This article by lindsay Abrams in Salon: This is absolutely terrifying: “There are really only two big patches of intact forest left on Earth” brings some obvious but inconvenient truths to the forefront. We are ruining the planet like it does not matter what we are leaving for future generations.
We are constantly being told that Republicans still ignoring reality with regard to things like the ACA. It is time to stop scapegoating them while we go on bringing about an end to the kind of planet we have abused for so long.
I have been accused of being a ranting old man so read on below for this rant.
The hard facts are enough to make one weep. That is if one has not been drugged and immobilized by the culture that is all of ours. Our addiction to this way of life has gone on too far. Here's what we do:
“There are really only two big patches of intact forest left on Earth — the Amazon and the Congo — and they shine out like eyes from the center of the map,” lead author Nick Haddad, a professor at North Carolina State University, told the New Yorker.
“Nearly 20 percent of the world’s remaining forests are the distance of a football field — or about 100 meters — away from forest edges,” he elaborated in a statement. “Seventy percent of forest lands are within a half-mile of forest edges. That means almost no forests can really be considered wilderness.”
And the consequences of that forest loss, the researchers discovered, may be more profound than we’ve previously realized. To figure that out, they looked at the results of seven experiments, which took place on five different continents, that aimed to simulate the impacts of human activity on forests. Several of the studies have been going on for decades, and the results, in aggregate, were striking: fragmented habitats, they found, can reduce plant and animal diversity by anywhere from 13 to 75 percent.
In this diary:
From the Amazon: Our planet's "lungs" are now not working well. we see another consequence of this.
The article in salon says:
Fragmented forests experienced a decline in their core ecosystem functions, as well: they were less able to sequester carbon dioxide, an important element of mitigating climate change, and displayed reduced productivity and pollination.
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If we were to try to list what we have done to our habitat it would be endless. The denial of what our culture is seems impossible to cut through. We live like there is no future to think about. We spawn children and then doom them and future generations to the results of what we recklessly call "civilization".
Once again folks, you really do not need a weatherman to tell you which way the wind is blowing.