Dear Friends,
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO THIS WEEK’S PROGRAM. We discuss Louisiana’s abortion law, a doctor’s visit to Ukraine, third-party politics, plankton, glyphosate, and more.
“Global warming” has really lived up to its name this summer. Vast tracts of the northern hemisphere continue to suffer huge wildfires and record-breaking heat. Meanwhile, most of the world’s biggest climate polluters, including the US, are at political gridlock when it comes to meaningful climate action.
The author sitting in front of a whole lot of Atlantic Ocean plankton. (Photo Fionna Fallon)
Given the prominence this week of news stories about heat and wildfire, you might have missed another critical story: last week’s stunning discovery about the decline of plankton in the Atlantic Ocean. (I missed it until John Davis alerted me. Thanks, John.)
How big a decline? At the current rate of loss, 90% of plankton will be gone by 2045! That’s huge, imminent, and frightening.
Why frightening? Because plankton is the foundation of the oceans’ food chain. If 90% of it dies off, the majority of salt-water aquatic life won’t be far behind. And even those of us living in the middle of a continent can’t survive without viable oceans.
This news stems from research by the GOES Foundation (Global Oceanic Environmental Survey), led by Dr. Howard Dryden. Dryden’s team found that climate change, along with chemical pollution from plastics, farm fertilizers, and pharmaceuticals, have raised the Atlantic Ocean’s acidity so much that it’s destroying plankton way faster than previously feared.
In a statement about its findings, GOES says, “An environmental catastrophe is unfolding. We believe humanity could adapt to global warming and extreme weather changes. It is our view that humanity will not survive the extinction of most marine plants and animals.”
Yet, as often happens with the release of monumental and impactful research, detractors emerge. Enter Ars Technica, which claims in an article this week that news stories about GOES’ research were “misleading” and “utter rubbish.”
Candidly, I’d like to believe — desperately, in fact — that the extinction of life in Earth’s oceans isn’t a mere 25 years away. So, I dug deeper. What I learned, alas, landed me firmly in GOES’ camp.
It really didn’t take that much digging. Ars Technica is owned by Conde Nast — a huge media conglomerate whose “brands attract more than 72 million consumers in print, 394 million in digital, and 454 million across social platforms. These include Vogue, The New Yorker, GQ, Glamour, Architectural Digest, Vanity Fair, Pitchfork, Wired, and Bon Appétit, among many others.” (quote from Wikipedia)
Beyond that, I found Ars Technica’s specific complaints about GOES’ study not at all compelling. (I won’t bore you with the details, but give the article a read and let me know if you concur.)
So I’ll go with Scottish scientists over a publication owned by a mega-media corporation that seems to have its paws in everything but science.
Which brings me to the only logical conclusion: We are indeed in a world of hurt.
SO, PLEASE CALL OR WRITE PRESIDENT BIDEN. TELL HIM YOU’VE SEEN ENOUGH HEATWAVES, FIRES, DERECHOS, AND NOW THE LOSS OF PLANKTON. TELL HIM TO DECLARE A CLIMATE EMERGENCY. NOW!
One more thing: Some of you expressed interest in a previous conversation on this forum about a “philosophy competition.” If you’d like to dig into that further and brainstorm the concept with the idea’s author, Mark Clipsham, give Mark a shout at (515) 450-2538 or mc@architecturebysynthesis.com.
Thanks for reading, listening, and taking action — and when you reach out to the President, let me know what kind of response you get.
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(01:09) Dr. MarkAlain Dery discusses abortion rights in Louisiana and his humanitarian trip to Ukraine;
(19:42) Remembrance Park, with author Marybeth Slonneger;
(34:26) Greens vs Dems in North Carolina ballot access squabble, with Matt Hoh;
(52:55) Beware of glyphosate in your food, with Kathy Byrnes, Birds & Bees Urban Farm.
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Ed Fallon