It's Coming

‘Ticking time bomb’: Ocean acidity crosses vital threshold, study finds

The deep oceans have crossed a crucial boundary that threatens their ability to provide the surface with food and oxygen, a new study finds.

Nearly two-thirds of the ocean below 200 meters, or 656 feet, as well as nearly half of that above, have breached “safe” levels of acidity, according to findings published on Monday in Global Change Biology.

The fall in ocean pH is “a ticking time bomb for marine ecosystems and coastal economies,” Steve Widdicombe, director of science at the United Kingdom’s Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML), said in a statement.

The study was funded in part by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a federal agency that has been targeted for steep cuts by the Trump White House, in large part because of its role in investigating climate change.

Some of the biggest changes in deep water are happening off the coast of western North America, home to extensive crab and salmon fisheries, the study found.

The core problem is one scientists have warned about for a long time: the continued global burning of fossil fuels, which releases carbon dioxide — an acid when dissolved in water — is making the seas and oceans more acidic.

Or, technically, it’s making them less basic, which is to say: Less hospitable to species such as corals and clams that form the foundation of the ocean’s ecosystem.

“Most ocean life doesn’t just live at the surface — the waters below are home to many more different types of plants and animals,” lead author Helen Findlay of PML. “Since these deeper waters are changing so much, the impacts of ocean acidification could be far worse than we thought.”

As of five years ago, Findlay’s study noted, the oceans may have crossed a critical threshold in which oceanic levels of calcium carbonate — the main ingredient in limestones, and also the shells of those animals — fell to more than 20 percent below pre-industrial levels.

If true, that shift would mean the Earth has passed seven out of nine of the critical “planetary boundaries” needed to maintain its ecosystem, as the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research found last year.

The nine critical planetary boundaries are thresholds that scientists have identified within which humanity can safely operate to maintain a stable and healthy Earth system. These boundaries relate to different aspects of the planet's functioning, and exceeding them can lead to abrupt or irreversible environmental changes with significant consequences. 

The nine planetary boundaries are:

1. ✔︎ Climate Change: Increased greenhouse gas emissions and aerosols in the atmosphere, leading to warming and other climate impacts
2. ✔︎ Change in Biosphere Integrity: Loss of biodiversity and species extinction, impacting ecosystem services and resilience
3. ➞ Stratospheric Ozone Depletion: Thinning of the ozone layer, increasing harmful UV radiation at the Earth's surface
4. ✔︎ Ocean Acidification: Increased acidity of ocean water due to the absorption of atmospheric CO2, impacting marine life and ecosystems
5. ✔︎ Modification of Biogeochemical Flows: Altering the natural cycles of nitrogen and phosphorus, which can lead to pollution and other environmental issues
6. ✔︎ Land System Change: Deforestation, desertification, and other changes in land use that can disrupt ecosystems and the carbon cycle
7. ✔︎ Freshwater Use: Over-extraction and pollution of freshwater resources, impacting ecosystems and human populations
8. ➞ Atmospheric Aerosol Loading: Changes in the amount of airborne particles in the atmosphere, affecting climate and air quality
9. ✔︎ Novel Entities: Introduction of synthetic chemicals and other new substances into the environment, potentially causing unforeseen impacts

That shift, Widdicombe of the Marine Lab said, means “we’re witnessing the loss of critical habitats that countless marine species depend on.”

“From the coral reefs that support tourism to the shellfish industries that sustain coastal communities,” he added, “we’re gambling with both biodiversity and billions in economic value every day that action is delayed.”

The further implications are even more serious. The reasons for the ocean’s rise in acid, or fall in base, is that its waters have absorbed about one-third of all the carbon dioxide released by surface burning of coal, oil and gas.

But the more carbon dioxide it absorbs, the lower its ability to absorb more — meaning faster warming on the surface.

Making that dynamic even more dramatic, seas and oceans have also absorbed 90 percent of the global heating that the Earth’s surface would have otherwise experienced, according to NASA.

