Some days, the best I can do to fight climate change is to read.
It's really easy to get wrapped up on all the political brouhaha in the other Washington and think that the Constitutional crisis needs more of my attention than science does. But when you consider the fall of a nation compared to the fall of humanity, perspective straightens itself out. Doesn't it?
I'm still stuck in the zone of what I could do that would make any difference. But I've decided that my tiny voice is still a voice. I can still make calls, write letters, and protest. I can still make my tiny little difference. So, today I read in order to make a difference. Yes, I said that I read.
Not only that, I read the National Geographic.
Now, I don't exactly trust National Geographic as much as I did before Rupert Murdock bought it and started printing Jesus covers with the National Geographic brand on them. But, I read their article about oxygen levels in our oceans. Did some tenured National Geographic writer sneak this one under the wire? Thank you Craig Welch.
It's worth reading. The story is that tuna, marlin, sailfish and other diving ocean predators are having to hold their breath or hunt closer to the surface because of huge areas in which oceans no longer hold enough oxygen to support life because of rising temperatures.
Rising temperatures.
Loss of oxygen in many huge areas of the ocean, millions of square miles. Changing habitat, squeezing predator and prey into smaller areas. Dead zones. Stress on the fish. A sixty-three percent loss of the small deep-sea fishes that feed the ocean. And indirectly, us.
63%
This is what we're up against if we don't start making changes regarding climate change. It's a motivator, right? It got your attention, right? I hope so.
Polar ice melting, species extinction, coral reefs bleaching, oxygen levels dropping making huge swaths of our oceans uninhabitable, seas rising, extreme hurricanes crashing onto our shores, wildfires burning out of control.
We're not looking at our future. This is our present situation. We are beginning to drown in it, burn in it, lose our homes to its fury. Next, we face starvation in the name of climate change. This is going to be bigger than the AIDS epidemic, the pandemic flu of 1918, the cost of human lives in WWII, bigger than malaria, ebola, zika, and all other diseases combined. The only thing that might be as disastrous would be if that big asteroid hits. But that big asteroid is a phantom menace. We can see climate change happening around us if we admit it to ourselves. I spent days this summer looking out the window at a strangely purple sky and trying not to breathe too deeply because of the wildfires burning nearby. And I was one of the lucky ones.
Scientists, you have work to do. Policymakers, you need to fund them. How can we keep ignoring what has hurricanes slapping us in our faces?
And yet I hold hope in what we can accomplish given the drive to do so. Today, I also read that the hole in the ozone layer has healed more quickly that scientists thought possible. It's expected to be completely normal within fifty or sixty years. Scientists and policymakers worked together. Imagine that?
Thank you for listening, jules
It's really easy to get wrapped up on all the political brouhaha in the other Washington and think that the Constitutional crisis needs more of my attention than science does. But when you consider the fall of a nation compared to the fall of humanity, perspective straightens itself out. Doesn't it?
I'm still stuck in the zone of what I could do that would make any difference. But I've decided that my tiny voice is still a voice. I can still make calls, write letters, and protest. I can still make my tiny little difference. So, today I read in order to make a difference. Yes, I said that I read.
Not only that, I read the National Geographic.
Now, I don't exactly trust National Geographic as much as I did before Rupert Murdock bought it and started printing Jesus covers with the National Geographic brand on them. But, I read their article about oxygen levels in our oceans. Did some tenured National Geographic writer sneak this one under the wire? Thank you Craig Welch.
It's worth reading. The story is that tuna, marlin, sailfish and other diving ocean predators are having to hold their breath or hunt closer to the surface because of huge areas in which oceans no longer hold enough oxygen to support life because of rising temperatures.
Rising temperatures.
Loss of oxygen in many huge areas of the ocean, millions of square miles. Changing habitat, squeezing predator and prey into smaller areas. Dead zones. Stress on the fish. A sixty-three percent loss of the small deep-sea fishes that feed the ocean. And indirectly, us.
63%
This is what we're up against if we don't start making changes regarding climate change. It's a motivator, right? It got your attention, right? I hope so.
Polar ice melting, species extinction, coral reefs bleaching, oxygen levels dropping making huge swaths of our oceans uninhabitable, seas rising, extreme hurricanes crashing onto our shores, wildfires burning out of control.
We're not looking at our future. This is our present situation. We are beginning to drown in it, burn in it, lose our homes to its fury. Next, we face starvation in the name of climate change. This is going to be bigger than the AIDS epidemic, the pandemic flu of 1918, the cost of human lives in WWII, bigger than malaria, ebola, zika, and all other diseases combined. The only thing that might be as disastrous would be if that big asteroid hits. But that big asteroid is a phantom menace. We can see climate change happening around us if we admit it to ourselves. I spent days this summer looking out the window at a strangely purple sky and trying not to breathe too deeply because of the wildfires burning nearby. And I was one of the lucky ones.
Scientists, you have work to do. Policymakers, you need to fund them. How can we keep ignoring what has hurricanes slapping us in our faces?
And yet I hold hope in what we can accomplish given the drive to do so. Today, I also read that the hole in the ozone layer has healed more quickly that scientists thought possible. It's expected to be completely normal within fifty or sixty years. Scientists and policymakers worked together. Imagine that?
Thank you for listening, jules
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