My intention was to write an essay that was political in nature for today, but when we got home last night, we were hit with a power outage. Power wasn’t going to be restored for several hours, and it was already late. Not only that, but now that you know that I use my phone and two fingers to type, I only had 2% battery life, and therefore, wouldn’t get too far with my writing.
Excess heat and fertilizer overflow into water is largely due to humans. The alarm by scientists about our environment started in the mid to late 60’s and instead of action it became the inconvenient truth to be denied by one political party. Greed and short sightedness is what behind the killing of these beautiful sea lions.
This should be publicized all over the place. Let everyone see what this does to the animals at every stage. Is it any wonder there are polar bears starving?! Sharks and orca that are starving?! So messed up!!
It is no surprise that global warming is killing marine life. It has raised sea levels, changed the salinity of water and has exploded algae blooms across the seven seas. The extreme weather in hurricanes and tornadoes are also changing behavior habits of migration birds. I fear it may be too late to reverse the effects of global warming before more sea life and life in general are lost for good. We must demand accountability of our elected officials and industries responsible for global warming.
And Patrick, as Michael Clark, et al., declared in their much-cited Nov. 2020 research article for the prestigious journal *Science * (see synopsis here from Oxford Univ.: https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2020-11-06-we-must-change-what-we-eat-solve-climate-crisis-shows-research ) humanity MUST SHIFT to plant-based diets ASAP or we will quickly overshoot the 1.5-degree Celsius warming mark and most likely the utterly catastrophic 2.0-degree level by end of century (actually much faster), EVEN IF ALL HUMANITY STOPPED USING FOSSIL FUELS TOMORROW.
Yes, as Clark & his team, and earlier researchers like R.Goodland & J.Anhang showed as far back as 2009 (for Worldwatch Institute), the dietary factor --chiefly industrial livestock-- is an enormous component of GHG emissions, even bigger than fossil fuel burning, and has been almost utterly ignored by the politicians and longtime "experts" (like Bill McKibben, et al).
And CHANGING FOOD CHOICES is the one thing WE ALL CAN DO at the grassroots level, without "waiting for the politicians," who in the USA and other countries are completely in the pocket of the meat & dairy industries and their lobbyists, not to mention many of them also being in the pocket of the fossil fuel industry.
What is the consumption rate of water for produce vs. livestock? From my understanding approximately one percent of the world eats a plant based diet. Do we have the capacity to grow produce for the other 99 percent?
Leigh Ann, plant-based diets require only a tiny fraction of water to grow produce for human consumption. Here's the major point to realize: LIVESTOCK are sucking up GINORMOUS quantities of water for feedstock plants (hay, sorghum, etc.). A PLANT-BASED DIET requires a TINY FRACTION of water compared to the voracious meat & dairy industry.
For glaring example, I'll post again what i've previous shared here at The Warning: the jaw-dropping, eye-popping results of a careful examination by Brian Richter et al. (for the rigorous publication Nature Sustainability) analyzing how feedstock plants for cattle for the meat & dairy industry are sucking/wasting most of the water in the western USA, and especially the Colorado River basin.
Here's what i posted before:
On the topic dangerous water shortages & conflicts, how many people are aware that fully 55% of all water use in the direly shrinking Colorado River basin in the Southwest USA, and 32% of all water use in the western states, is for CATTLE FEED for the meat and dairy industries? (See world water-use expert Brian Richter, et al., https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-020-0483-z )
And look at the alarming bigger picture:
Worldwide, the meat & dairy livestock industry is the…
--#1 cause of water waste & pollution (think of all those polluted rivers, lakes and ocean "dead zones"),
--#1 source of greenhouse gases CO2 & Methane causing our global climate catastrophe,
--#1 cause of deforestation,
--#1 cause of habitat loss and extinction of countless thousands/millions of species (and indigenous peoples),
--#1 cause of erosion (topsoil loss),
…and along with the poultry industry and fish-farming industry,
--#1 cause of pathogenic food-borne illnesses,
--#1 cause of zoonotic (animal to human) pandemic diseases, from COVID to MERS to Hong Kong and Asian flus, to the so-called "Spanish Influenza" (started on a U.S. poultry farm),
--#1 cause of antibiotic overuse, breeding the antibiotic-resistant "superbugs" that terrify epidemiologists,
--#1 cause of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, hypertension and so many other killer diseases of humans,
--#1 cause of the ongoing horror for the trillion land & sea creatures (fully feeling sentient beings) confined, tortured and slaughtered each and every year for ungodly human greed and pleasure.
Unless massive numbers of people shift to PLANT-BASED diets, all species including ours (except maybe heat-tolerant bacteria) are toast.
