Is the ocean broken?

Nanoparticles from face masks are polluting the ocean.

 

Climate change driving marine species poleward

• Global warming has been changing life in the ocean for at least 60 years
  
• The findings show a drop of about 1,500 species at the equator
  
• Poleward migration was more pronounced north of the equator, where oceans have warmed more quickly than in the southern hemisphere
  
• It was also more prevalent among open water fish than benthic species living on the ocean floor
  
• It appears that marine life in tropical waters declines when annual average sea temperature rises above 20 to 25 degrees Celsius
  
• Fossil records show that the same thing happened 140,000 years ago, the last time global surface temperatures were as hot as they are now
• A different study estimates that maximum catch potential of tropical fish stocks in exclusive economic zones would decline 40 percent by mid-century if global warming continues unabated

The study was reported in the journal PNAS

 

You can go to places in inland Florida, from Punta Gorda all the way up to Gainesville, and find fossilized marine mammal bones, dugong, whales, and ray's and shark's teeth. All from a time when Florida was under water. An absence of one type of life may leave a vacuum to be filled by others.

-Will (Dragonfly)

 

Yes we are literally terraforming the planet but the problem the speed of change that won't allow organisms to adapt fast enough through natural selection. Plus we have encroached on a lot of natural land and put up barriers to migration and in the ocean are drastically overfishing.

Instead of fish we might have tons of jellyfish dominating the ocean.

 

Natural selection is the survival of the luckiest. Some will be lucky. Probably enough will be lucky. Have been so far. The might happen events include being hit by an asteroid. Ony panic mongers go about warning folk to beware of what might happen if we're unlucky.

 

A tropical polar region? Think of all the tourism possibilities.

 

Increased winter snowmelt threatens western US water resources

• Since the late 1970s snowmelt has increased during the winter months, but particularly in November and March
• Snowmelt has increased at a rate of 3.5% per decade
  
• Western states have built their entire water infrastructure on snowpacks melting slowly through the summer months
  
• More snow melting during the winter means less snow to melt during the hot months of July and August
  
• The shift in water delivery timing could also affect wildfire seasons and agricultural irrigation needs

The findings are published in Nature Climate Change

 

Certain bad decisions threaten western US water resources in an effort to destroy the farmers' and ranchers' livelihoods. The same powermad masterminds even wrecked a Colorado river for a time.

 

The 2 Rules for Eating to Fight Climate Change

• Food production accounts for roughly a quarter of the world’s greenhouse-gas emissions
• Limiting global warming will be impossible without significant changes to how the world eats
  
• At the same time, climate change is threatening the world’s food supply
  
• Reforming the food system will require new corporate practices, and new laws and regulations at the national and international levels
  
• But individual consumer behaviors matter as well; here are the two most important

1) There is one dietary change to consider that beats all others in terms of its climate impact. It is not eating locally or seasonally. It is not eating organic or fair-trade. It is not eating unprocessed foods or avoiding big-box and fast-food retailers. It is eating less meat, especially beef. Gram for gram, beef produces roughly eight times more greenhouse-gas emissions than farmed fish or poultry, 12 times more than eggs, 25 times more than tofu, and even more compared with pulses, nuts, root vegetables, bananas, potatoes, bread, or maize.

2) Americans waste a lot of food. Nearly one-third of it, in fact. We throw away enough food to close our own “meal gap” eight times over. Food is the single biggest component of our country’s landfills, and the average American sends more than 200 pounds of food there every year. More than 1,250 calories per person a day, or more than 140 trillion calories a year, get tossed in the garbage.

 

How much greenhouse gas do beans account for in the human diet. Methane is worse than CO2. Pythagoras advised people to "avoid the bean". As a vegetarian in ancient Greece, it is amazing that he lived to be over ninty years old, by some accounts over a hundred, and didn't even get the nutritional benefits of legume proteins or vitamin B complex that is so important. Meat provides these missing benefits better than any other food source. Vitamin D and calcium are also harder to get without animal products. Of course, with more energy from the Sun sticking around, our bodies will have an easier time manufacturing and processing these nutrients, so maybe, if we didn't eat animals, we wouldn't need animals.

