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Nature_and_Environment.114 |
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It's later than you think |
{Nature_and_Environment.114.1}: Glen Marks {wotan} Tue, 26 Nov 2019 10:00:11 CST (2 lines)
"https://www.npr.org/2019/11/26/782586224/greenhouse-gas-emissions- are-still-rising-u-n-report-says"
{Nature_and_Environment.114.2}: Glen Marks {wotan} Tue, 26 Nov 2019 10:00:46 CST (2 lines)
"http://newcafe.org/motet/bin/motet.cgi?show+-uPlGEO+- ilad+Science+281+-25-"
{Nature_and_Environment.114.3}: Glen Marks {wotan} Tue, 26 Nov 2019 19:36:58 CST (2 lines)
"https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-climate-procrastination-has- put-the-planet-in-peril"
{Nature_and_Environment.114.4}: Glen Marks {wotan} Wed, 11 Dec 2019 10:28:34 CST (1 line)
"https://phys.org/news/2019-12-greenland-ice-losses-faster.html"
{Nature_and_Environment.114.5}: Jay Hoffman {resist} Thu, 12 Dec 2019 17:04:46 CST (118 lines)
Over thirty years ago I fell in love with the natural world and used my passing intellectual ability to construct an understanding of the on-going human relationship with it. What I discovered was that unlike other species, homo sapiens had no fixed niche. (A niche is a given energetic space and defined relationship with the rest of life in a given ecosystem.) Through its expanding technology and accumulative cleverness the species increases its ability to amass a greater percentage of the energy of a given ecosystem. Other species have a marginal ability to either genetically introduce innovation or sporadically develop limited tools. But this develops over a period of time in which the rest of life in ecosystems tends to mutually adapt. The phrase I used to describe this process was Progressive Technos. The human species is a tribal animal armed with Progressive Technos. Why did I find this of the utmost significance? Because as a tribal animal living in the here and now, the various tribes and the species as a whole will almost always use its accumulated understanding and tools (Progressive Technos) in the interest of expanding its power and influence. In competition with other tribes, those that do not seize upon power will tend to die off. (And yes, the tool kit for war making is but one aspect of Progressive Technos.) Progressive Technos allows niche invasion which means that more and more of the energy of life in a given ecosystem is given over to human expansion. The space for the other forms of life contracts and this brings forth an exponential increase in human numbers, the modern day mass extinction crisis, the radical heating of the planet (global warming) threatening all macroscopic life on Earth, and the depletion of all so-called natural resources that fuels the on-going expansion. Progressive Technos means Human Tribal Power and it will be held unto zealously as a way for tribes to survive in the coming breakdown of civilization. Thus the race to the natural world's extinction crisis will be exacerbated by the continuation of the human species armed with Progressive Technos. This includes the expanding means of nuclear destruction and poisonous chemical products that humans are unleashing all over the natural world. A young human child is brought into existence with the genetic unconscious physical adaptations primed to enter the world. How is it that it joins with its tribal members in an almost complete state of unconsciousness as to the collective arc of annihilation its species is driving toward? For a few years I struggled to find a solution to the problem. Can mankind find a way out of its ultimate destruction? To understand this I had to look at the evolution of the species and how it radically expanded its numbers and power through Progressive Technos. Human tribal power is brought forth by both the genetic and the socially conditioned power that is necessary for the tribe to survive. When tribes are facing scarcity or engaged in conflict, powerful emotions arise priming the individual to connect with others to overcome difficulty. The language and conceptual tools to convey instructions to others became a critical component of the species success and a large brain evolved. With this conceptual ability and primitive tools the human species expanded its numbers and range. From the previous deep bonding and nomadic connection to the rest of the natural world, a human-centered world developed. This became almost entirely focused on farming, the fortress of the city, the tools of warfare and extracting more resources from the natural world. The deep bonding that a young child was to undergo was increasingly human centered and divorced from experiencing the rest of the natural world. The conceptual focus upon the natural world was that of a larder for immediate human consumption though the use of social technique and physical tools (Progressive Technos). The harm done and the diminishment of the rest of the natural world did not tend to arise in awareness in the trance of the human success in expanding its numbers and power over nature. Bonding represents our connection to existence. Through my inquiry and growing love and caring about the natural world I had temporarily bonded to the rest of the natural world. In the process I had temporarily broken this human-centered trance. So breaking the Trance appeared to be the key to solving the dilemma. I then developed the Seven Earth/Self Principles which are ways that individuals can bond with the health of the natural world, bond with the particular ecosystem they live inside of, and bond with the ecological health of planet Earth. The bonding principles represent the four basic ways of experiencing the mystery of reality (1 body), (2 feeling-relation), (3 story-mind) and (4 spirit). In a human-centered world the bonding represents power over the natural world - not in basic harmony with it. But when the individual had sufficiently bonded as an Earth/Self entity they were ready to examine and break the harm of the human-centered Trance. Then they were primarily moved to be creative symbionts to the health of the natural world they lived inside of. But power over the natural world is human power for the tribal species. Because the Earth/Self Principles do not represent human tribal power, they will never be seized upon except by a handful of shamans. Eventually I became resigned to the inevitable and the last thirty years have but deepened my understanding of the hellish consequences of the human savagery on Earth. In the mean time I discovered that no one was interested in my understanding (too depressing and not full of hope). So I decided to shut-up and just to get a job and live within the confines of the on- going human mess. As a result, the longer the human realm is destroying the natural world the more destructive the consequences. The totality of the human species shows no willingness to abandon its' prime key to success - Progressive Technos. This suggests that the only hope for the potential exuberance and resilience of the rest of life on Earth is the more rapid extinction of the human species.
