Ted Rall for July 16, 2021

Humans are indeed a plague upon the land… and sea. There are some counterexamples, but they stand out because of their rarity.

We 2000s kids are missing a lot. And I know the kids of the next decades (Later 20s and 30s) are going to be missing a lot more. Agreeing with above, we are a plague to the Earth.

I feel fortunate to live in an area that has retained much of its natural beauty and I’m overjoyed that I can share it with my sons. I fear that many of the experiences I had in my traveling days will not be available to them. I loathe and curse the corporations and governments that have let this happen but the ultimate responsibility lies with the American (over) consumer. We have met the enemy and it is us.

Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t what you’ve got till it’s gone…

The conservatives won’t be happy until everything natural is gone.

Concern for reefs — or for reefers — what takes political priority these days?

There is an interesting way to grow coral-building organisms, by suspending chunks of host coral in festoons within protected waters. The coral is gradually reinhabited. Then the chunks are transplanted to the reefs that need rehabilitation.

But warming ocean waters make this fix only temporary, and on such a small scale that continuing damage will certainly overtake efforts at repair. Will miniature coral communities in oceanariums eventually be all that is left?

I used to enjoy seeing the stars at night in my grandparent’s rural backyard, but now where once was a meadow, there’s a shopping center.

" …

Thirty years ago one could find truly dark skies within an hour’s drive of major population centers. Today you often need to travel 150 miles or more. In my own observing career I have watched the extent to which ever-growing light pollution has sullied the heavens. In years long past I witnessed nearly pristine skies from parts of the highly urbanized northeastern United States. This is no longer possible.

…"

https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-resources/light-pollution-and-astronomy-the-bortle-dark-sky-scale/

Lakes like Tahoe, the Great Salt Lake and Lake Meade are all at the lowest levels ever and climate deniers say its all normal.

I know what you mean. I used to say “see the world – before it’s gone”, but another quote I first heard from a teacher was “I love the mountains. That’s why I never go there”.

Time to play “Big Yellow Taxi” by Joni Mitchell and The Counting Crows. Man things have changed so ****ing much in the past few decades. People have been talking about these changes our earth has seen for decades but little if nothing has been done.

A good read that is amazingly almost 20 years old is “Bayou Farewell” by Mike Tidwell. Dude pretty much nailed what is currently happening in south Louisiana though what he predicted in 2003/4 was not all that crazy, it was just ignored by big oil and its backers. Some of his other work is pretty knowledgeable as well. The greed of a few one percenters is irreparably damaging our planet.

Can’t say what happened off Cozumel, Ted. I dove off the SE Florida coast in the ‘70s, its was amazing. I don’t know if those reefs are still in such great shape. Increased acidification of oceans from CO2, warmer water temperatures, industrial/sewage discharges onto the reefs, garbage are all issues killing reefs worldwide.

Let’s return to North and South America before the arrival of the first Europeans…

Or better yet, before the planetary virus known as Homo Sapiens started screwing things up…

I like the not so subtle hint of the exhaust coming from tailpipes in the last panel.

I went to Cozumel and Cancun in 1995 and did multiple diving and snorkeling excursions. I am probably better off not seeing what it looks like now.

I’ve been repeating myself – for decades now: “No matter how disgusting, illegal, immoral, exploitative, or just plain wrong something is…if there’s MONEY in it, SOMEONE is going to do it.”

There are two outcomes possible here. Human beings become extinct and life returns to it’s abundance and variety. The Earth has been through several mass extinctions. Everyone resulted in an explosion of new lifeforms that returned the planet to natural beauty.

The second is that humans figure it out and the Earth becomes more like a giant farm, it’s wilderness tamed and nature managed to keep a stable biome designed for humans.

In either event, in a few few hundred million years, the Sun will have expanded to the point that life can’t be sustained on the surface of the Earth. The nature of the universe is change. Nothing is permanent.

Wow. Excellent work.

“None of us as an individual can save the world as a whole, but that nevertheless each of us must behave as though it were in our power to do so.” (Vaclav Havel, 1992)

Republicans don’t give a crap about climate change, don’t vote for them.

Kudos, Ted. This was not only wistful, but actually thoughtful.

I didn’t know Ted Rall had a kid.

I expect your kid knows what once was, you didn’t need to remind them. This generation of kids has been handed the nub of the short end of the stick their whole lives, it seems.

I spent 10 days in the US Virgin Islands in 1983 is was Perfect in every way. The National Park on St. John was the beautiful beyond words. I would be afraid to go back, it could ruin the memory. Contrary to that was 14 days on the beach near Barcelona in 94 it was terrible the Mediterranean Sea was worse than a Septic Tank, seeing raw sewage, garbage and medical waste on the tide line. Being from Nor-Cal. it’s rare to find a bottle cap on the beach much less shitty diapers.

Perhaps the earth has gone past a critical point, things are changing suddenly.

Republicans don’t care at all, their focus is on destroying democracy so they can appoint an arrogant right wing dictator to ignore the environment and climate change.

I scuba-ed in Cozumel in 1983 and it was beautiful and teeming with life. I’ve always meant to go back. I guess I waited too long.

I felt the same way about the reefs along the north shore of Jamaica. I took my first underwater photograph there in 1985, but when I returned about 15 years ago, the coral had been wiped out by hurricanes. I hope what Mr. Rall says about Cozumel is not true for much of the island; I last dove there about 4 years ago (my favorite dive spot in North America) and hope to revisit there again this year.

We are doomed.

I went to Cancun, I think it was in 2000. I was only able to get in a night dive. Much of the coral was broken up and any other life was scarce. I asked what happened, they said it was a hurricane.