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sidebar3.jpg Chris Mooney is a visiting associate in the Center for Collaborative History at Princeton University and the author of three books, The Republican War on Science, Storm World, and Unscientific America.

Sheril Kirshenbaum is a marine biologist and author at Duke University. Sometimes she's a classicist, radio jock, or congressional staffer. Never sure what's next, she continues to enjoy the journey. For more information, visit her website.

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« Congressional Science Analysis: Do We Really Need To Revive The Office Of Technology Assessment? | Main | On 'Beauty-Disadvantaged Women' »

Empty Oceans

Category: ConservationMarine Science
Posted on: August 16, 2008 12:28 PM, by Sheril R. Kirshenbaum

Jackson JBC. (2008) Ecological extinction and evolution in the brave new ocean. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 105 (Suppl):11458-11465.

No caption necessary:

jackson%282008%29.jpg

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Comments

1

"Pristine" is not a date, and I think it undermines this chart a bit. But the dated items are shocking.

Posted by: Nemo | August 18, 2008 3:51 AM

2

Unbeliev... actually, all too believable.

Posted by: Jimbo | August 18, 2008 11:17 AM

3

Damn scary if you ask me! What kind of a future will my six grandchildren have?

Posted by: Nebularry | August 18, 2008 11:28 AM

4

That's incredibly depressing.

Posted by: Jennifer | August 18, 2008 8:37 PM

5

No, not scary or depressing, just very sad. Oh, I suspect I'll be scared when the zombies start coming for what's left of my food. On the bright side, it just seems like nature doing its thing. What with global warming, peak oil, and all of their consequences, seems like we're in for a big change-a-roo. That's just the ways things are going and nothing, apparently, will really make any difference. That point is way, way in the past. However, Nebularry, I am sorry for your grandchildren. That's a tragedy. Like I said, it's very sad, but very inevitable. I feel equally sorry for the young people I teach. They're in for a "crude awakening." I worry about my dog.

But I am reassured by the fact that humans must abide by the same laws as any other organism. When we overshoot the carrying capacity of our environment, of which all of these things (including global warming) are just symptoms, the result is population die-off, often to levels far below carrying capacity.

I wonder what life will be like on the other side of this great discontinuity. This discontinuity will be the greatest event in human history since the origins of plant and animal domestication. That event was so recent, that I largely think that we have yet to successfully adapt to the changes it wrought. Shades of Ishmael.

"Men go and come, but earth abides."


Posted by: Eric the Leaf | August 18, 2008 11:58 PM

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