The Earth has nine biophysical thresholds beyond which it cannot be pushed without disastrous consequences, the authors of a new paper in the journal Nature report.
Ominously, these scientists say, we have already moved past three of these tipping points.
quotes...
They concluded that there was good evidence for nine kinds of thresholds: climate change, ocean acidity, the ozone layer, freshwater use, the movement of nitrogen and phosphorus, the amount of land used for crops, aerosols (haze and other particles), biodiversity, and chemical pollution.
and...
A lake, for example, can absorb a fair amount of phosphorus from fertilizer runoff without any sign of change. “You add a little, not much happens,” says Shahid Naeem of Columbia University, who was not involved in the Nature paper. “Add a little more, not much happens. Add a little... then, all of sudden, you add a little more and — boom! — phytoplankton bloom, oxygen depletion, fish die-off, smelliness. Remove the little phosphorus that caused the tipping of the system, and it does not reverse. In fact, you have to go back to much cleaner water than you would have imagined.”
I suspect, with a little thought, you may be able to know which three tipping points we have crossed... carbon, nitrogen, and extinction rate.
of the other nine, I suspect we perhaps have passed the "ocean acidity" threshold too, however the ocean is not "acidic"; the pH has fallen substantially. We have also, IMO passed the threshold of chemical pollution, and are real close to others.
I do hope NO ONE here uses these things... or minimizes their use as much as practical.
Crossing these threshholds holds catastrophic consequences - very quickly... read the second quote again. In my college studies of ecology and organismal biology, we studied tipping points like over population in confined areas (earth is a confined area)... when the tipping point is close, nasty aggressive behavior increased, the system crashed, and the VAST majority of the mice died.
Is a global ecosystem crash what we are heading toward? It sure looks that way...
I do realize that there is debate and controversy about this, however, IMO, there is no time for debate; it will happen at some point if we continue our ways unabated, unless Science pulls a rabbit out of their hat yet again to buy us a little more time... but then, what will your kids or grandkids be faced with?
Cree proverb/prophecy: "Only after the last tree has been cut down, Only after the last river has been poisoned, Only after the last fish has been caught, Only then will you find that money cannot be eaten."
your Ferrari is a form of hedonism... all of this has either happened before, or been rather accurately predicted to occur in the Bible... which ever you prefer to believe matters not, the destination is the same...
here is a visual for you if you have not seen it yet...
I have been to Central America where I have witnessed this type of pollution first hand - along with the burning off of miles and miles (as far as the eye can see) of land to use for a year or two to grow crops - it is not confined to China... India is a huge hot spot as well as Central and South America.
America used to mistreat her land and water like this.
This sort of thing, by the way, is how you manage to produce things with a wage of $1 or $2/day and undercut first-world producers.
When we have "free trade" with China, this is what we are supporting. This is what we're serving up on their people. This is what our government and corporations all say is ok - so long as it is hidden from us, and happens "over there."
Make all the excuses you want America, this is what you're supporting every time you buy anything made in China or containing Chinese componets.
Go walk around your house and pick up 10 random items. Look for the "made in" tag on the back or bottom. What's it say? Now consider this - it is virtually impossible today to buy a piece of consumer electronics, a toy, an automobile or even a toaster without some part of it coming from China.
YOU are why this is happening.
These are not old photos, or someone's Photoshop experiment.
They're real, they're current, and they are what our hedonism, demand for $20 DVD players and "cheaper and faster" from everyone has resulted in, all so our "corporations" can report "record profits."
Those "great earnings" the last two quarters were in fact generated by firing Americans and shifting yet more production over to China, where they poison their air, water and ground with wild abandon, all so we can have a "strong" stock market and our banksters can loot us some more.
This is just one example....
there are a few more comments on the article at the link.
the thing to keep in mind is that we were doing this openly during our industrialization through the 70's or so... until we realized how to hide most of it using injection wells and such... but it is all still pollution, with the very real possibility of causing global environmental collapse.
Most of us drive cars, turn on lights, enjoy the machines we sit at to type this out, big screen TV's, etc. etc. and would rather not think about what WE are causing by doing so.
Hedonism... but then the 'Law of Attraction" states there is enough for all so go get yours eh? False prophets.
The false prophets warned against in various religious texts is more accurate in this context - read Revelation - or LD Di's latest post.
It is not hard to wonder why we are all sick and diseased, we have brought it on ourselves. It IS OUR FAULT - American's along with other "industrialized" countries.
Makes the Amish, and/or tribal ways of life look a little more in line with what it should be.
we are all on a reservation... we have all lost our ways of life... and we have, for the most part lost touch with the real world.
I am trying to reestablish my relationship with the earth... the earth, and its position in the cosmos is why I have life - shouldn't I treat her with some sense of respect and care for her as a gift of thanks for, if not giving, permitting me my life?
Shouldn't I be encouraged to do this for my children, their children, etc.?