Oceans and land in big trouble

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Posted on December 7, 2006
Filed Under Justice, Global warming/Climate change, Deep ecology, Greenhouse gas emissions, Ecological overshoot, Ecological hope, Consumer culture, Population growth, Fossil fuel dependency, Environmental disasters, Earth spirituality, Ecology of war and peace

Fostering Ecogical Hope

Today from Margaret Swedish:

I guess we just have to keep putting out the bad news, the results of more and more studies, in the hope that this news eventually reaches critical mass in the consciousness of the nation.

Here’s one: the oceans are in big trouble.  The rising CO2 levels are killing off the microbial life that keeps the oceans healthy.  That life, called phytoplankton, also absorbs a lot of carbon dioxide, so the more it dies off, the less CO2 will be absorbed by the oceans and the faster global warming will occur — one of those notorious ‘positive feedback loops.’

Meanwhile, other studies show that global warming will affect crop yields.  Actually, this is already happening.  Food shortages will grow acute and hundreds of millions of people will become environmental refugees.  This is also the sort of thing that will spark more violent conflicts –

…unless we are willing to make the changes required to ensure a food supply for everyone — unless we are willing to cut our carbon emissions to keep the globe from warming beyond our abilities to adapt.

Keep in mind that crop yields will be dropping as the world population grows — from 6.5 billion now to somewhere around 9.3 billion by 2050.

Seems we need to be doing something differently.  But we can’t even get ourselves doing something differently in Iraq — in the face of an overwhelming disaster and human catastrophe brought about by the singular policy of the United States.

Yup, we need to be doing something differently.  And we need new leadership – strong, able, competent, honest, trustworthy, compassionate, unselfish, inspirational, ethical – at all levels of our cultural, social, religious, and political institutions.

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