{Nature_and_Environment.114.6}: Glen Marks {wotan} Thu, 12 Dec 2019 19:17:42 CST (5 lines)
- The earth we abuse and the living things we kill will, in the end, take their revenge; for in exploiting their presence we are diminishing our future. Marya Mannes
{Nature_and_Environment.114.7}: Jay Hoffman {resist} Fri, 13 Dec 2019 18:20:02 CST (3 lines)
The insect apocalypse https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CidaOP7PA-o
{Nature_and_Environment.114.8}: Jay Hoffman {resist} Fri, 13 Dec 2019 21:58:06 CST (4 lines)
Dr. William Moomaw - Humanity's Mortality Moment "https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/advance- article/doi/10.1093/biosci/biz088/5610806" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wl9Z_miGBNw
{Nature_and_Environment.114.9}: Glen Marks {wotan} Sun, 15 Dec 2019 14:56:51 CST (2 lines)
"https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/15/natural-gas-surges-climate-change- after-carbon-emissions-record-in-2019.html"
{Nature_and_Environment.114.10}: Glen Marks {wotan} Sun, 22 Dec 2019 02:01:24 CST (3 lines)
"https://siouxcityjournal.com/opinion/columnists/commentary-humanity- is-overwhelming-the-planet/article_e561e65c-885f-5428-9c4f- 71acd18ab504.html"
{Nature_and_Environment.114.11}: Glen Marks {wotan} Sun, 22 Dec 2019 17:15:22 CST (1 line)
"https://www.idsnews.com/article/2019/12/opextinction121119"
{Nature_and_Environment.114.12}: Glen Marks {wotan} Mon, 23 Dec 2019 00:20:20 CST (1 line)
https://redflag.org.au/node/6974
{Nature_and_Environment.114.13}: Jay Hoffman {resist} Tue, 24 Dec 2019 04:37:25 CST (51 lines)
Fifty years ago, an international team of researchers was commissioned by the Club of Rome to build a computer simulation of exponential economic and population growth on a finite planet. In 1971, its findings were first released in Moscow and Rio de Janeiro, and later published in 1972 under the title The Limits To Growth. The report concluded: 1.*Given business as usual, i.e., no changes to historical growth trends, the limits to growth on earth would become evident by 2072, leading to "sudden and uncontrollable decline in both population and industrial capacity". This includes the following: -- Global Industrial output per capita reaches a peak around 2008, followed by a rapid decline -- Global Food per capita reaches a peak around 2020, followed by a rapid decline -- Global Services per capita reaches a peak around 2020, followed by a rapid decline -- Global population reaches a peak in 2030, followed by a rapid decline 2.*Growth trends existing in 1972 could be altered so that sustainable ecological and economic stability could be achieved. 3.*The sooner the world's people start striving for the second outcome above, the better the chance of achieving it. Few reports have generated as much debate, discussion and disagreement. Though it's hard to argue that its forecasts made back in the early 1970s have proved eerily accurate over the ensuing decades. But most of its warnings have been largely ignored by policymakers hoping (blindly?) for a rosier future. Decline is now inevitable. Were without any question moving into the remainder of a century which is going to see, by the end of these decades, a much smaller population, much lower level of energy and material consumption and so forth. Whether we retain equity amongst people and avoid the more violent forms of conflict remains to be seen. But sustainable development is no longer an option. One of the original seventeen researchers involved in The Limits To Growth study, Dennis Meadows, joins us for the podcast this week. Fifty years later, what does he foresee ahead? "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBmjIIWPj3w"
{Nature_and_Environment.114.14}: Jay Hoffman {resist} Sun, 29 Dec 2019 22:31:02 CST (26 lines)
