We are living in the Anthropocene age, in which human influence on the planet is so profound – and terrifying – it will leave its legacy for millennia. Politicians and scientists have had their say, but how are writers and artists responding to this crisis?
From: www.theguardian.com
From: campaign.r20.constantcontact.com
A Harvard economist known globally for his work on climate change policy sat in the Sacramento office of the oil industry’s lobbying firm recently, making the case that California is fighting global warming the wrong way.
The state has a good cap-and-trade system, Robert Stavins said, but some of its other environmental policies are weakening it. He pointed to a rule known as the low carbon fuel standard, which is supposed to increase production of clean fuels.
Environmental advocates consider it a complement to the cap-and-trade program that makes industry pay for emitting carbon. Stavins had other words.
“It’s contradictory. It’s counterproductive. It’s perverse,” he said. “I would recommend eliminating it.” From: www.ocregister.com
A GMO is an organism that has had its DNA altered or modified in some way through genetic engineering. From: www.livescience.com
Resistance to change: People don’t respond to warnings by strangers, including scientists and governments. At times, leaders must make repeated calls for change, and sometimes they must use rules and penalties to force change. In many instances, the rules are deceptively designed to benefit for-profit corporations, but when the only discernable winners are the people and the Earth, leadership achieves its highest calling.
“There are species going extinct today that have never been described,” Plotnick said. “Others are going extinct that are known only because someone wrote it down.” All such species would thus be unknown in the far future, he said, if the written historical record is lost — as it might well be.
The fossil record, Plotnick points out, is much more durable than any human record.
“As humanity has evolved, our methods of recording information have become ever more ephemeral,” he said. “Clay tablets last longer than books. And who today can read an 8-inch floppy?” he shrugged. “If we put everything on electronic media, will those records exist in a million years? The fossils will.”
Other authors on the study, published earlier this month in Ecology Letters, are Felisa A. Smith of the University of New Mexico and S. Kathleen Lyons of the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.
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From: news.uic.edu
Avoiding societal collapse means building bridges between science and the rest of the world. From: ensia.com
In arid and semi-arid environments, introduced invasive plants fill openings left by fires. In the Great Plains, perennial grasses tolerate fires well. Where livestock grazing and other disturbances have broken soil surfaces, however, the fire increases the opportunities for invasive plants to establish. Fine fuel builds up. Shortened fire recurrence intervals can overcome the resistance of perennial grasses and lead to weedlands of little value for wildlife, wildlife, or soil stability.
Good expansion on the issue.