The Anthropocene

[MurrayM]

While people debate if we're still in the Holocene or have moved into the Anthropocene (where the dominant force for ecological change on Earth is Humanity) future fossil evidence of our impact is accumulating.

Chris Jordan photographs of dead Albatross chicks with stomachs full of plastic items:

Chris Jordan - Midway

Juvenile whale starves to death with 88 pounds of plastic in its stomach:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/03/whale-dies-88-pounds-plastic-philippines/

Such fossils (and other evidence) found above a layer of nuclear bomb testing fallout in the geologic record should be ample evidence of a major change.

Sigh...

On a brighter note, I'm confident Life on Earth will prevail despite whatever short term (geologically speaking) impacts we may be generating. Even if we fried the whole surface of the planet there are organisms between crystals in rocks and around deep sea thermal vents.

So I'm optimistic for Life, but sometimes not so much for us.

Sorry for being a downer, but the whale story made me remember the albatross photos and it bummed me out. Think I'll take a walk with the dog and enjoy an awesome early spring day

 

[Delfin]

While people debate if we're still in the Holocene or have moved into the Anthropocene (where the dominant force for ecological change on Earth is Humanity) future fossil evidence of our impact is accumulating.

Chris Jordan photographs of dead Albatross chicks with stomachs full of plastic items:

Chris Jordan - Midway

Juvenile whale starves to death with 88 pounds of plastic in its stomach:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/03/whale-dies-88-pounds-plastic-philippines/

Such fossils (and other evidence) found above a layer of nuclear bomb testing fallout in the geologic record should be ample evidence of a major change.

Sigh...

On a brighter note, I'm confident Life on Earth will prevail despite whatever short term (geologically speaking) impacts we may be generating. Even if we fried the whole surface of the planet there are organisms between crystals in rocks and around deep sea thermal vents.

So I'm optimistic for Life, but sometimes not so much for us.

Sorry for being a downer, but the whale story made me remember the albatross photos and it bummed me out. Think I'll take a walk with the dog and enjoy an awesome early spring day

The ubiquity of plastic in the environment is a major threat to the ecosystem, IMO. I don't know what the answer is, but we most certainly need to do something to dramatically reduce that waste stream.

 

[swampu]

It’s always what you don’t see that kills you. I would imagine something surprising will be our demise

 

[ssobol]

If humans vanished from the earth, it would be a much better place.

 

[Giggitoni]

If humans vanished from the earth, it would be a much better place.

How would we know?

 

[Boat]

The plastic straws could give the whales gas. The whale farts could kill us all, and the cows.


If a whale farts in the sea and nobody is there to hear it, does it make a smell? … err, I mean a sound?


Yeast drowning in their own waste may be an applicable model.

 

[BruceK]

If humans vanished from the earth, it would be a much better place.

It was a much better place when there were less humans. More humans means more load on an already overloaded planet. I`m not about flourishing a "Beware the End is Nigh", sign but, human nature being what it is, I regard the downward spiral as irreversible.

 

[FF]

Perhaps we just need to invent a cousin to the dredded Pollyester mite.

A roach that eats plastic?

A simple solution to turn plastic into a clean burning fuel to produce power might be a easier world wide answer.

 

[swampu]

It wasn’t that long ago that gasoline was a bi product and dumped into rivers because it was to flammable to use

 

[O C Diver]

It’s always what you don’t see that kills you. I would imagine something surprising will be our demise

It will probably be our children (younger generations in general). Too many people snd not enough resources. Smartest species on the planet figured out how to beat mother nature's population controls so it could kill itself and most everything else in the process.

Ted

 

[Boat]

A simple solution to turn plastic into a clean burning fuel to produce power might be a easier world wide answer.

There was an article back in the late 70s or early 80s, maybe in Scientific American, that told of a plasma incinerator, they called it a sand fire, in Asia. The issue was at the elemental level. You can only break plastic down to the elements and the nasty little things recombine to make other nasty things.

There is a lot of modern information out there on plasma gasification but I'm not sure where it's going.


There have been wars fought over a lot less. Progress is in the eye of the beholder.

 

[denverd0n]

"Reduce, reuse, recycle." My wife and I have been doing it for forty years. It's not that hard.


My biggest frustration is that nowadays, it seems like the people who whine the loudest and longest that the government is not doing enough for the environment, themselves do almost nothing to reduce, reuse, recycle.

 

[dhays]

"Reduce, reuse, recycle." My wife and I have been doing it for forty years. It's not that hard.


My biggest frustration is that nowadays, it seems like the people who whine the loudest and longest that the government is not doing enough for the environment, themselves do almost nothing to reduce, reuse, recycle.

That seems like a pretty broad generalization.

 

[MurrayM]

There are glimmers of hope, despite the worst we are doing.

African Elephants are becoming tuskless in areas of heavy poaching, going from 2 to 3 percent of the population to 30 percent. This might buy them some time until we smarten up?!!?

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/...atch-news-tuskless-elephants-behavior-change/

 

[boatpoker]

There are simply too many people on this planet. Unfortunately there are a number of derogatory epithets for any politician (or anyone else) with the balls to raise the issue and suggest a means of dealing with it.

 

[Steve]

How many drink water from a plastic bottle?

 

[MurrayM]

How many drink water from a plastic bottle?

