The Ecological Downspiral

Every week, it seems, I read an ecological horror story —a report of a trend that could doom humanity if it continues. This week the science magazine Nature reported that the world’s oceans have become 30% more acidic during the industrial era, that low-oxygen “dead” zones in the oceans have almost quadrupled since 1960, and that the amount of plastics in the oceans is approaching 150 million tons. Not mentioned were rising ocean temperatures. Human multi-national, fractured, distracted, cross-purposed political, economic, and militarily-aligned entities seem incapable of dealing with the ecological downspiral.