Higher CO2 Harming All Marine Life From Corals and Clams to Fish (Researchers)

[GliderGuider]

14. The whole set of converging crises are starting to lock together now.

Last edited Tue Aug 27, 2013, 01:21 PM - Edit history (1)

The potential for a human dieback beginning by 2030 is rising dramatically as these crises all come together:

• The Arctic Amplification effect of climate change is disrupting the polar jet stream and causing weather destabilization through the Northern Hemisphere. This is already disrupting agricultural output.
  
• Potential for methane bursts in the Arctic is rising as the region warms. This could induce runaway warming;
  
• Ocean acidification will have multiple ecological impacts, from loss of biodiversity to coral and phytoplankton loss; There is a potential for additional warming due to decreased dimethylsulphide release from the oceans;
  
• Fresh water supplies are declining;
  
• Soil fertility is declining;
  
• The oceans are almost fished out;
  
• Terrestrial species are going extinct at a ferocious rate, with a rising possibility that a vital keystone species might join them;
  
• World oil and food prices are high and still rising;
  
• Some oil-exporting nations are already destabilizing politically as their resources run out (e.g. Egypt);
  
• Fossil fuel use is still increasing.

IMO there is little realistic chance that the world will be able to resolve any of these problems, let alone the entire interlocking predicament. This is largely because of the evolutionary bequest of human risk perception, social-conformity bias, and growth orientation, all of which are a result of our evolutionary past - they have been programmed into our neural behavior circuits by natural selection over hundreds of thousands of years in response to distant past, not present, environmental and social conditions.

The main human evolutionary advantage has been our incredible analytical intellect. It has allowed us to become the undisputed, indisputable dominant species on the planet. This was possible because our intelligence operates as a limit-removal mechanism, not a limit-acceptance mechanism. Whenever we run into a roadblock to growth in any domain, out evolved response is to figure out a way around it. We are good at seeing problems and opportunities, and very, very poor at seeing consequences. It is virtually impossible for us to see a problem and not try to find a way to solve it.

These evolutionary traits are not easily circumvented at the species level, individual examples notwithstanding. As a result, I really don't think we're going to get out of this one - matters have long since passed our ability to control them consciously. Indeed, most of our previous problem-solving attempts have either made matters worse by enabling yet more growth, or have merely kicked the can down the road a little.

Perhaps it's time we showed a little humility in the face of Mother Nature, and admit that we've painted ourselves into an evolutionary corner.