The World Around Us

The ocean water’s capacity to hold oxygen is dropping as global temperatures rise. The oceans are becoming more acidic as they absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.  These changes are killing aquatic life over large and expanding areas.   That’s a problem.

The movie Avatar has been a huge hit.  It’s full of messages about beauty, belonging, and balance — which are in short supply on Earth.  People are enchanted.  There are a lot of underlying messages that are getting missed, however.  Let’s take a look…

Remember that the economy is a subset of the environment, because the environment contains all life on Earth.  Without a healthy environment, the economy cannot be healthy either.  Conversely, when people’s needs are met, they have more ability to protect the environment, whereas hungry people tend to ravage it.

This article discusses some fascinating discoveries of new species in the world’s oceans.  And we’ve barely scratched under the surface!

If you want people to be healthy, and not overweight, then two things need to happen: 1) Everyone must have access to healthy food, such as fresh fruits and vegetables, regardless of their income level.  2) Everyone must have access to safe places to exercise, and society must make it easy to live an active lifestyle instead of pushing people towards a sedentary lifestyle. Sadly, these are not popular choices.

Consider the implication of endangered species … and how we treat them after our hard work raises their numbers to something heatlhy.

Here is an article about the economy of small island nations and how that influences both politics and climate change.

The following article looks at climate change and weather.  In particular it examines the extreme snowfall in Washington, D.C.  While climate change deniers claim this as evidence against global warming, in reality the weather is subject to variation — but as climate change progresses, extreme weather events become more common.  That includes droughts and floods, hurricanes and tornados, heat waves and blizzards.  The atmosphere simply becomes less stable and less predictable and less pleasant to live in.

Check out “Help the Vanishing Bees” over on Bloggers Unite.  Honeybees are under threat from Colony Collapse Disorder, parasites, pesticides, and other hazards.  Organic beekeeping is an improvement for beekeepers.  There are many other things you can do to help the bees.  Among the best is to plant a bee garden.  I took the photo below at Allerton Park, which has many gardens attractive to insects.