Globally, we are ingesting an average of 5 grams of plastic every week, the equivalent of a credit card, a new study suggests. This plastic contamination comes from "microplastics" -- particles smaller than five millimeters -- which are making their way into our food, drinking water and even the air. Around the world, people ingest an average of around 2,000 microplastic particles a week, according to the study by the University of Newcastle, in Australia. 2018 study that found twice as much plastic in water in the United States and India than in European or Indonesian tap water. A separate study this month found that Americans eat, drink and breathe between 74,000 and 121,000 microplastic particles each year, and those who exclusively drink bottled water rather than tap water can add up to 90,000 plastic particles to their yearly total. Shellfish is the second biggest source of plastic ingestion, with the average person consuming as many as 182 microparticles -- 0.5 grams -- from this per week. The report says this is because "shellfish are eaten whole, including their digestive system, after a life in plastic polluted seas." "https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/11/health/microplastics-ingestion-wwf- study-scn-intl/index.html"
{Nature_and_Environment.114.15}: Jay Hoffman {resist} Mon, 30 Dec 2019 02:41:21 CST (11 lines)
The Climate Crisis is a "Time Bomb" for the World's Groundwater Reserves "https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/01/22/new-study-shows-climate- crisis-could-mean-time-bomb-worlds-groundwater" Nearly 1,100 scientists, practitioners and experts in groundwater and related fields from 92 countries have called on the governments and non-governmental organizations to "act now" to ensure global groundwater sustainability. https://www.groundwaterstatement.org/
{Nature_and_Environment.114.16}: Glen Marks {wotan} Mon, 30 Dec 2019 14:48:10 CST (1 line)
"https://www.livescience.com/earth-changed-forever-in-2019.html"
{Nature_and_Environment.114.17}: Glen Marks {wotan} Tue, 14 Jan 2020 23:50:11 CST (2 lines)
"https://www.sciencealert.com/the-ocean-is-warming-at-a-rate-of-5- atom-bombs-per-second-says-study"
{Nature_and_Environment.114.18}: Jay Hoffman {resist} Thu, 16 Jan 2020 15:02:16 CST (37 lines)
Trump Dooms the Future by Gutting the National Environmental Policy Act by George Ochenski NEPA requires the government to consider the environmental effects prior to issuing permits for industries or taking major action by federal agencies. Importantly, the law also requires the analysis of environmental impacts to be presented to the public for review and comment. Bending, as usual, to unrelenting industry pressure, Congress has already shamefully exempted any number of projects such as clearcutting national forests from the required environmental reviews. These measures are intended, as in the case of national forest categorical exclusions, to bolster the timber industry which has largely cut itself out of a future by logging far beyond the sustainable levels of forest replacement. In the parlance of the timber industry, our national forests are not ecosystems in and of their own right, supporting a vast array of wildlife and producing clean water for our citizens, but are 100-year gardens to be whacked down and harvested. The problem is that industrys rap, as usual, is a total sham and theres no way timber companies are willing to wait a century for the forests to grow back. Moreover, given the increasing impacts of climate change, forest regrowth is not guaranteed. On January 10th, the Trump administration decided to gut NEPAvia administrative rules changes that will allow virtually unhindered development, resource extraction and pollution. Its one thing for the Trump cultists to support certain policies, tariffs, sanctions and war-mongering. Its quite another to allow Trumps anti-environmental administration to doom the future by leaving generations to come a smoldering, polluted and unlivable planet which is just what gutting NEPA will do. "https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/01/16/trump-dooms-the-future-by- gutting-the-national-environmental-policy-act/"
{Nature_and_Environment.114.19}: Jay Hoffman {resist} Wed, 22 Jan 2020 01:11:43 CST (15 lines)
During the past 20 years, insecticides applied to U.S. agricultural landscapes have become significantly more toxicover 120-fold in some midwestern statesto honey bees when ingested Researchers identified rising neonicotinoid seed treatments in corn and soy as the primary driver of this change. This toxicity has increased during the same period in which widespread decline in populations of pollinators and other insects have been documented. "This dramatic increase in oral-based toxic load is connected to a shift toward widespread use of neonicotinoid insecticides, which are unusually toxic to bees when they are ingested," said researcher Maggie Douglas. "https://phys.org/news/2020-01-insecticides-toxic-honey-bees.html?"
