IGX

https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/humanity- ... d-animals/

Thoughts?

How's the fishing been over the last twenty years? If the food chain is collapsing we should be seeing it.

How many other places have had samples taken? Just looking in the Atlantic Ocean is like measuring "global CO2" on the slopes of a volcano in Hawaii.


Is it time to consider engineering plankton/organisms that thrive with this waste? In order to spare the native varieties?

More bullshit. Humans can't destroy Earth. We might kill everything but the planet will still be here.

Yeah, seem like the headline is more than a little human-narcissist-centric. Earth will be just fine. Maybe not for us, tho.

That's my chosen headline, and I was aiming for a discussion of all fronts humanity is waging on the planet.

If you read the short and depressing article, there's been a severe depletion of the bottom of the food chain in the Atlantic. Which fucks up the rest of the ocean beings. And, in part, our food supply.

So no, we aren't just wiping out ourselves but a lot of other life on the planet too.

Gene wrote: ↑Mon Jul 18, 2022 3:36 pm How's the fishing been over the last twenty years? If the food chain is collapsing we should be seeing it.

How many other places have had samples taken? Just looking in the Atlantic Ocean is like measuring "global CO2" on the slopes of a volcano in Hawaii.


Is it time to consider engineering plankton/organisms that thrive with this waste? In order to spare the native varieties?

The Atlantic covers 20% of the Earth's surface. And 29% of Earth's water surface.

Fishing, depending on the species, has either declined or collapsed entirely in the Atlantic. And this means coastal towns that depended on it for their economy got super fucked.

I've read a book, Eat Like A Fish, by a former commercial cod fisherman who turned to seaweed and shellfish farming when cod fishing was no longer an option.

Seaweed/shellfish farming is actually very promising: creates jobs, has a net positive impact on the environment, creates food and fuel.

Not really sure about potential other solutions like genetically modified plankton or any flaws in that articles findings.

From the article:

Goes – based at Edinburgh University’s Roslin Innovation Centre in Midlothian – has been collecting samples from the Atlantic and the Caribbean from its yacht, Copepod. Setting out from Scotland, it sailed along French and Portuguese coasts before crossing the Atlantic. The yacht is currently moored in Cartagena, Colombia, before setting sail for Panama this week.

In addition to their own samples, the Goes researchers have provided monitoring equipment to other sailing boat crews so that they can perform the same trawls and report back with their results.

The team, led by marine biologist and former Scottish Government adviser Dr Howard Dryden, has compiled and analysed information from 13 vessels and more than 500 data points.

Fair enough. And hey, I'm a fan of living here, so your headline works well for my current self. I'd rather we weren't such fuck-faces toward Earf, but we are.

There are glimmers of hope.

But, it's very hard to picture humanity rising above our sea of petty hatreds and concerns to come together and handle shit.

BTW, I like my petty concerns :)

Gene wrote: ↑Mon Jul 18, 2022 3:36 pm Is it time to consider engineering plankton/organisms that thrive with this waste? In order to spare the native varieties?

The key is whether evolution or managed breeding will keep up with the conditions, or will we need to pull out the CRISPR machine and actually engineer new creatures, with lord knows what side effects.

Ocean acidification doesn't get nearly the press it should.

Managed breeding? Please explain.

Turdacious wrote: ↑Sun Jul 24, 2022 3:32 am Managed breeding? Please explain.

Like breeding show dogs or race horses. Tanks full of coral and fish in stressed environments, pick the successful ones and interbreed them.