Not me. We have awesome water from surrounding mountains

 

[MurrayM]

There are simply too many people on this planet. Unfortunately there are a number of derogatory epithets for any politician (or anyone else) with the balls to raise the issue and suggest a means of dealing with it.

Here's an idea for you.

How about, once we get a tad more advanced at slicing and dicing genes, we inject the 'altruistic tendency' gene of Bonobo's to override the warmongering gene we seem to share with Chimpanzee's.

If we get lucky, we may even adopt the same social stress relieving strategy most favoured by Bonobo's, and we'll actually start to Make Love - Not War

 

[BruceK]

How many drink water from a plastic bottle?

Another question, do you refill them? Easy to do,no quality issues most places.

 

[O C Diver]

How many drink water from a plastic bottle?

Most every day. The water would slosh out of a glass on my bicycle. While there is nothing wrong with refilling plastic drinking bottles, periodically they do need to be resanitized.

Ted

 

[denverd0n]

That seems like a pretty broad generalization.

It is a broad generalization, but it is an accurate generalization of what I have observed.

 

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
I disagree with the overpopulation comments. There are enough assets to support the current and future populations. The problem is a goodly majority of the population simply don't give a sh*t and waste, squander and pollute.
IF the oceans and landmasses could ever be cleaned up, cared for AND treated in a responsible manner, I'm confident that the earth could pretty well heal itself.

 

[ssobol]

Greetings,
I disagree with the overpopulation comments. There are enough assets to support the current and future populations. The problem is a goodly majority of the population simply don't give a sh*t and waste, squander and pollute.
IF the oceans and landmasses could ever be cleaned up, cared for AND treated in a responsible manner, I'm confident that the earth could pretty well heal itself.

Same difference. You can either have a large population that is environmentally responsible or you can reduce the population so that the population that "don't give a sh*t and waste, squander and pollute" is small enough that the planet can handle the damage.

Humans have so far demonstrated that the first choice doesn't seem to be a viable option.

 

[O C Diver]

Greetings,
I disagree with the overpopulation comments. There are enough assets to support the current and future populations. The problem is a goodly majority of the population simply don't give a sh*t and waste, squander and pollute.
IF the oceans and landmasses could ever be cleaned up, cared for AND treated in a responsible manner, I'm confident that the earth could pretty well heal itself.

I think you are wrong on the world not being over populated. However, even if you are correct, you're not going to stop the population from growing, so you will reach overpopulation soon enough.

Ted

 

[BruceK]

Greetings,
I disagree with the overpopulation comments. There are enough assets to support the current and future populations. The problem is a goodly majority of the population simply don't give a sh*t and waste, squander and pollute.
IF the oceans and landmasses could ever be cleaned up, cared for AND treated in a responsible manner, I'm confident that the earth could pretty well heal itself.

If that cleanup was going to happen it would have happened by now. The consequences of a world stressed by too many people is apparent, resulting in territorial expansionism, religious wars and disputes, internal disputes in a country where disparate groups can no longer keep out of each others way, clearing land and animal habitat to feed an ever growing population, which begets an even greater population which begets..... requiring even more land clearing, in a circular snowballing effect.Yes, we`ve seen religious wars and territorial expansionism before,but do you really think the population can go on increasing,forever,without limit, without consequences?

 

[FF]

"The consequences of a world stressed by too many people is apparent, resulting in territorial expansionism, religious wars and disputes,"

I seem to remember most of these same past events from reading a history book.

Even 2,000 or 3,000 years ago , with a tiny planet population seems we were doing the same thing.

"but do you really think the population can go on increasing,forever,without limit, without consequences?"

In much of the first world the population is already shrinking , the only demand for population growth comes from politicos that need more workers to pay off unfunded promises.

Eventually the hordes of migrants will understand the concept that the only reason they have to leave their homes is the local political system..

TV , radio and the internet is showing the benefits of living in a non corrupt society , in time they too will slow down reproduction so they can pay for their 1 kids kollege.

 

[Seevee]

Most every day. The water would slosh out of a glass on my bicycle. While there is nothing wrong with refilling plastic drinking bottles, periodically they do need to be resanitized.

Ted

Good point. I buy G juice about once a year. Use the bottles for water and to make more G Juice.

I never buy bottles water... it's a rip off. Tap water or from the well, is fine.

 

[BruceK]

"but do you really think the population can go on increasing,forever,without limit, without consequences?"

In much of the first world the population is already shrinking , the only demand for population growth comes from politicos that need more workers to pay off unfunded promises.

Eventually the hordes of migrants will understand the concept that the only reason they have to leave their homes is the local political system..

It matters not if part of the world has a lower birthrate and imports a population increase from countries with a higher birthrate. World population is increasing, shifting people to various parts of the world does not change that. That migrants do or don`t get moved for political reasons matters not, they are people, they live in the world, like everyone else they want food, goods and services,the supply of which, in a finite world, is finite.

 

[ssobol]

...religious wars and disputes, ...

Religious wars were going on long before there was population pressure. The Crusaders traveled thousands of miles on foot and horseback to put the heathens in their place.

 

[rgano]

And if overpopulation isn't an issue already, China is in the process of promoting more babies because the reality of maintaining a growing economy includes a growing population. Go figure.