Arctic Ocean mega-bloom: Scientists' eyes popped and jaws dropped

[Swede]

"We know that the ice is changing, we know that it is melting at an incredible rate," she said. Researchers were trying to figure out what that meant for the ocean environment -- which affects all forms of Arctic life as well as the crucial fisheries industry and, thus, global economics, as Bontempi noted.

So a U.S. Coast Guard ice breaker bearing the expedition's researchers was chugging along in summer 2011, funneling the Arctic waters through its laboratory instruments, when, Bontempi said, someone noticed "these huge concentrations of the plant life and said, 'Is this real? Oh my God.'"

The crew brought the ship to a halt. Remaining in place, the researchers dropped instruments over the side and began a more thorough analysis. Preliminary findings were sent to Bontempi.

"I was blown away," she said. "I didn't think it was real."

The bloom was vast -- a 60- or 70-mile stretch of active plant life.



http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-arctic-ocean-bloom-20120608,0,1024413.story

[Gregorian]

1. No problem. Just keep traveling and shopping and having children.

I sure don't see things changing. It's either we change, and alter the climate change, and watch the world economy take a dive, or we act like the Kamikaze's that we are, and keep pumping out the carbon dioxide. But it's more than CO2 concentrations. Far more.

Who knows what is going to happen. I think it's pretty obvious that good things are not going to be the outcome.

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. We are past the tipping point.

Many many scientists have agreed that even if we put the brakes on ALL the negative things we are doing, right now, this minute,
it is too late.
Not even counting Fukishima.

[Gregorian]

3. I'm finally at the point where I can just watch and experience it.

I'm kind of ashamed to say that since the very first days that I had a driver's license (1972), I became highly agitated by what I saw. I never realized the extent until I got out and drove around a little. And that sense of frustration never went away. I knew full well what was going on. I spent years running from it. Moving from place to place as they built up. Now it's everyone's problem. I guess that's what helped.

Now I indulge myself in what beauty is left. Yesterday it was a bobcat and playing my trumpet to the deer in my yard. Today it was seeing the first baby crows I've ever seen. I rode my bike about 100 miles through redwood forests this week. Not a bad life considering the shit that's going on. Now it's just sad. But before it was maddening. It's just the same feeling as Bush bringing the quality of the country down a few notches.

We could do better. But people aren't smart enough to even know what better is. This society is especially willing to invite pollution into their lives, whether it's Fox, or commercials, or bad food.

All I can say is knock yourselves out. I don't have any kids. But I wonder just what the kids of today are going to experience. I'd hate to have that on my conscience.

Forgive me for unloading. It's kind of why I came to this forum. I saw a lot of bright people. I know I've been outspoken about this. There aren't many outlets for it.

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. I used to wonder how people "got used to" catastrophe.

Now I know..you just keep putting one foot in front of the other, doing the best you can, even while knowing, that on small and large scales, events are transpiring beyond your control.
for me, it has been a long long process of giving up things.
Giving up eating Salmon that we used to catch with ridiculous ease when I was a kid.
giving up eating shrimp from the Gulf of Mexico. in fact, giving up even going to the Gulf anymore, but chorusing my memories of my times there in years past, before BP turned it into a toxic waste dump.
Giving up half a lifetime on the West Coast, as people over ran my childhood places, and I could no longer afford to live there.

the scene in Solyent Green keeps haunting me, the one where Edward G. Robison is dying and is provided with a video wall size picture of what the earth used to look like, the last thing he sees before he dies.


Eventually tho, you get to a place where is so little left to give up, all you can do is find the good stuff in each day, no matter how small.
Today we had a nice soft rain and I could transplant daylilies with ease, and pick some ripe tomatoes and watch the chickens for a a short while. And hear nothing but gentle rain and bird calls. It was lovely.

[Gregorian]

5. Wow. I thought I was alone.

You have expressed what I've gone through. Forfeiting the things that would have ordinarily made a good life. The kind of life people lived for all of our existence until we populated the planet to this extent. Furthermore, any place that is nice gets invaded. Now I'm in Mendocino, after having lived away for a few years. What was a magical place is not just exhaust from the Bay Area. People addicted to their cars. I'm spending my days in a state of disgust.

And thank you for the Soylent green scene. That was so sad and pathetic.

I'm still trying. But now (gosh, this should probably be a PM rather than a public reply) I'm finding that instead of being able to just move a short distance from an intelligent, liberal, metro area for a place to live, it's an "either or" decision. Either you get culture, good food, and a sea of nonstop cars, or you get beauty (with some ruination), no food, no culture, idiots with Bush bumperstickers still attached. I have summed it up to something that I don't usually express except to myself- Breeders or rednecks, you choose.

Well I've offended someone by now. I better go check up on the one remaining baby crow. Yes, something ate one of them last night. I think the wind blew them out of the nest. They weren't supposed to be out yet.

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. Sounds like this would be a good separate topic, come to think of it.

No, you are not alone. Bet a lot of folks share our feelings.
Your descriptions of options is right on the money. Very lucky that we had an "option".
We opted for small town life in the South, for affordability, but of course am in the heart of the Bible Belt.
Fortunately, music, news, movies, available via computer.
We do not feel lack of anything urban except lower grocery prices.
Being deep seated introverts, tis a good choice for Mr. Dixie and me.

[Gregorian]

7. It would make a good topic, except I'm not sure what it would accomplish.

Last edited Sun Jun 10, 2012, 03:45 PM - Edit history (1)

I don't miss anything from the city except the quality of the people. Yet it works both ways. Sometimes the simple folk are just a lot quieter and less active. But the one thing I've found, at least up and down the coast of California and Oregon is that between Portland and San Francisco there is no good grocery stores. I mean, you want French bread, forget it. You want any kind of meat that isn't shipped by truck in styrofoam, forget it.

What makes this so hard is that having lived in Silicon Valley, I'm used to a stunning array of variety when it comes to food. I'll never forget living in Los Gatos, where two competing grocers side by side had anything you could ask for. The butchers were like a dozen guys waiting to serve up the most amazing stuff, none of which I was ever interested in. But it was there. Once I lived in Oregon I felt like a fish out of water.

And until just a month ago, internet was not an option. I'm finally able to enjoy Youtube now that I'm really connected.

But there's really more to it. For me the real bottom line is that I grew up in Palo Alto, and it is home to me. To not be able to even go back is the source of my anxiety. I think this is the heart of our discussion. That bad change is happening. People always had disease and dictators. But this is completely different. This is disruption. I just happened to grow up in one of the nicest places in the US. And I am thankful that I got to ride my bike through the hills of the San Francisco peninsula. Giving it up our of disgust will always be a pain inside of me. There are more people in California than all of Canada! And I can understand why. I know people who left in 1959 because they felt it coming. Rare people. So in a way some of us needed a support group.

I'm glad we could talk about this. In a way it seems to help. Too bad nobody's buying. My place has been on the market over two years.

There's something else too. Medical. I'm finding that I have to drive to SF in order to get the help I need. And having gone to some rural doctors in the past I'm absolutely certain that just like schools, medical help is only decent in the metro areas. And even then it takes some effort to weed out the bad ones.

[NickB79]

8. Theoretically, this could be a rare good thing

If massive algae blooms start to grow and spread through the Arctic, they might be able to sequester enough carbon to slow down some of the projected warming.