In addition to absorbing heat and carbon dioxide, the ocean also provides 50 percent of the Earth’s oxygen — which comes from the very marine ecosystems that warming and acidification are threatening.

Ecosystem loss and fossil fuel burning mean that levels of oxygen below the surface are decreasing, as, more slowly, is oxygen above the surface.

It Got Worse

Republicans - because of course - are pimping legislation in 12 or 15 states that either have, or would ban Chemtrails.

Unsubstantiated ‘chemtrail’ conspiracy theories lead to legislation proposed in US statehouses

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — As Louisiana Rep. Kimberly Landry Coates stood before her colleagues in the state’s Legislature she warned that the bill she was presenting might “seem strange” or even crazy.

Some lawmakers laughed with disbelief and others listened intently, as Coates described situations that are often noted in discussions of “chemtrails” — a decades-old conspiracy theory that posits the white lines left behind by aircraft in the sky are releasing chemicals for any number of reasons, some of them nefarious. As she urged lawmakers to ban the unsubstantiated practice, she told skeptics to “start looking up” at the sky.

“I’m really worried about what is going on above us and what is happening, and we as Louisiana citizens did not give anyone the right to do this above us,” the Republican said.

Louisiana is the latest state taking inspiration from a wide-ranging conspiratorial narrative, mixing it with facts, to create legislation. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed a similar measure into law last year and one in Florida has passed both the House and the Senate. More than a dozen other states, from New York to Arizona, have introduced their own legislation.

Such bills being crafted is indicative of how misinformation is moving beyond the online world and into public policy. Elevating unsubstantiated theories or outright falsehoods into the legislative arena not only erodes democratic processes, according to experts, it provides credibility where there is none and takes away resources from actual issues that need to be addressed.

Louisiana’s bill, which is awaiting Republican Gov. Jeff Landry’s signature, prohibits anyone from “intentionally” injecting, releasing, applying or dispersing chemicals into the atmosphere with the purpose of affecting the “temperature, weather, climate, or intensity of sunlight.” It also requires the Department of Environmental Quality to collect reports from anyone who believes they have observed such activities.

While some lawmakers have targeted real weather modification techniques that are not widespread or still in their infancy, others have pointed to dubious evidence to support legislation.

Discussion about weather control and banning “chemtrails” has been hoisted into the spotlight by high-profile political officials, including Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Recently, Marla Maples, the ex-wife of President Donald Trump, spoke in support of Florida’s legislation. She said she was motivated to “start digging” after seeing a rise in Alzheimer’s.

Asked jokingly by a Democratic state senator if she knew anyone in the federal government who could help on the issue, Maples smiled and said, “I sure do.”

Chemtrails vs. contrails

Chemtrail conspiracy theories, which have been widely debunked and include a myriad of claims, are not new. The publication of a 1996 Air Force report on the possible future benefits of weather modification is often cited as an early driver of the narrative.

Some say that evidence of the claims is happening right before the publics’ eyes, alleging that the white streaks stretching behind aircrafts reveal chemicals being spread in the air, for everything from climate manipulation to mind control.

Ken Leppert, an associate professor of atmospheric science at the University of Louisiana Monroe, said the streaks are actually primarily composed of water and that there is “no malicious intent behind” the thin clouds. He says the streaks are formed as exhaust is emitted from aircrafts, when the humidity is high and air temperature is low, and that ship engines produce the same phenomenon.

A fact sheet about contrails, published by multiple government agencies including NASA and the Environmental Protection Agency, explains that the streaks left behind by planes do not pose health risks to humans. However, the trails, which have been produced since the earliest days of jet aviation, do impact the cloudiness of Earth’s atmosphere and can therefore affect atmospheric temperature and climate.