{Nature_and_Environment.114.20}: Glen Marks {wotan} Fri, 24 Jan 2020 15:33:47 CST (2 lines)
"https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2020/1/23/21079028/climate- change-extinction-nuclear-war-ai-existential-risk-doomsday-clock"
{Nature_and_Environment.114.21}: Glen Marks {wotan} Mon, 03 Feb 2020 23:58:52 CST (2 lines)
"https://grist.org/climate/antarcticas-glaciers-are-melting-so-fast- you-can-swim-in-them-in-a-speedo/"
{Nature_and_Environment.114.22}: Jay Hoffman {resist} Thu, 06 Feb 2020 22:20:14 CST (71 lines)
Why bumble bees are going extinct in time of 'climate chaos' by University of Ottawa "We've known for a while that climate change is related to the growing extinction risk that animals are facing around the world," first author Peter Soroye explained. "In this paper, we offer an answer to the critical questions of how and why that is. We find that species extinctions across two continents are caused by hotter and more frequent extremes in temperatures." "We have now entered the world's sixth mass extinction event, the biggest and most rapid global biodiversity crisis since a meteor ended the age of the dinosaurs."Peter Soroye Massive decline of the most important pollinators on Earth "Bumble bees are the best pollinators we have in wild landscapes and the most effective pollinators for crops like tomato, squash, and berries," Peter Soroye observed. "Our results show that we face a future with many less bumble bees and much less diversity, both in the outdoors and on our plates." The researchers discovered that bumble bees are disappearing at rates "consistent with a mass extinction." "If declines continue at this pace, many of these species could vanish forever within a few decades," Peter Soroye warned. "We know that this crisis is entirely driven by human activities," Peter Soroye said. The researchers looked at climate change and how it increases the frequency of really extreme events like heatwaves and droughts, creating a sort of "climate chaos" which can be dangerous for animals. Knowing that species all have different tolerances for temperature (what's too hot for some might not be for others), they developed a new measurement of temperature. "We have created a new way to predict local extinctions that tells us, for each species individually, whether climate change is creating temperatures that exceed what the bumble bees can handle," Dr. Tim Newbold explained. Using data on 66 different bumble bee species across North America and Europe that have been collected over a 115-year period (1900-2015) to test their hypothesis and new technique, the researchers were able to see how bumble bee populations have changed by comparing where bees are now to where they used to be historically. "We found that populations were disappearing in areas where the temperatures had gotten hotter," Peter Soroye said. "Using our new measurement of climate change, we were able to predict changes both for individual species and for whole communities of bumble bees with a surprisingly high accuracy." This study doesn't end here. In fact, it opens the doors to new research horizons to track extinction levels for other species like reptiles, birds and mammals. "Perhaps the most exciting element is that we developed a method to predict extinction risk that works very well for bumble bees and could in theory be applied universally to other organisms," Peter Soroye indicated. "With a predictive tool like this, we hope to identify areas where conservation actions would be critical to stopping declines." Dr. Kerr said, "Ultimately, we must address climate change itself and every action we take to reduce emissions will help. The sooner the better. It is in all our interests to do so, as well as in the interests of the species with whom we share the world." https://phys.org/news/2020-02-bumble-bees-extinct-climate-chaos.html?
{Nature_and_Environment.114.23}: Glen Marks {wotan} Wed, 12 Feb 2020 21:29:38 CST (2 lines)
"https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/feb/06/humanity-under- threat-perfect-storm-crises-study-environment"
{Nature_and_Environment.114.24}: Glen Marks {wotan} Wed, 19 Feb 2020 11:11:24 CST (4 lines)
Coral reefs: "https://www.theinertia.com/environment/scientists-predict-90-of- coral-reefs-will-disappear-by-2100/"
{Nature_and_Environment.114.25}: Jay Hoffman {resist} Wed, 26 Feb 2020 00:27:46 CST (39 lines)
>So, what do you think humanity should do now to save our climate?< Collectively humans are dependent upon economic, political and social institutions that are in the process of consuming all available resources and energy that provided niches wherein the eco-diversity of life could formerly flourish. In the process we are heating up and poisoning the ecosystems we live inside of. This is all done for the immediate benefit (progress) of the system we live in. This system is now reaching its terminal end with the annihilation of the planet. As the annihilation proceeds the entire array of human institutions has and will become more aggressively destructive in the attempt to maintain privilege as usual. Sane and cool minds will be brushed aside in the struggle to maintain lifestyles that will now vanish. Humanity has a tendency to embrace and follow psychopathic leaders in times of trouble. So what humanity might do to lessen the catastrophic impact of ecosystem destruction/climate change and what it is likely and now doing is worlds apart. Individual and collective groups will be in competition to grab as much as they can to maintain life/advantage when ecosystems providing the basis for life collapse. In the decade before dissolution individuals can help others understand then problem. By the force of the likely ecological collapse the human population will decimate as will most of life. We can stop the most heinous annihilation only by collective awareness and the complete overhaul of institutions: (regenerative agriculture, socialist sharing of meager resources, worldwide social bonding to the health of ecosystems and to the health of the ecodiveristy lifeform we live inside of).
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