i think the planet is trying to tell us something . . .

North Pole ice ‘may disappear by September’

Arctic sea ice is now retreating so quickly that scientists say there is now a 50-50 chance that it will have gone completely by September.

[…]

The Arctic is seen as an important indicator of the potentially catastrophic changes that scientists say will come as the planet warms.

Honeybee collapse claims record number of hives this year

A record 36 percent of U.S. commercial bee colonies have been lost to mysterious causes so far this year and worse may be yet to come, experts told a congressional panel Thursday.

The year’s bee colony losses are about twice the usual seen following a typical winter, scientists warn. Despite ambitious new research efforts, the causes remain a mystery.

Um. I like this planet. It’s really beautiful, and it’s currently the only one I can live on. Could we maybe work together as a species to stop shit like this from happening?

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65 thoughts on “i think the planet is trying to tell us something . . .”

  1. I will be one species member who will always do my best!
    My concern is this: there are a lot of conflicting guidelines about what is best for the environment… and what is good for landfill minimization may be less good for emissions problems and so on… I really hope that somebody (or a group of somebodies) can come up with a cogent book (or eBook!) on the pros and cons of each environmental decision so that we can determine how we can best help in our daily choices… for example ORGANIC EATING Pros/Cons, PLASTIC RECYCLING GUIDE and Pros/Cons to each method. You know of any resources like that? If so, please post them because I think a lot of people try to do things but then they learn that what they were doing may have been harmful. It’s like eating eggs. Good for you… NO- BAAAAAAD BAAD! Oh, wait, no, …. not so bad. Hahha! I was SO freakin’ annoyed when I separated out all my recycle items and then saw the town drop all those bins into the big regular garbage truck AAGHFFFHHFRRRRRMMP!!! Guess it all comes down to money… Ratfinks.

  4. The issue is that concern for the environment is not really a concern. It’s become a fad. It’s “hip” and “cool” to care about the planet. See the late Geroge Carlin’s rant on Saving the Planet. The Planet isn’t going to be saved until the People on it become less stupid.

  6. My family has done its part for years. Where I live, you face up to a $10,000 fine if recyclables are found in your garbage. We are only allowed one bag of garbage per week per household. We also get tax breaks if we buy bus passes.
    But as my 9 year old was so wise to point out the other night when a car commercial came on, “Mom, I don’t understand why regular gas cars are so cheap. They should make the electric, smart cars and hybrids cheap like the regular cars, and gas run vehicles should be at least twice as much as they are now. Its just stupid mom and it makes no sense!” Out of the mouths of babes.

  7. People could work together, but they won’t. Everyone is great at rationalizing their behavior and drawing the line at “enough” right where they are comfortable, but no one is willing to really give up anything that really matters to them or endure more than a little discomfort. For instance, if folks can buy durable, expensive goods or cheap disposable ones, they’ll always choose money over reducing waste.
    The big things that will make a difference are having fewer babies (or better yet, none at all) to reduce population and to reduce consumption down to necessities. People don’t want to give up their “wants’ and live by “needs”. People don’t want to sacrifice their biological prerogative to procreate. I’m not saying we’re doomed, but I’m saying people are not willing to make the hardest choices.

  8. Overpopulation is the real problem. Go back and look at An Inconvenient Truth. Notice how things got worse as population grew.
    More than half of the people currently using up the planet were born after 1970. I was born before, and I remember a far more spacious planet with less pollution and more open space.
    I would ask that those who wish to take action consider the obvious -don’t have kids. I don’t, and yes I am married, it was an obvious choice for someone who participated in the very first Earth Day festivities.
    The second greatest contribution you can make is to adopt a vegetarian diet. I’ve been veg since I read about the environmental impact of diet -back in 1978.
    Overall it’s pretty frustrating to see how many people are just regurgitating basics we all knew back in the 60s and 70s as if they were somehow new. The catch is, far too many people (and as groups of people, corporations) have been ignoring what’s good for the whole of the planet, and it’s time to start having them pay for the consequences.

  9. I’m not willing to throw my chips in with either camp on the global warming issue just yet as I see serious methodological errors cropping up on both sides. There are a couple of things I can be certain of though:
    1. Global warming is happening.
    2. People aren’t slowing it down any.
    That said I’m not entirely convinced that global warming isn’t a naturally occurring process exacerbated by human influence. For the purposes of determining climate changes it is necessary to look at changes of a geologic timeframe which shows wide variations compared to which current global temperatures do not look as bad as they’re made out to be. I also see a tendency to look at the planet as a static system wherein the way we know things is the way things will always be. The way I look at it is: 99.9% of species to have ever graced this planet are extinct for one reason or another. Gobal warming is a challenge. It is something we should do our best to mitigate it and at least make it a smooth transition for us and every other living thing on this planet. Of course I do live in Canada and warmer global climate means more habitable land. 😉
    All of which is to say I agree with you (I think) that steps need to be taken.
    \Ever write something and partway through lose sight of what you were trying to say but end up saying something just as good once you’re through?
    \\By the way, congratulations, you’ve finally convinced me to stop lurking.

