen at the climate negotiations.
The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change that was adopted many years ago said that the member nations should make every effort to “avoid serious or irreversible damage.” Solomon says we recently passed that point. Because of the long time that greenhouse gases stay in the atmosphere, even if we halted all emissions immediately, the planet will continue to warm for at least another 600 years.
In the past 20 years, most of Tennessee has moved at least one agricultural zone to the southward, and some parts have moved as many as 3 zones. That means we can plant earlier and harvest later, which I suppose is a good thing. It also means that we are now ideal habitat for armadillos, fire ants and scorpions, all of which are pushing our possums up into Ohio.
Of course it is much worse for the trees, which can’t just uproot and move north. In earlier years we have seen blights claim white oaks and dogwoods. This year we are losing more hickories from the weather fluctuations that make droughts, extreme rainfalls, late frosts and early thaws more frequent.
In Boulder, David Yarrow, biochar pioneer, small farmer and permaculture trainer in New York and New England, unveiled a vision of a community-centered biochar lifestyle that obtains fertility, fuel and food in an ecologically responsible cycle between humans and the living natural world. The three economic drivers for biochar development are farm products (including fertilizer, fuels and power); climate services; and carbon-negative community. That third driver is the greening of the human habitat to deliver carbon-negative housing and workplaces — the whole built environment.
A Civilisational Tipping Point
August 12, 2009
Although the need to cut carbon emissions has been evident for some time, not one country has succeeded in becoming carbon-neutral. Thus far this has proved too difficult politically for even the most technologically advanced societies. Could rising carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere prove to be as unmanageable for our early twenty-first century civilization as rising salt levels in the soil were for the Sumerians in 4000 BC?
http://permaculture.org.au/2009/08/13/a-civilisational-tipping-point/
The risk is that these accumulating problems and their consequences will overwhelm more and more governments, leading to widespread state failure and eventually the failure of civilization. The countries that top the list of failing states are not particularly surprising. They include, for example, Iraq, Sudan, Somalia, Chad, Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Haiti. And the list grows longer each year, raising a disturbing question: How many failing states will it take before civilization itself fails? No one knows the answer, but it is a question we must ask.
We are in a race between tipping points in nature and our political systems. Can we phase out coal-fired power plants before the melting of the Greenland ice sheet becomes irreversible? Can we gather the political will to halt deforestation in the Amazon before its growing vulnerability to fire takes it to the point of no return? Can we help countries stabilize population before they become failing states?
So, part of the problem is that “looking down the barrel of environmental catastrophe” makes it seem as though environmental catastrophe is the problem. But it’s not. It’s a symptom—an effect, not a cause. Think about global warming and attempts to “solve” or “stop” or “mitigate” it. Global warming (or global climate catastrophe, as some rightly call it), as terrifying as it is, isn’t first and foremost a threat. It’s a consequence. I’m not saying pikas aren’t going extinct, or the ice caps aren’t melting, or weather patterns aren’t changing, but to blame global warming for those disasters is like blaming the lead projectile for the death of someone who got shot. I’m also not saying we shouldn’t work to solve, stop, or mitigate global climate catastrophe; I’m merely saying we’ll have a better chance of succeeding if we recognize it as a predictable (at this point) result of burning oil and gas, of deforestation, of dam construction, of industrial agriculture, and so on. The real threat is all of these.
http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/4697/
