The End of the Line

The Inconvenient Truth About the Oceans - agreed.

And yes, it is very "underreported."

California and Oregon have closed commercial and sport fishing for Salmon this year. This was supposed to be to allow the salmon to spawn unmolested to increase their numbers.

Guess what? No salmon are returning to spawn. Almost none at all.

One of the places I go to hike is the Old Salmon River in Mt. Hood national forest. It was described by one early settler that during a salmon run, you could walk across the river without getting your feet wet there were so many salmon. This year, I have not seen one salmon.

This is probably something everyone should see. It is an issue that has not gotten a lot of attention.We can no longer say "there are plenty of fish in the sea."

i feel like the ocean is the largest of the ignored enviornmental issues

i've heard it's where we get most of our oxygen from--its actually the algae and sea plants that are making it.

and they are being killed by acid rain--which comes from car exhaust, coal plants, other kinds of fossil fuels being burned.

not to even to mention the overfishing, and the amount of trash that people dump in the ocean-- they seem to think that just b/c they can't see it anymore, it doesn't matter. toxic waste, nuclear waste, entire ships, buildings, cars, you name it, is dumped and abandoned in the ocean.

You are absolutely right lalapabrada.

Everyone needs to see this video. Please pass it along to everyone you know and ask them to do the same.

The Story of Stuff

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

wow wetdog that was a great video! i am definitely going to pass that along to everybody i know!

There is a reason that fossil fuels are fossils. Conditions when the plants died(mainly highly toxic acids) killed off all the bacteria that would ordinarily have decomposed them. They became fossils, coal or oil. Then, over millions of years under heat and pressure those toxins cooked into the coal and oil. Toxins like sulphur, chlorine, bromine, lead, arsenic, mercury and other heavy metals. Then we dig up the fossil fuels and burn them----releasing the toxins into the atmosphere. Toxins that have accumulated over millions upon millions of years---released in a few minutes. Now you are eating, drinking and breathing those toxins. You are taking showers in those toxins.

And we have been doubling our use of fossil fuels about every ten years for the last 40 years. And we are spewing toxins into our environment at the same rate. Not only that, the cleanest of the fossil fuels have been used up----we have to rely more and more on "sour" crude oil, or "brown" coal because the good stuff is already used up---what is left has increasingly more and more toxic contaminants in it. We are forced to use the more contaminated coal and fuel, because the good stuff is disappearing, used up.

If we continue to use fossil fuels, we will become the fossils.

yikes.... what can we do?

Biofuels can do anything that petroleum can do. They can be used with minimal changes to our current ways of doing things. Biodiesel can be made from algae, as well as seed and grain plants. Ethanol can be made from sugars(sugar cane, sugar beets) and processed in the same plants that make ethanol from corn. Starches such as grains and potatoes. And even cellulose---like crop waste and wood waste. It has been done for over 100 years.

We can double the efficiency of the internal combustion engines we are now using gasoline for by increasing the compression ratio and using ethanol. We need to new technology---- same basic engines, same parts. We've been doing it for years. Indy race cars all run on 100% ethanol, they get 1200-1600 horsepower out of 3L V8 engines, the same size or smaller than most economy cars on the road now.

We can use wind or solar to pump water back upstream into hydro-generating reservoirs. We've been doing that for many years already with off peak power. Instead of burning coal, we can easily switch the recycling pumps to wind and solar---store the energy in the reservoirs and have it when it is needed.

Solar thermal, and solar passive and conservation(doing more with less) are barely even tried yet.

We haven't even scratched the surface with geothermal power yet. There are something like 1.5 million abandoned oil wells all over the US. Oil usually comes out of the well at about 120* C or hotter(boiling is 100*C).

There are hundreds of ways for us to get the power we need, and we do not have to burn coal or petroleum.

We can make biodegradable plastics now. Consumers can insist on more durable products. Do you REALLY want to spend $1,000 or more on a TV that the manufacturer says will only last one year---and if you want it to last longer than one year you have pay them $300 or more to guarantee it? The manufacturers are making you a bet---a bet that their product will not last three years. Considering wholesale price--on average--the manufacturers are betting that only 1/2 of their products will last three years. Sucker bet. If you win, you lose. If you lose, you lose. Who should guarantee a product? The manufacturer who builds it, or the consumer who buys it? That is what is meant in the video by "externalizing costs". Designing products so that they can not be repaired or updated is another way(remember the computer chips?)

Any manufacturer that had tried something like that with your Grandmother 50 years ago would NEVER have gotten her back on their sales floor again.

We need to change the basic ways we think about how things need to work. I think a good place to start is to look to the past at what worked and what didn't. Our parents, grandparents and great grandparents were not stupid. We can learn from history.

i agree, i think this myth of progress we have about the world, that technology and science are always improving our lives, and that people who came before us had it worse, and that we are so much smarter, kind of needs to go away. we really should integrate ideas that people have had all around the world, for thousands of years, like living more in harmony with our home planet, having more respect for the fragility of our lives