Then, of course, what do we do with the ones that are here? We can't let them go wild, they wouldn't have the space or the skills to make it. How many species would we loose if we stopped eating them? An ironic paradox.

-Will (Dragonfly)

 

Your body needs hundreds of types of proteins, most of which it can make for itself. However there are nine so-called "essential" amino acids (from which proteins are built) that you have to get directly from your food source -- the body can't manufacture them. You are correct that all nine essential amino acids can be found in meat/dairy/fish, which makes them known as "complete" proteins. However, it is easy to also get all nine essential amino acids from a plant diet.

Any two of the following three food groups will supply all nine amino acids: 1) grains; 2) nuts; 3) legumes/beans.

So a peanut-butter sandwich supplies a complete protein (grain and legume). And a bean tortilla supplies a complete protein (again, grain and legume).

There are also a few plant foods which supply the nine essential amino acids all by themselves and therefore are complete proteins: quinoa; soy beans/tofu/tempeh/edamame; amaranth; buckwheat; spirulina (a type of algae); hemp seeds; and nutritional yeast.

13 Nearly Complete Protein Sources for Vegetarians and Vegans

A number of top-flight athletes are vegetarian:

These 14 elite athletes are vegan — here's what made them switch their diet

Most everyone can get enough vitamin D if they expose at least part of their skin to the sun for ~15 minutes per day. That can be a problem for people who live at high latitudes in the winter. Vitamin D supplements are helpful for those people who wish to eat vegetarian.

A number of plants foods provide adequate calcium.

Table 1: Calcium Content of Selected Vegan Foods

Food....Amount.....Calcium (mg)

Blackstrap molasses 2 Tbsp 400
Plant milks, calcium-fortified 8 ounces 100-450
Tofu, processed with calcium sulfate* 4 ounces 200-434
Tofu, processed with nigari* 4 ounces 130-400
Calcium-fortified orange juice 8 ounces 350
Commercial soy yogurt, plain 6 ounces 300
Collard greens, cooked 1 cup 268
Turnip greens, cooked 1 cup 197
Tempeh 1 cup 184
Kale, cooked 1 cup 177
Soybeans, cooked 1 cup 175
Mustard greens, cooked 1 cup 165
Bok choy, cooked 1 cup 158
Tahini 2 Tbsp 128
Navy beans, cooked 1 cup 126
Okra, cooked 1 cup 124
Almond butter 2 Tbsp 111
Almonds, whole 1/4 cup 94
Broccoli, cooked 1 cup 62

Calcium in the Vegan Diet

Top 10 Vegan Sources of Calcium

We would loose very few species if we lost the majority of human's meat (non-fish) sources. ~98% of all meat is supplied by pigs, poultry, beef, and sheep/goats.

What is the most consumed meat in the world?

 

It's hard for you to get vegetables or meat when you are a slave.

 

As rainstorms grow more severe and frequent, communities fail to prepare for risks

• Design standards for roads, storm-water systems, dams and construction regulations are based on precipitation estimates
  
• Many states rely on rainfall estimates, known as Atlas 14, that are produced by the NOAA
• One study found that rainfall has jumped by 13 percent over a previous study 30 years earlier, and that it would continue to increase
• Another study determined that 100-year storms were happening twice as often in the eastern half of the country as Atlas 14 predicted
• A 2014 National Climate Assessment found heavy downpours had increased 71 percent in the Northeast, 37 percent in the Upper Midwest, and 27 percent in the Southeast since 1958
  
• Estimates for 12 states have not been updated since 2006
  
• Two states are using 1961 data

 

Maybe the States have cause not to trust more recent data published by dubious sources?
When you cry wolf for decades and your predictions continuously fail, what do you expect? Credibility?

 

We could use some rain. My apple and cherry trees are all dead after two years and the elderberries we planted last year are struggling. I'm bringing home some plum and cherry trees to try again, right now, but no forecast of rain within the next week.

-Will (Dragonfly)