Runoff from modern life is feeding an explosion of primitive organisms | Hacker News Reader

Runoff from modern life is feeding an explosion of primitive organisms

latimes.com

31 pointspg14 comments

"... Jellyfish populations are growing because they can. The fish that used to compete with them for food have become scarce because of overfishing. The sea turtles that once preyed on them are nearly gone. And the plankton they love to eat are growing explosively. ..."

Interesting comment.

Remarkably similiar to the scenario of "species collapse" outlined in Jarad Diamonds work, Collapse. [0] As species loose their ability to adapt in the environment the whole adjacent species start to be effected. Loose enough and whole groups that are closely inter-related disappear. You have to start questioning what are we doing wrong when the stable marine environments start to change so quickly.

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collapse:_How_Societies_Choose_...

I really doubt a complete change of ecosystem is all downside. You lose biodiversity, I guess, and I suppose people miss the megafauna and they have to adjust to the change in the food chain, but beyond that, I don't see why an anoxic food chain is categorically worse than an oxic one.

I also disagree with a more-evolved/less-evolved view on ecosystems. Don't evolutionary biologists prefer to think of things as more adapted or less adapted? Isn't the view that evolution is always progress passé? It's like people confuse "more evolved" with "bigger" because of the focus on the evolution of humans as k-strategists.

No one in the article claims it is all downside (the shrimp farmer in Georgia now makes his income from Jellyfish) or a claim on the evolutionary advantage of the system. In a direct way, we can trace our own lineage as mammals to being benefited by the extinction of the dominant vertebrate for 160m years in the Cretaceous extinction.

However, in our current position, humans have a different role and relationship with nature: what we do has a direct impact on our environment. Even if you discount the loss of biodiversity as a minor thing to be waved away -- and even if you do take the fairly nihilistic view that all ecosystems are of equal worth -- there are direct impact to humans from our changing of the environment.

In the case of the oceans, they provide a massive economic benefit directly from extraction industries, which have been in decline due to overuse, and mechanisms like the great ocean conveyor belt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermohaline_circulation) transmit tremendous quantities of energy into northern climates providing moderate climates at northern latitudes (particularly, Northern Europe). In the case of corrals, diving, recreational fishing and tourism are key components of many of the economies of nations containing them. Without these natural resources, local economies suffer, as has already happened in a number of Caribbean nations.

What will likely happen is that some species will learn to adapt and thrive on the increased numbers of algae and bacteria. And all the places and industries that depend on oceans will adapt as well. I bet someone will figure out a way to harvest energy from the life forms that are now taking over our oceans.

Why post an article from a year-and-a-half ago? This link has made the rounds of Reddit et. al. multiple times since it was first published. It seems neither "Hacker" related nor "News."

Comments like "why post ...?" don't seem to add much to the discussion. Obviously someone thought the article was interesting enough to post and several people thought it was worth reading (and perhaps worth commenting on). I for one didn't see the article a year ago.

"I for one didn't see the article a year ago."

Neither did I.

That's the way information are spread. Duplicating them is a side effect and there's nothing wrong with that. If they are still interesting, people will upvote them again, and again...

news = WASTE Because 40 percent of the oceans are classified as subtropical gyres, a fourth of the planet’s surface area has become an accumulator of floating plastic debris. What can be done with this new class of products made specifically to defeat natural recycling? How can the dictum “In ecosystems, everything is used” be made to work with plastic? http://www.naturalhistorymag.com/master.html?http://www.natu...

hack = ENERGY Every hour, the first commercial version will turn 10 tons of auto waste—tires, plastic, vinyl—into enough natural gas to produce 17 million BTUs of energy (it will use 956,000 of those BTUs to keep itself running).. Pringle created the machine about 10 years ago after he drove by a massive tire fire and thought about the energy being released. He went home and threw bits of a tire in a microwave emitter he’d been working with for another project. It turned to what looked like ash, but a few hours later, he returned and found a black puddle on the floor of the unheated workshop. Somehow, he’d struck oil.

Their first order is under construction in Rockford, Illinois. It’s a $5.1-million microwave machine the size of small bus called the Hawk, bound for an auto-recycler in Long Island, New York. More deals loom: The U.S. military may use Hawks in Iraq on waste such as water bottles and food containers. http://www.popsci.com/popsci/flat/bown/2007/innovator_2.html

idea = trawl for free plastic in oceans, zap with Pringle's machine, cleaner oceans, more energy, less waste..

"... Why post an article from a year-and-a-half ago? ..."

Self preservation is one. [0]

One of the places mentioned is about 500Km north of me. [1] Here's a question for you. Aboriginals were first spotted at "Quandamooka" as Cpt. Cook sailed up the east coast of Australia in 1770. What did the locals do right that we are doing wrong? How did they manage to maintain the habitat for probably the 6K years the bay has existed and we (Australians) managed to bugger it up in less than 100 years?

"... This link has made the rounds of Reddit ..."

Since when has reddit been the bastion of informed comment?

[0] http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/bbing/stories/s743310.htm

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moreton_Bay

Oh, Blimey!

Makes a good story for Dragon Quest (Dragon Warrior) game!

I played the first one on the NES about 15 years ago.

Memories....good thing we have NES emulators and I can play it again...

I, for one, welcome our new algal overlords.

It used to be a caveman walked across the top of a mountain looking for deer to eat. He left trash wherever he went and even introduced "fire hunting" where entire mountainsides would be burnt in order to get the most game.

Now we go visit mountains where we stay on closely-guarded trails and hope to see a deer to frame in a picture. We drive up in our internal combustion engines and hike "leaving nothing behind, taking nothing but memories"

And we feel guilty for doing it.

I'm thinking the caveman got the better deal.

Itching Powder 2.0

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