What a shame that people put "habit / convenience" and "palate pleasure" before DOING THE RIGHT THING in the face of the ongoing WORST MULTI-FACETED SET OF INJUSTICES in human history.
3) the only way to prevent the (unneeded) industrial over-breeding of hundreds of billions of animals (cattle, dairy cows, chickens, turkeys, pigs, etc.) over the next decade whose lives will only be horrifying misery until they're slaughtered.
As some experts have remarked, *you can't devise a more Satanic way of eating* than the Standard American Diet obsessed with meat, fish, dairy, & eggs.
I live in Iowa. Good luck convincing farmers that they can make a difference in the health of the planet and it’s inhabitants. They ran off a great tv weatherman with death threats just for mentioning global warming.
It's sad that we humans are causing all the havoc, danger and destruction to this earth and her non-human inhabitants. It's been going on since we arrived, and all my care and recycling and respect for the ground I occupy won't make a difference if the wealthy abusers don't take action soon.
So pleased you focused on topic less directly political; although climate change and loss of our ocean biodiversity are interconnected to political arena in regulations and such; the photos of the sea lions are very well done and bring again tears to my eyes as they are suffering. Somehow I find it easier to absorb news of human tragedy because we’ve done it to ourselves relative to the climate. But to see the innocents of our oceans suffering and dying, not understanding what has happened to their world hurts more. Thank you for your phone “blurb.” Well done. Hope your power is restored and not the result of another climate event. They are increasingly hard to avoid. 🥲🌎
The consequences of human hubris are snowballing. Unfortunately, it's killing off the other species faster than it's hurting us. Hard to stay positive in this world.
Excess heat and fertilizer overflow into water is largely due to humans. The alarm by scientists about our environment started in the mid to late 60’s and instead of action it became the inconvenient truth to be denied by one political party. Greed and short sightedness is what behind the killing of these beautiful sea lions.
This should be publicized all over the place. Let everyone see what this does to the animals at every stage. Is it any wonder there are polar bears starving?! Sharks and orca that are starving?! So messed up!!
It is no surprise that global warming is killing marine life. It has raised sea levels, changed the salinity of water and has exploded algae blooms across the seven seas. The extreme weather in hurricanes and tornadoes are also changing behavior habits of migration birds. I fear it may be too late to reverse the effects of global warming before more sea life and life in general are lost for good. We must demand accountability of our elected officials and industries responsible for global warming.
And Patrick, as Michael Clark, et al., declared in their much-cited Nov. 2020 research article for the prestigious journal *Science * (see synopsis here from Oxford Univ.: https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2020-11-06-we-must-change-what-we-eat-solve-climate-crisis-shows-research ) humanity MUST SHIFT to plant-based diets ASAP or we will quickly overshoot the 1.5-degree Celsius warming mark and most likely the utterly catastrophic 2.0-degree level by end of century (actually much faster), EVEN IF ALL HUMANITY STOPPED USING FOSSIL FUELS TOMORROW.
Yes, as Clark & his team, and earlier researchers like R.Goodland & J.Anhang showed as far back as 2009 (for Worldwatch Institute), the dietary factor --chiefly industrial livestock-- is an enormous component of GHG emissions, even bigger than fossil fuel burning, and has been almost utterly ignored by the politicians and longtime "experts" (like Bill McKibben, et al).
And CHANGING FOOD CHOICES is the one thing WE ALL CAN DO at the grassroots level, without "waiting for the politicians," who in the USA and other countries are completely in the pocket of the meat & dairy industries and their lobbyists, not to mention many of them also being in the pocket of the fossil fuel industry.
What is the consumption rate of water for produce vs. livestock? From my understanding approximately one percent of the world eats a plant based diet. Do we have the capacity to grow produce for the other 99 percent?
Leigh Ann, plant-based diets require only a tiny fraction of water to grow produce for human consumption. Here's the major point to realize: LIVESTOCK are sucking up GINORMOUS quantities of water for feedstock plants (hay, sorghum, etc.). A PLANT-BASED DIET requires a TINY FRACTION of water compared to the voracious meat & dairy industry.
For glaring example, I'll post again what i've previous shared here at The Warning: the jaw-dropping, eye-popping results of a careful examination by Brian Richter et al. (for the rigorous publication Nature Sustainability) analyzing how feedstock plants for cattle for the meat & dairy industry are sucking/wasting most of the water in the western USA, and especially the Colorado River basin.