Scientists have overwhelmingly agreed that data or evidence cited as proof of chemtrails “could be explained through other factors, including well-understood physics and chemistry associated with aircraft contrails and atmospheric aerosols,” according to a 2016 survey published in the journal Environmental Research Letters. In the survey of 77 chemists and geochemists, 76 said they were not aware of evidence proving the existence of a secret large-scale atmospheric program.

“It’s pure myth and conspiracy,” Leppert said.

Cloud seeding

While many of the arguments lawmakers have used to support the chemtrails narrative are not based in fact, others misrepresent actual scientific endeavors, such as cloud seeding; a process by which an artificial material — usually silver iodide — is used to induce precipitation or to clear fog.

“It’s maybe really weak control of the weather, but it’s not like we’re going to move this cloud here, move this hurricane here, or anything like that,” Leppert said.

Parker Cardwell, an employee of a California-based cloud seeding company called Rainmaker, testified before lawmakers in Louisiana and asked that an amendment be made to the legislation to avoid impacts to the industry.

The practice is an imprecise undertaking with mixed results that isn’t widely used, especially in Louisiana, which has significant natural rainfall. According to Louisiana’s Department of Agriculture and Forestry, a cloud seeding permit or license has never been issued in the state.

Geoengineering

While presenting Louisiana’s bill last week, Coates said her research found charts and graphics from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on spraying the air with heavy metals to reflect sunlight back into space to cool the Earth.

The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2022 directed the Office of Science and Technology Policy, with support from NOAA, to develop an initial governance framework and research plan related to solar radiation modification, or SRM. A resulting report, which Coates holds up in the House session, focuses on possible future actions and does not reflect decisions that had already been made.

SRM “refers to deliberate, large-scale actions intended to decrease global average surface temperatures by increasing the reflection of sunlight away from the Earth,” according to NOAA. It is a type of geoengineering. Research into the viability of many methods and potential unintended consequences is ongoing, but none have actually been deployed.

Taking focus

In recent years, misinformation and conspiratorial narratives have become more common during the debates and committee testimonies that are a part of Louisiana’s lawmaking process.

And while legislators say Louisiana’s new bill doesn’t really have teeth, opponents say it still takes away time and focus from important work and more pressing topics.

State Rep. Denise Marcelle, a Democrat who opposed Louisiana’s bill, pointed to other issues ailing the state, which has some of the highest incarceration, poverty, crime, and maternal mortality rates.

“I just feel like we owe the people of Louisiana much more than to be talking about things that I don’t see and that aren’t real,” she said.

Paraphrasing

When too many are convinced

ignorance is the same as patriotism

it takes real courage to be smart

Wise Counsel

He barks and grumbles.

He stomps and stumbles,

And wrecks the jungle.

But he's just a fumbling bungle.

He'll never pass muster

Cuz he lacks the needed luster.

He is Mr Bluff-n-Bluster.

I'm not saying we should ignore him. A demented toddler with a machine gun must never be ignored.

Every time he pulls some shit, I clench up a little - sometimes a lot. There's always a greater than zero probability that one day he'll actually go over the edge. And so far it feels like kind of a ratcheting effect, but he's backed down on several occasions, and each time he does, we have to exert an opposing ratchet effect - to push back every time he slips a little.

Remember, they don't call him TACO Don for nuthin'.

A Short Poem

On The Vanity Of Earthly Greatness --Arthur Guiterman

The tusks which clashed in mighty brawls

of mastodons, are billiard balls.

The sword of Charlemagne The Just

is ferric oxide, known as rust

The grizzly bear, whose potent hug

was feared by all, is now a rug.

Great Caesar's bust is on the shelf,

and I don't feel so well myself.

These Fuckin' Guys

Lots of truth in this short video post.

In the end (and in keeping with Rule 1: Every Accusation Is A Confession) the wanna-be-macho cosplay grunts are the real soy-boy submissive cucks they love to call everybody else.

The Privilege To Serve

It's Not Funny

Today's Pix

click

⇩

This Guy

Curtis Yarvin and The Dark Enlightenment

Yes - be afraid. Be very afraid.