Move For Change and the Brooklyn Culture Jammers nailed it this week in their blog of Feb. 18th.
I'm stepping away from the election coverage I've been doing over the past month. While such blogs have driven traffic here, I have some opinions about the futility of the election that would probably drive traffic away. Simply put, I don't expect any presidential candidate to change the issues coming up with climate collapse.
Most Americans are apparently still enthralled in a political battle and putting both emotional and financial energy into national presidential campaigns. Saving long term habitat for our planets diverse species and humans is clearly a war that has ended. Will we focus on damage control, or continue our obsession with world stage politicians?
Are we in the last chapters of our human experiment?
What can any political and/or corporate power do to mitigate our collective predicament as a species?
Sure Bernie Sanders (Jill Stein Green Party candidate needs to be included) has more compassion and authenticity in his little toe than all the other Republican and Democratic candidates put together; yet will the selfishly blind and morally indifferent personalities that hide behind corporations, politically correct rhetoric, and cleverly managed mainstream NGO's step down and release their grip on destruction, profits, and "solutions" to a "problem" that has clearly turned into a predicament?
Here's what you need to know. The very smart scientists at the Arctic News blogspot have some very bad news about Arctic Ice extent. This is normally the time of year when the volume of ice goes up, but owing to El Niño high temperatures, that isn't happening the way it should. We've had temperatures above freezing near the North Pole-at one point this year, the Pole was warmer than North Dakota. But the concern is ice extent since February 9. Per the blog:
On February 18, 2016, Arctic sea ice extent was 14.186 million square km, i.e. less than it was on February 9. In fact, sea ice extent hasn't been higher on any day since February 9, 2016. So, the question is, has this year's maximum extent already passed us by (i.e. on February 9)?
For those who still want to "fight the good fight" in the political arena, please consider these questions:
Which political party and/ or candidate is going to stop the Arctic from a complete melt down?
Note: We are not talking about a time frame of a few years or a decade, we are looking into the abyss right here, right now.
Six months? Maybe?
Six years? Over and out?
Does the Arctic sea ice matter? Are Methane plums in the East Siberian Arctic Shelf on the national political agenda?
Meanwhile, very high methane levels, as high as 3096 parts per billion, were recorded on February 20, 2016...
Humanity and our consumer driven civilization have lost the war against Nature. Earth wins. Gaia triumphs. We might want to prepare for a graceful and kind exit instead of putting so much energy into a futile election. It's just a thought, please humor me for a few more minutes.
Why is this important?
Remember that North Pole ice extent waxes and wanes with the seasons. We just started measuring Arctic ice volume in 1979, which means we missed the pre-industrial era baselines we have for temperatures (now up 1C above what Henry David Thoreau experienced at Walden) and other indicators. And though we started out slightly above the extent in 2013 (the worst year previously), the lack of ice extent becomes important during the summer melting season, when lower ice volume will mean faster melting. Apollo-Gaia project Director David Wasdell has been saying we'll be out of ice by the end of this decade, but he had not foreseen things moving this fast.
In the meantime, scientists are now saying that the massive die-off of starfish is due to ocean warming. It's not clear whether the problem is the warming itself or the fact that warmer ocean temperatures encourage a wasting disease (possibly driven by bacteria better suited for warmer climates). An ice-free Arctic come October will exacerbate this problem. And starfish aren't the only species suffering from warmer temperatures. An ice-free Arctic will also guarantee more methane in the atmosphere.
If we have an ice-free Arctic come October, it won't matter who gets elected. Events will be in the saddle and ride mankind.
Act local. Think Global.