Here's what i posted before:
On the topic dangerous water shortages & conflicts, how many people are aware that fully 55% of all water use in the direly shrinking Colorado River basin in the Southwest USA, and 32% of all water use in the western states, is for CATTLE FEED for the meat and dairy industries? (See world water-use expert Brian Richter, et al., https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-020-0483-z )
And look at the alarming bigger picture:
Worldwide, the meat & dairy livestock industry is the…
--#1 cause of water waste & pollution (think of all those polluted rivers, lakes and ocean "dead zones"),
--#1 source of greenhouse gases CO2 & Methane causing our global climate catastrophe,
--#1 cause of deforestation,
--#1 cause of habitat loss and extinction of countless thousands/millions of species (and indigenous peoples),
--#1 cause of erosion (topsoil loss),
…and along with the poultry industry and fish-farming industry,
--#1 cause of pathogenic food-borne illnesses,
--#1 cause of zoonotic (animal to human) pandemic diseases, from COVID to MERS to Hong Kong and Asian flus, to the so-called "Spanish Influenza" (started on a U.S. poultry farm),
--#1 cause of antibiotic overuse, breeding the antibiotic-resistant "superbugs" that terrify epidemiologists,
--#1 cause of heart disease, diabetes, cancer, hypertension and so many other killer diseases of humans,
--#1 cause of the ongoing horror for the trillion land & sea creatures (fully feeling sentient beings) confined, tortured and slaughtered each and every year for ungodly human greed and pleasure.
Unless massive numbers of people shift to PLANT-BASED diets, all species including ours (except maybe heat-tolerant bacteria) are toast.
What a shame that people put "habit / convenience" and "palate pleasure" before DOING THE RIGHT THING in the face of the ongoing WORST MULTI-FACETED SET OF INJUSTICES in human history.
Lee, that's why i so often harp on this here in the comment threads for The Warning. The same whole-food plant-based diet that is
1) the only thing to save us from a long list of eco-horrors, is also
2) the best diet for our bodily health and significantly greater longevity (see this amazing study from early 2022: https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003889), and is also
3) the only way to prevent the (unneeded) industrial over-breeding of hundreds of billions of animals (cattle, dairy cows, chickens, turkeys, pigs, etc.) over the next decade whose lives will only be horrifying misery until they're slaughtered.
As some experts have remarked, *you can't devise a more Satanic way of eating* than the Standard American Diet obsessed with meat, fish, dairy, & eggs.
I live in Iowa. Good luck convincing farmers that they can make a difference in the health of the planet and it’s inhabitants. They ran off a great tv weatherman with death threats just for mentioning global warming.
I was looking at those beautiful creatures and then my heart broke.
What a tragedy. I hope they will somehow survive.
Those poor animals. :-(
"Peace of the the Wild Things" -Wendell Berry
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
***May we respect and protect the waters and the wild things.
Thank you Jennifer and Steve.
Exquisitely beautiful poem, Lisa! 🙏💖🌺
It's sad that we humans are causing all the havoc, danger and destruction to this earth and her non-human inhabitants. It's been going on since we arrived, and all my care and recycling and respect for the ground I occupy won't make a difference if the wealthy abusers don't take action soon.
I wonder if this is what happened to
The mother of the orphaned baby sea lion who has been climbing on surfers’ boards and catching rides with them.
We’ve been terrible stewards of our planet 🌎 and, truly, don’t deserve it and all its wondrous beauty. We are a terrible m, selfish species.
Hope power is back up. Had not heard of a West Coast problem Yes to Gulf dead zone and Florida algae.
Thanks for the NOAA alert
So sad. So much suffering.
So pleased you focused on topic less directly political; although climate change and loss of our ocean biodiversity are interconnected to political arena in regulations and such; the photos of the sea lions are very well done and bring again tears to my eyes as they are suffering. Somehow I find it easier to absorb news of human tragedy because we’ve done it to ourselves relative to the climate. But to see the innocents of our oceans suffering and dying, not understanding what has happened to their world hurts more. Thank you for your phone “blurb.” Well done. Hope your power is restored and not the result of another climate event. They are increasingly hard to avoid. 🥲🌎
The consequences of human hubris are snowballing. Unfortunately, it's killing off the other species faster than it's hurting us. Hard to stay positive in this world.
Ponds in the park near me are covered in green slime as well. The huge cost of global warming.
hard to think they may be begging for help - so sad, the mess we have caused others, the planet, animals. . .
It is heartbreaking what the remainder of the plant and animal kingdom suffers, often immediately secondary to human entitlement.
+1 .. Many thanks for the link ... Heads Up ,,, not only is our marine eco challanged. . Ya'll let's wake up and smell the coffee ...
I don't need to kill an animal to feed myself.