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The World Without Us - Alan Weisman


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Thanks for your comments, Kay. It certainly was eye-opening, wasn't it? I think everyone knows that humans pollute the environment with so much of what we do, but when it is studied and examined in detail it makes it so clear just how much damage we do and how it will last for centuries and centuries. I never thought about all the plastic in the oceans, especially that when it breaks down it is still there and just as damaging, but in smaller pieces. I try to be conscious about packaging etc., but there is only so much you can do as plastics and other non-biodegradables are everywhere, and we can't always be making a conscious decision about what we do and buy, as most people just don't have the time, or it's not the kind of thing always on their mind. :blush2:

 

I read a news article very recently about a newish store which has no packaging. Can't find the actual article, but this is a description of it. I really like the idea of having to bring your own tupperware to fill, but I can't see it catching on mainstream.

 

A big problem is that people can't see that their own small change will make such a difference, so it's easier not to bother. I'm guilty of this as well. :hide:

 

Mother Nature will fight back at some point, and by then it may be too late for us. :wacko:

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Mother Nature will fight back at some point, and by then it may be too late for us. :wacko:

 

 

Maybe by then we will be able to get to Alpha Centauri........and try not to ruin that galaxy.

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Hate to say it, but I do think it's inevitable that we will ruin wherever we go. :hide:

 

 

We absolutely would bobbly :( 

 

The way we are now, yes.  Probably so.  But someday.......someday. :)   I do have hopes that the human race will somehow survive in a better manner than we are now.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I ran across something interesting this morning.  http://www.amazon.com/dp/1250062187/ref=pe_385040_30332200_TE_item   The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert.  I've preordered it in paperback as I thought the hard back too expensive.  the PB won't come out till January.. 

 

The synopsis from Amazon......"From the author of Field Notes from a Catastrophe, a powerful and important work about the future of the world, blending intellectual and natural history and field reporting into a compelling account of the mass extinction unfolding before our eyes.

Over the last half a billion years, there have been five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. This time around, the cataclysm is us.

The Sixth Extinction draws on the work of scores of researchers in half a dozen disciplines–geologists who study deep ocean cores, botanists who follow the tree line as it climbs up the Andes, and marine biologists who dive off the Great Barrier Reef. Elizabeth Kolbert, two-time winner of the National Magazine Award and New Yorker writer, accompanies many of these researchers into the field, and introduces you to a dozen species–some already gone, others facing extinction–that are being affected by the sixth extinction.

Through these stories, Kolbert provides a moving account of the disappearances occurring all around us and traces the evolution of extinction as concept, from its first articulation by Georges Cuvier in revolutionary Paris up through the present day. The sixth extinction is likely to be mankind's most lasting legacy; as Kolbert observes, it compels us to rethink the fundamental question of what it means to be human.
"

 

I just thought that anyone interested in the Weisman book might like to take a look at it. :)

Edited by pontalba
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That sounds interesting! I don't like hard covers so would rather have a paperback too. The Kindle version is atm for me quite pricey too so I'd rather wait for the paperback (which I prefer anyway).

 

 

Oooh, interesting, I've added it to my wishlist.

 

Yays!  :D:readingtwo:

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  • 3 months later...

This article is in today's New York Times.  http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/11/science/new-research-quantifies-the-oceans-plastic-problem.html?emc=edit_au_20141210&nl=afternoonupdate&nlid=28874140&_r=1

Some interesting conclusions, some good, some not so.  But all progress in our knowledge and understanding of the amount of plastic in our oceans.  There is some discussion as to whether the smaller amounts found (than previously thought) is good, or bad.  If bad, it means that the plastics have broken down so far as to release all the toxins, and that marine life has consumed those smaller bits and passed them on up the food chain.   A partial quote, bolding mine:

 

The fact that the small plastics are disappearing is hardly good news. In fact, it could be far more troubling than the unsightly mess the plastics cause. Plastics attract and become coated with toxins like PCBs and other pollutants. Researchers are concerned that fish and other organisms that consume the plastics could reabsorb the toxins, and pass them along to other predators when they are eaten. “Plastics are like a cocktail of contaminants floating around in the aquatic habitat,” said Chelsea M. Rochman, a marine ecologist at the University of California, Davis. “These contaminants may be magnifying up the food chain.”

 

Further research should look beyond the surface to test where the smaller plastic bits might have gone -- into the deeper ocean depths, along the shoreline or settled on the seafloor. “It’s premature to say there is less plastic in the ocean than we thought,” she said. “There may just be less where we’re looking.”

 

 

So, is it getting better, not as bad as we thought, or much worse than we thought?  Stay tuned...... :hide:

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Funny you should post this, Pontalba. On the day you posted it, I had been talking to my partner about my concern about the amount of plastic junk that we are continually producing. My thoughts were of course inspired by The World without Us (I recently finished reading a big section about plastic).

 

I'm been reading this book on and off for ages. I find it utterly fascinating—I just don't find it an easy book to continually pick up and read in big chunks, so I've only been reading a couple of pages here and there.

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It is an intense read, for sure.  The history the author wrote in is fascinating as well.

 

And, another interesting tidbit....sort of on topic, but not exactly.  I happened to see this article this morning.  The pictures in the article are both gorgeous and priceless!

 

 Japan's Ocean Spiral proposed as giant underwater city     http://edition.cnn.com/2014/12/14/business/underwater-city-japan/index.html

 

And, in searching for the article again, just now, I found this one from the Guardian.  http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/20/ocean-spiral-japan-underwater-city

 

Perhaps in some of our lifetimes.  /fingers crossed/  I'd love to see this come to pass.

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