Is the ocean broken?

Climate change has arrived
Posting this mainly for the photo, the juxtaposition of our solar energy source (I guess that could be the moon, not the sun) and our burning planet was done nicely. Start the countdown to the photoshop accusation, 100, 99, 98.... There's an article that goes with it, The connection between hellacious weather and man-made climate change is becoming undeniable. Here's everything you need to know:

Climate change has arrived https://theweek.com/articles/935638/climate-change-arrived

 

That is a fabulous photograph.

No need to critique its authenticity.

It's just a nice attention getter.

-Will (Dragonfly)

 

PFAS are man made chemicals manufactured and used around the world since the 1940s. They are very persistent in the environment and in the human body – meaning they don’t break down and they can accumulate over time, concentrating as they move up the food chain. There is evidence that exposure to PFAS can lead to adverse human health effects. Here's a map of contaminated public water supplies (blue dots) in the US...



Here is an interactive map that pinpoints the sources... Interactive Map: PFAS Contamination Crisis: New Data Show 2,230 Sites in 49 States https://www.ewg.org/interactive-maps/pfas_contamination/map/ I'm sure there are similar maps for the rest of the world.

They've recently found PFAS entering and exiting the Arctic ocean, surprisingly, more exiting than entering. Perhaps our newfound friends, the Russians, have taken the newfound ice less Arctic as their newfound industrial waste dump. They're of the out of sight, out of mind type, similar to our climate deniers.

PFAS readily attach to macro, micro and nano plastics, so it's no wonder they are pervasive in the environment, being easily dispersed by wind and water to every nook and cranny. I imagine there might even be extra heavy presence of PFAS in mountain valleys and ravines, where, as everyone knows, snow accumulates year after year after year. With the increased glacial runoff due to AGW, all the deposits of the last 70 years of these chemicals, and the more toxic earlier versions of them and others, might be why there are more exiting the Arctic than entering. I just jumped to the Russian conclusion based on their past history of using the Baltic Sea, the Black Sea, the Sea of Japan and the Arctic Ocean as a repository for all their other industrial, chemical and nuclear waste. My bad.

I guess though, with the Dutch OceanCleanUp expected to remove 90% of plastic waste from the oceans in a matter of a few years, once they manage to get a working model, maybe in another decade, assuming they get another 30-40 or 100 million dollars, all will be well.

Meanwhile, those pesky PFAS have been detected in the blood of 97% of people tested in Wilmington, NC. Similar to the Arctic Ocean, with no obvious source of PFAS, the Yadkin-Pee Dee river system has been found to be contaminated, with water, sediment, algae, plant, insect, fish, crayfish, and mollusk samples all containing PFAS. Hopefully, the government will take charge of this public health problem and and control the hazard by reducing the amount of testing done. The numbers afflicted will then plummet as has been recently shown in other circumstances.

 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article22193088.html
"For those born in North Carolina overall, the average life expectancy is 78.3 years, about six months shorter than the nation as a whole."
"Life expectancies in North Carolina have risen in recent decades, thanks in part to large reductions in infant mortality rates."
"Those born in Mecklenburg County can expect to live 80.4 years, the study shows. The same is true for most of the state’s other large, urban counties, including Wake. One likely reason: Both Mecklenburg and Wake counties have lower poverty rates than the state as whole."

I'm sure PFASs are bad for us, but it's growing presence in our world doesn't demonstrate that.

-Will (Dragonfly)

 

Sustainable fisheries?

Food Fight
Why the next big battle may not be fought over treasure or territory—but for fish.

Food Fight https://getpocket.com/explore/item/food-fight?utm_source=pocket-newtab

 

Is that the principle that you use to operate your farmstead?

 

IT''s a valid principle in much of life. Certainly aboard ship. Every ship I ever ran, had a plaque on the bridge, which reads.
"KEEP YOUR IGNORANT FIDGETY FINGERS AWAY FROM THE KNOBS AND BUTTONS!
I put the plaque there on each vessel.
I don't know why people are attracted to play with stuff, they have no business playing with. I only know they are.

 

Yes.

But, there's an unwritten part of the story. Before the student can become the master, the student must truly understand.