  10. Kunochan… spoilers…
    Floating ice, like all of the ice at the North Pole, doesn’t raise sea levels much when it melts. Ice that sits on land is another story.
    http://scienceline.org/2008/05/30/env-ashford-iceshelf/
    Then there is the fear that the introduction of fresh water from freshwater ice melting in the arctic and greenland could shut down the gulf stream.
    http://www.green-energy-news.com/arch/nrgs2002/20020234.html
    “The Day After Tomorrow” was right in that dynamic systems move to new equilibriums very quickly. It certainly won’t happen over a matter of days like it did in the movie, but it might happen over ten years instead of the hundred that some models predict.

  11. “Then there is the fear that the introduction of fresh water from freshwater ice melting in the arctic and greenland could shut down the gulf stream.”
    —
    Actually that’s one of the hypothesized causes of the little ice age, (circa 1650 to the late 1800s) that the medieval warm period caused a shutdown of the gulf stream and/or thermohaline circulation.

  12. I want you all to try a little chemistry experiment that my first year professor had me do. Today, tomorrow, whenever you have a chance. Grab a drinking glass, any kind will do; now fill it with ice, then fill it to the rim with water. Leave it on the counter until all of the ice is melted. Do you think the water will start to overflow as the ice melts? Why or why not?
    🙂

  15. Yeah sure…WE can work to save the planet but what are YOU doing to save it? As far as I can tell, you use up a lot more of the services than most of us do. Your books have felled many a tree, your many trips per year have burned many thousands of gallons of liquid dinosaur, your house probably has a little bigger carbon foot print than most of ours. I’m just sayin’… Let’s see a little practice to go along with the preachin’.

  18. The bee collapse terrifies me a lot more than the polar ice (not that the thought of an ice-free Arctic Ocean isn’t deeply weird). If we lose bees, we start losing plant life, and the animals that rely on that plant life, and that will trickle up the food chain. And the fact that scientists don’t have a clue what’s causing the collapse is more terrifying still, because this could be caused by human interaction, something we could reverse, but it could also be a natural phenomenon that we can’t hope to control in time.
    Losing the pack ice is likely to cause problems down the road. Losing our bees is going to cause problems in the next year or two, at the rate this is going.

  19. /start sarcasm
    F**k this whining! I am making all kinds of money on my oil stocks! Then I will die — sooo what?!
    /sarcasm
    I am with Wil on this, I don’t understand at all. It didn’t even dawn on my dad that making his lawn very green via the use of Scotts fertilizer is not a good thing for the water table from which he drinks… but his lawn looks great – was his response.
    I think his ignorance of the circle of life is indicative of the lack of empathy for some of the issues that some of us are very concerned about.

  23. I don’t think we should jump on Wil for his travels and/or his book producing. We’ve all got to live our lives, and the guy won’t be able to install solar panels or buy an electric car if he’s not making a living.
    I do, however, think the current situation demands a bit of self auditing to see what you can do in your own life. The power of small changes should not be underestimated!
    I know it doesn’t seem like much but this year I changed all my soaps and cleansers to eco-friendly versions, I buy local when I can, use canvas bags instead of plastic (although our city is about to ban them so unless you want to carry your milk and eggs home in your arms and pockets you have to bring your own bag), and a new bike is in the near future so that car trips are limited to vacations and transporting heavy things.
    I’m not wealthy but when I buy something now I don’t mind spending a bit more if it is either recyclable, reusable or made of sustainable products. It actually makes more economic sense if something I need is going to last me a lifetime or two rather than a week, even if it costs a bit more.
    It may not seem like much but when a billion people make similar small, not too painful, changes it has an effect.
    Although, I live in a big city in Canada where recycle programs are in effect, public transport is everywhere, as well as local organic groceries. If you live somewhere where things aren’t moving fast enough let your local government officials know it.
    OK, you guys don’t know me but I’m not usually not this positive. I totally weirded myself out just now. Before this I hadn’t realized how optimistic I was about the possible end of the world (as we know it).
    If this post isn’t long enough there’s also this:
    http://www.storyofstuff.com/
    20 minutes of your time.

  24. The wonderful thing about the internet is the huge amount of information available 24 hours a day. Unfortunately, that is the downside as well. It amazes me that people believe everything they read in the papers and online. As someone who has worked in the field of journalism, I learned quickly to look at these sensational articles with a critical eye. Look for the good research, look at the affiliations of the researchers, and don’t believe everything you read. Hey, I want to keep this planet as healthy as possible, but I like to have the truth as well.

