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Spaceship Earth – Your Main Oxygen Systems are Collapsing
As the brilliant futurist Buckminster Fuller used to point out, our Spaceship Earth is hurtling through space at a great speed. Imagine if someone told you (a passenger on that ship) that the main oxygen systems were failing because of how food was being grown.
Record-Breaking Sea Turlte Nesting Season on Florida’s Gulf Coast
It’s only the half-way point of sea turtle nesting season in Florida, and some beaches are already breaking records.
Mote’s Sea Turtle Patrol, a group of volunteers and scientists that monitor nests on Florida beaches between May 1 and Oct. 31, report this year has already seen 2,638 nests, some of which are beginning to hatch. This year’s number has surpassed the previous record—the total number of nests for 2015—by 163 nests, according to Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium.
S. Florida Republicans Tackle Climate Change
Republican Rep. Carlos Curbelo and Democratic Rep. Ted Deutch, whose South Florida districts are already enduring increased flooding, salt water intrusion and other effects of rising sea levels, are leading the first truly bipartisan congressional effort to tackle climate change.
100% Edible Six-Pack Ring
Drinking beer to save ocean life? Cheers to that. Saltwater Brewery in Florida has partnered with the New York-based ad agency We Believers to create a plastic-free six-pack ring that feeds marine life, rather than choking or ensnarling them. The Edible Six Pack Ring is made from byproducts of the brewing process such as wheat and barley, making it the first 100 percent biodegradable, compostable and edible packaging implemented in the beer industry.
Climate Change Causes Five Solomon Islands to Disappear
Five of the Solomon Islands have submerged underwater and six more have experienced a dramatic reduction in shoreline due to man-made climate change, according to a paper published in the journal Environmental Research Letters.
Climate Shift Coming Within Decades, Not Centuries
“The nations of the world agreed years ago to try to limit global warming to a level they hoped would prove somewhat tolerable. But leading climate scientists warned on Tuesday that permitting a warming of that magnitude would actually be quite dangerous.
The likely consequences would include killer storms stronger than any in modern times, the disintegration of large parts of the polar ice sheets and a rise of the sea sufficient to begin drowning the world’s coastal cities before the end of this century, the scientists declared.”
Sea Levels Rising Faster than Ever
“Sea levels in the 20th century rose faster than at any time in the last 3,000 years. And in the 21st century, the tides will climb ever higher—by at least 28 cms (11 inches) and possibly by as much as 130 cms (51 inches), according to two new studies.
Human activity is implicated in both studies and although neither delivers a new conclusion, each represents a new approach to studies of sea level rise as a consequence of climate change and each is a confirmation of previous research.”
The Future Sea Level Rise
“World leaders have begun to get serious about fighting climate change, but we still face the incredible risk of a rising sea in this century and far into the future. According to Climate Central, a research organization, a 4-degree Celsius (7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) global temperature increase, which is our current path, could result in sea level rise that would submerge land where 470 – 760 million people now live.
If the world’s governments actually meet the declared goal of the UN climate summit in Paris and reduce and draw down carbon emissions, keeping the world to a 2 Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) temperature increase, 130 million would need to evacuate over coming decades. To understand how serious this could be, here’s some perspective: 4 million Syrians have fled their homeland since their civil war began in 2011, with 380,000 making their way to Europe this year. Imagine millions more on the move each year, all over the world, and the political, social, and environmental effects of this migration.”
Oceans will soon contain more plastic than fish
“‘The best research currently available estimates that there are over 150 million tonnes (165 million tons) of plastics in the ocean today,’ [a] report reads. ‘In a business-as-usual scenario, the ocean is expected to contain 1 tonne (1.1 tons) of plastic for every 3 tonnes of fish by 2025, and by 2050, more plastics than fish (by weight).’
In other words, in just 34 years, plastic trash in the ocean will outweigh all the fish in the sea.”
