Dying Oceans

[boulderjohn]

I know we have a forum for ocean conservancy, but I was afraid this article might bet buried there. It might get moved, but I hope it gets a wider readership first.

The ocean is broken

 

[DiverGirl1972]

This is terrifying and sad. Thanks for sharing.

 

[ChickenFried]

I read this yesterday and was deeply saddened as well. What are we leaving for future generations?

 

[Diver0001]

I know we have a forum for ocean conservancy, but I was afraid this article might bet buried there. It might get moved, but I hope it gets a wider readership first.

The ocean is broken

This discussion started on the pub a week or so ago. I'll tell you here what I said there.

The *disease* is uncontrolled population growth. All the other things we notice, like pollution, over fishing, resource depletion etc etc etc are all symptoms.

Until humans decide to take this weed out by the roots and deal with over population then anything we do is just bailing out the boat while the hole in the bottom keeps getting bigger and bigger.

R..

 

[AfterDark]

This discussion started on the pub a week or so ago. I'll tell you here what I said there.

The *disease* is uncontrolled population growth. All the other things we notice, like pollution, over fishing, resource depletion etc etc etc are all symptoms.

Until humans decide to take this weed out by the roots and deal with over population then anything we do is just bailing out the boat while the hole in the bottom keeps getting bigger and bigger.

R..

Let nature take it's course. Starvation, sickness, natural disasters are nature's ways of dealing with over population. Yet every time nature takes action we step in and save lives. We want it both ways and are paying the price.

 

[TSandM]

Some time ago, I read a book called Four Fish by Paul Greenberg. He wrote the book because of similar observations -- he had been an avid fisherman in his youth, and went back to some of the places he had fished years earlier and found conditions had drastically changed. The book is well written and worth reading, because it is not a polemic by an ecozealot, but a very thoughtful examination of fisheries and fish farming and sustainability, written by someone who fishes himself.

 

[Diver0001]

Let nature take it's course. Starvation, sickness, natural disasters are nature's ways of dealing with over population. Yet every time nature takes action we step in and save lives. We want it both ways and are paying the price.

I didn't respond to you when you said this in the Pub. There are severe ethical problems that need to be addressed before people are just allowed to die horribly because it might be better for everyone else.

It's a very VERY difficult problem and I'm not going to pretend to have any cure-all solutions. I agree with you that we want it both ways and that we, as a species, are not willing to face the hard facts. There may be a way to control it but I don't see signs of people "waking up" in my life time.

Some see it, but few are willing to accept that it's not a problem for "everyone else". It affects every single one of us, regardless of race, creed or political inclination. Until (unless) we come to live in a global society that has the commitment to *reverse* population growth and to do it in a such a way that doesn't destroy the world economy, which depends for 99% on population growth as its main driver, then there is little hope for human kind aside from a disaster of literally biblical proportions.

We started off 250,000 years ago living in caves and throwing sticks and stones at one another and if we're not careful we'll be doing exactly the same again in the future.

R..

 

[AfterDark]

I didn't respond to you when you said this in the Pub. There are severe ethical problems that need to be addressed before people are just allowed to die horribly because it might be better for everyone else.

It's a very VERY difficult problem and I'm not going to pretend to have any cure-all solutions. I agree with you that we want it both ways and that we, as a species, are not willing to face the hard facts. There may be a way to control it but I don't see signs of people "waking up" in my life time.

Some see it, but few are willing to accept that it's not a problem for "everyone else". It affects every single one of us, regardless of race, creed or political inclination. Until (unless) we come to live in a global society that has the commitment to *reverse* population growth and to do it in a such a way that doesn't destroy the world economy, which depends for 99% on population growth as its main driver, then there is little hope for human kind aside from a disaster of literally biblical proportions.

We started off 250,000 years ago living in caves and throwing sticks and stones at one another and if we're not careful we'll be doing exactly the same again in the future.

R..

No, we'll be fossil records.

 

[emoreira]

We started off 250,000 years ago living in caves and throwing sticks and stones at one another and if we're not careful we'll be doing exactly the same again in the future.

R..

Those very few that survive.

 

[Hank49]

There is good news. If we leave it alone, it comes back quickly. Tubbataha Reef in the Philippines had been over fished and dynamited for years. The World Heritage moved in, put up some funding to have armed guards there that check on all boats in the area and lo and behold, the reef and fish came back in a short while.

I hope and believe that in the not so distant future, we will be growing fish and seafood in intensive culture systems cheaper than people can go out and catch them in the wild. It's already happened with shrimp. The trawlers in the Gulf of Mexico only survive because of lobbying and government subsidies. Farmers can produce shrimp for a lower cost then the trawlers.

Hunting on land is only for sportsman now. The same SHOULD happen in the sea. (and being a spearfisherman, I LIVE for that day )

Maybe I'm wrong, but I hate these doomsday sayers. There is always hope.