  25. I don’t recycle anything but paper.
    Ever.
    Want to know why?
    In my area in order to recycle cans, bottles, etc. you have to wash them completely out and scrape/remove all the labels. Also, if the container is crushed or broken, it is refused.
    I refuse to waste water and time washing what will be washed once again. Yep it makes sense to waste 10 gallons of fresh water in order to wash out cans and bottles.
    As for the broken bottle and cans, there is nothing more to say.
    It all goes to the landfill for me.
    As for the north pole melting. Anyone ever give thought that it’s ice and will refreeze 4 months later?
    People do not control the environment. people can’t influence the environment.
    If people are the cause of the shrinking polar ice caps why are the ice caps also melting on Mars? Maybe it has to do with the lack of sun spot activity which is directly related to how warm/cold out planet gets.
    If yo want to worry about how evil people are maybe you liberals should take a hike over to India and China and maybe explain to them the benefits of not pumping crap into the air and food.

  27. Read Daniel Quinn’s Ishmael ? We are so full of ourselves and bicker over invisible lines drawn in the sand instead of remembering its ONE planet. We collect shiny rocks instead of working as one species on one planet and the one with the most shiny rocks wins. Wins what ? As they used to say – It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature.

  29. Unfortunately, people see an astonishing need to pass the blame before taking action, as we see from some comments here.
    Buildersent: You can argue all you want that it is not our actions causing these problems, and those arguments may even be believable. HOWEVER, I do not see why anyone in his right mind would debate the value of trying to do something about it. It is known, thanks to perfectly sound scientific evidence, that our actions of unnaturally pouring masses of chemicals into the atmosphere can cause problems. It is known that we fish too much, consume too much and grow too much.
    Yet you sit back and blame the sun; never mind the fact that the situation could be very painful and could /potentially/ be helped?
    Frankly, I like to call people with so little conviction psychopaths.

  30. I was very intrigued by the proposition that colony collapse disorder might be contributed to by air pollutants interfering with bees’ finding flowers (by destroying scent molecules bees rely on). (WaPo article here) I wonder if beekeepers whose bees are “right by” flower patches have been observed to be less likely to collapse.

  31. You do realize that “and worse may be yet to come” is a content-free statement, right?
    We don’t know what’s happening to the bees, but do we know things like this have happened to them many times before, under many different names, going back to 1896. (In 1915 it was called disappearing disease.) Honeybees aren’t particularly efficient pollinators and aren’t even a native species to the US, so if we really wanted to “tread lightly on the planet” or “let nature take its course” we’d switch to an alternative native pollinator. Regardless, figuring this out is a matter for bee experts; there’s not much you or I can do about it. And no reason to relate it to anything in particular people are or aren’t doing.
    (Besides beekeeping, which is itself an unnatural activity. Our status-quo biases notwithstanding.)

  32. Er, correction: European honeybees aren’t native to the US. There are 20,000 species of bee in the world; CCD is known to affect exactly one of these.

  33. It’s no mystery what’s happening to the bee’s, I know because I lived in a rural area just outside of Fresno California for 12 years. Pesticides. Our farmers are spraying the shit out of their fields and orchards. I know this personally because I worked on an orchard. I remember when I first started studying chemistry, and trying to explain how bad the stuff was for everything including us, they didn’t give a damn. In fact, one of them told me, he didn’t give a shit about you or me and whether or not he kills all of the bee’s or we end up with cancer from eating his tainted grapes and peaches. He was in it for the money. I know they’re not on every label, but look for produce that came out of Selma and Kingsburg California and wonder….

  35. Get with the program, Wil.
    Rush Limbaugh and Michael Crichton have both proven global warming to be a bunch of liberal clap-trap.
    How?
    Because they said so, and that’s good enough for me.
    But now the equally liberal North Pole (with its liberal polar bears) is in on the sham, no doubt in a ploy to win Barack Obama (the most left-wing senator in galactic history) extra votes this fall.
    Typical! Wake up, people!

  36. Buildersent:
    >>>As for the north pole melting. Anyone ever give thought that it’s ice and will refreeze 4 months later?
    The whole matter of arctic ice loss relates to the ratio of ice melt steadily increasing year by year. If the north pole ice that thawed each summer just froze up again, none of this whole be an issue. But obviously, that is not occurring. The data says otherwise.
    >>>People do not control the environment. people can’t influence the environment.
    Okay, this statement is so ignorant I’m not even sure where to begin.
    Humanity impacts the environment every single day via the following means: overpopulation; habitat destruction; improper management of nuclear waste; dumping tons of plastic, raw sewage, and other waste into oceans, lakes, and other bodies of water annually; acid rain; chemical fertilizer runoff; urban sprawl; wetlands loss; whaling; illegal logging and rainforest destruction; garbage; poaching of critically endangered species; coral reef bleaching; et al.
    Turn off Fox News, take Rush Limbaugh’s limp dick out of your ear, and open your eyes to the world around you.