The unwritten part, illustrated in my own story:
After the student replaced the turtle, a fox came along and started attacking the turtle. The fox struggled to get to the turtle inside its shell, but foxes occasionally manage to enjoy a little turtle tartare.

Upon witnessing this drama unfolding, the student asked the master, "Master, isn't the fox interfering with the natural order by attacking the turtle?"

The master responded, "No, the fox is part of that natural order, it is just doing what foxes do. One day, you will understand."

"Ah!" Says the student, his eyes lit up with understanding. He then charged in to scare away the fox. He picked up the turtle and helped it across the road where it was trying to go originally.

Once he returned to his masters side, the master looks at the student with a murderous expression.

The student shrugged. "I am just part of the natural order and doing naturally what I do." he explained.

The master laughed and patted his student on the back. "Very good, very good. You will not be a student much longer."

So, yes. I definately keep the principles of the natural order on my farmstead.

-Will (Dragonfly)

 

LIKE!

-Will (Dragonfly)

 

Ditto.

 

I was wondering exactly how far up in the clouds your head is? Those cutsie-tutsie zen stories seem so profound, but they don't describe reality very well.

We humans have gone far, far beyond the point of not changing nature. Although I know very little about the specifics of your homestead operation, I strongly suspect that you really aren't living that close to nature, given that you are undoubtedly dependent on the rest of non-natural society for critical portions of your survival and well being.

"Doing nothing" is not an option, because we humans NEVER "do nothing." Our natural inclination is to maximize our current situation and discount future gains or losses. In urging society to take AGW seriously we are asking people to go against those natural inclinations. It's so much easier to "drill, baby, drill." We'll gladly dump on our children tomorrow's problem of "burn, baby, burn."

 

International Crime Ring That Trafficked in Shark Fins Is Dismantled, U.S. Says

Federal authorities in Georgia announced this week that they had dismantled .... a multimillion-dollar organization they described as an international money laundering, drug trafficking and illegal wildlife trade ring.

Operation Apex was “about much more than disrupting the despicable practice of hacking the fins off of sharks and leaving them to drown in the sea to create a bowl of soup. The investigation is about dismantling a major conspiracy aimed at profiting from illegally traded wildlife and illegally grown marijuana, hiding the sources of those proceeds and using it to fuel an insatiable criminal enterprise.”

 

Mule Raffle

Boudreaux & Thibodeaux saw an ad in the Starkville Daily in Pearl River, LA. and bought a mule for $100.

The farmer agreed to deliver the mule the next day.

The next morning the farmer drove up and said,"Sorry, fellows, I have some bad news, the mule died last night."

Boudreaux & Thibodeaux replied,"Well, then just give us our money back."

The farmer said,"Can't do that. I went and spent it already."

They said, "OK then, just bring us the dead mule."

The farmer asked, "What in the world ya'll gonna do with a dead mule?"

Boudreaux said, "We gonna raffle him off."

The farmer said, "You can't raffle off a dead mule!"

Thibodeaux said, "We shore can! Heck, we don't hafta tell nobody he's dead!"

A couple of weeks later, the farmer ran into Boudreaux & Thibodeaux at the Piggly Wiggly grocery store and asked.
"What'd you fellers ever do with that dead mule?"

They said,"We raffled him off like we said we wuz gonna do."

Leroy said,"Shucks, we sold 500 tickets fer two dollars apiece and made a profit of $998."

The farmer said,"My Lord, didn't anyone complain?"
Boudreaux said, "Well, the feller who won got upset. So we gave him his two dollars back."

Boudreaux and Thibodeaux now work for the government.

Remain skeptical.

 

Non Sequitur

 

Exactly right on target here.

Boudreaux and Thibodeaux suspect all the snowbirds immigrating south must of left some pretty good jobs behind. Drove the old pickup all night, and in the morning, were waiting outside a Yankee employment contractor office. Not wishing to leave the truck and their exposed belongings in the bed at risk unattended, they decide one stays with the truck while the other goes inside.
Thibodeaux returns happy and excited. He's been hired at a high salary. Boudreaux goes in.

"What's your profession?" Wood cutter. "Sorry, no openings." But you hired my pal Thibodeaux?
"Well, different qualifications. That man is a highly experienced Pilot"
Yeah? How's he going to pile it, if I don't cut it fiirst?




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