More Bad News and Stupid Smart Ideas

You might recall that a few months ago I raised the conjecture that the skinny whale syndrome might be the result of having to travel too far to reach traditional feeding grounds. Over the past weekend I have heard most Pacific coast scientists tend to concur with this hypothesis. Interestingly, it appears many pods are adapting to different foods and different locations to feed. Time will tell if this will be a successful adaptation for the species.

Of greater importance, though, is my conjecture concerning diminishing quantity of ice algae, "minute vegetable forms of exquisite beauty.”, correct? If so a substantial portion of the sea will be a virtual desert in short order. If this is so, numerous species that rely on this environment will be threatened. While the peregrinate gray whale might survive diminished, other species without the intelligence or adaptability will probably disappear. This includes all higher organisms that feed on benthic crustaceans with limited range, especially walrus and ringed seal which also form a substantial part of indigenous human diet.

I was also listening to NPR, James Lovelock, creator of the Gaia hypothesis, was talking about his idea to spur the oceans to capture large amounts of CO2. This guy is dangerous. His simplistic idea is compelling and worse saleable. He totally ignores the oceanic surface layer as an insulator wishing to force cold nutrient rich water to the surface, ironically heating it. He claims that the resulting algae bloom would be no different than those naturally occurring, of course, the natural ones are quite often toxic killing all life for hundreds and sometimes thousands of miles around.

But the worst aspect of this scheme is it is a symptomatic relief not a cure, mitigating one environmental disaster by creating another (which in my opinion would ADD to global warming) is frankly stupid. No technological idea no matter how much money it makes the oil companies and the schemers can replace conservation as the primary corrective feature. We simply have to stop creating CO2 and H2O as greenhouse gases AND stop heating the waters.