  37. buildersent: I’m confused at the last part of your post. It sounds like you’re saying that because EVERYONE isn’t doing something to help environmentally, then NO ONE should because it isn’t going to make a difference?
    And as for the pole melting, if I RFTA’s correctly, the point is that the ice HASN’T been refreezing, at least not at a normal rate, and thus areas that have been ice covered for thousands of years won’t be refreezing.

  38. Over population?
    Current world population is about 6,704,845,726
    The State of Texas has:
    An area of 268,820 square miles
    or 172044800 acres ^2
    or 7,494,271,488,000 ft ^2
    If an average size 3 bd apartment is 1200 ft ^2
    you could house 6,245,226,240 people in single floor apartments
    or 12,490,452,480 people in two story apartment complexes.
    With a little more forethought, you could build everything 3 stories, and be prepared to house a world population above 18 billion.
    All in the state of Texas.
    Over populated world? No.
    Does that mean we should be gluttons? Of course not. Nothing wrong with a little conservation, and wanting to be as efficient as possible, or not wanting to pawn off our problems on the next generation, as what has apparently seemed to happened to my Gen X bro’s and me, as well as you younger people.

  39. Somethimes I wonder if we will be the last generations of humans on the planet. It would be interesting I guess to watch your own species die around you and to die with it. Hello Dinosaurs!
    Lolita Downer 😉

  42. >>>Over populated world? No.
    There’s a critical component missing from your formula: every person on Earth requires a shared infrastructure to keep them alive – infrastructure that requires land, water, money, energy, industry, agriculture, sanitation, education, transportation, medical services, technology, and myriad other resources to maintain it.
    In other words, no one lives in a vacuum…least of all one the size of Texas.
    Every living person has an exponential impact on the world, and at six billion and climbing, that impact is growing out of control.

  43. My explicit goal in life is to increase my carbon footprint – bigger/fancier (read: more powerful) car, bigger house, family & kids, etc. It’s simply awesome.
    Naturally, I reject GWism long before I deny it being the proxy religion that it obviously is.

  44. That’s odd…
    They’ve been mentioning the disappearing bee thing on “Doctor Who” this season a couple of different times.
    Coincidence? You make the call!

  45. We should, of course, do everything we reasonably can to protect the environment.
    We should also be prepared for the fact that it will have no effect on the type of climate change that has been taking place since long before humans had the ability to influence it in any way–and the possibility that if the earth currently is warming, the warming may be that type of change.

  46. CHV,
    No, I didn’t forget that component, only omitted it to state the obvious. With the world population stuffed into an area the size of Texas, look at how much room you have.
    You can’t control the world population. Not by regulation, and not by forced abortion.
    You should be a little more stoic and not sweat the things you really have no control over, like peoples sexual habits and the fruits they bear from them.
    You can ask any religious person, or any atheist, what is the purpose of having male and female sexual organs? And the only logical answer can be, for the propagation of our species. Ya, you may get few other silly answers…
    So what would you have my colleagues and I do? Stop doing research that could potentially save your life, just to reduce the worlds population? That seems pretty obvious, or stop supplying pharmaceuticals and millions will die over night. Stop sending food to Darfur, S. America, and every other poor nation, you can be sure they won’t make it through the winter.
    I hope you understand, I’m not berating you for being concerned, but their is simply nothing you can do about the world population.
    You mentioned energy, industry, agriculture, sanitation, education, transportation, medical services, and technology. These are the things we need to focus on doing better, cleaner, and more efficiently. And we probably will eventually once all the finger pointing and demagoguing has stopped.
    🙂

  47. Anyone read State of Fear?
    There are two sides to every story and articles are written to evoke a reaction out of us. Although I believe the Earth has an unfortunate destiny, I do not care to discuss my specific opinions.
    Wil might enjoy the “green” celebrities side bit through the story.

  48. Wil,
    This planet’s climate, according to recorded geological history, is always evolving. The North Pole has been slowly eroding since the end of the ice age. Our trash has spead up this process. It does not seem like we know enough about this to say how to make the climate more friendly to humans, at this time. I love the term earth friendly much more than earth saving. I studied this subject at a major university. We are a long way from a cure.
    FG

  50. If you don’t think the science is all in on climate change how bout some simple math:

    Worse case scenario if global climate disaster is happening or worse case scenario if it isn’t.
    I’m not betting on the latter cause right now it looks like a really weak hand and the stakes are WAY too high to wait for the ace to pop up on the river.

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