Biosphere Other Resources

Core Readings

Introduction: Radical Change to Human Ecology

• Raven, Peter. (2000). "Part 1: Overview." Atlas of Population and Environment. Link 5 min.

Peter Raven addresses human population growth and impacts, and warns of limits.

Population: Scale of Human Presence

• Vance, Scott R. (2000). "A Graphic Simulation of World Population Growth." Population Connection. Link 5 min. - start at 2 minutes and go to end.

I find this video more useful than the "hockey stick" graph for representing human population increase.

• Worldometers.info Link 5 min.

Real time estimates of changes in global, population (births, deaths from various causes), health, spending, etc.. Perspective on trends of our times.

• The Economist. (2015). "The End of the Population Pyramid." (Facebook login required) Link 5 min. video.

Animated video showing population distribution by age evolving from pyramidal in 1970 to more or less columnar in 2060, and explaining role of birth rate changes and life expectancy changes.

• Vitousek, Peter, et. al. (1986). "Human Appropriation of the Products of Photosynthesis." Bioscience 36(6). Link 5 min. - skim.

Thirty years ago, when we were only 5 billion, humans claimed 40% of net primary terrestrial photosynthesis.

• Nikiforuk, Andrew. (2011). "You and Your Slaves." Resilience. Link 3 pp., 5 min.

Energy slave calculations.

Resource Depletion: Soil, Energy, Biodiversity

• World Economic Forum. (2012). "What if the World's Soil Runs Out?" Time Link 3 pp., 5 min.

Brief review of global soil erosion and degradation, historic and projected, with reference both to acceleration and consequences.

• Leeb, Steven. (2013). "Dangerous Times As Energy Sources Get Costlier To Extract" Link 4pp., 5 min. Alternative version: Link

A primer on ERoEI, and more importantly a hint about RRoRI.

• Graph to Understand Peak Oil. Link 5 min.
• Buchmann, Stephen. (2015). "Our Vanishing Flowers." New York Times. Link 3 pp., 5 min.

Buchmann sketches the history of human reliance upon flowering plants and reports that an estimated 68% of flowering plants are threatened or endangered.

• Ceballos, et al. "Accelerating Modern Human-Induced Species Losses: Entering the Sixth Mass Extinction." Science Advances. Link 1 p., 2 min. (Please read "Abstract"; read full text if interested.)

The authors provide evidence that current rates of extinction are 8-100+ those that prevailed for millions of years.

• Abraham, David. (2015). "The Next Resource Shortage?" New York Times. Link 4pp., 4min.

Abraham writes of rare metals and their import in "energy efficient" technologies, noting that supplies are limited, often concentrated in one or two countries, usually are tapped along with other minerals whose economics dominate, and are difficult and costly to extract. He cautions that they may be impediments to realizing dreams of alternative energy based modern society.

Growing Hazard: Toxics, Climate, Disease, Invasive Species

• Cormier, Zoe. (2009). "Toxic Planet." New Internationalist. Link 5 pp., 5 min.

Cormier summarily describes the sources and consequences of increasing toxiciy of the environment.

• Bardi, Ugo. (2011). "Peak? What Peak? Greenhouse Emissions Keep Increasing." Resource Crisis. Link 2 min.

Emissions are on track with IPCC "worst case" projections and may be more of a limit than peak oil.

• Magill, Bobby. (2014). "Arctic Methane Emissions 'Certain to Trigger Warming.'" Climate Central. Link 3 min.

In study using widely scattered sites throughout the Arctic, researchers show increased emissions of methane as permafrost thaws. Methane is many times more potent than CO2 as a greenhouse gas.

• Roston, Eric; Migliozzi, Blacki. (2015). "What's Really Warming the World?" Bloomberg News. Link 2 min.

Ten graphs with brief captions, all based on the NASA climate model, all designed to demonstrate that "deniers" explanations for global warming are without support from evidence and that human increases in atmospheric CO2 are.

• "Emerging Infectious Disease." Wikipedia. Link 5 min.

Emerging infectious diseases defined using ten factors from CDC.

• Tavernise, Sabrina and Grady, Denise. (2016). "Infection Raises Specter of Infections Resistant to All Antibiotics." New York Times. Link 4 pp., 5 min.

Here at last, first in China and now in the U.S., a bacterium resistant to carbpenems and colistin, final lines of antibiotic defense.

• Reardon, Sara. (2014). "WHO Warns Against Post-Antibiotic Era." Nature. Link 2 min.

World Health Organization researchers warn against "post-antibiotic" era in which microbes run amok in absence of effective treatment.

• "List of Invasive Species in North America." Wikipedia. Link 2 pp.,3 min. Read 1st two paragraphs and skim list.

Succinct definition of "invasive." List is long and growing at accelerating rate with globalization. I find pathogens especially interesting.

• "Impact of Invasive Species: Invading Our Lands and Waters." U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Link 2 pp., 5 min. (for a horror story almost beyond imagining, see Moallem, "There's a Reason They Call Them Crazy Ants," in the Interest Readings below.)

USFWS with this brief overview provides an introduction to the phenomenon of invasive species, which has resulted in massive and accelerating losses. Please look at one or more of the brief case studies.

In Summary: Discontinuity Looms

• Ahmed, Nafeez. (2014). "Nasa-funded Study: Industrial Civilization headed for “Irreversible Collapse’?" The Guardian. Link 10 min.

This is one of a growing number of science-based challenges to the technocornucopian/free market "capitalism" world view.

Interest Readings

• Gillis, Justin. (30 March 2016.) "Climate Model Predicts West Antarctic Ice Sheet Could Melt Rapidly." NYTimes. Link

Warnings of "worst case" far worse than IPCC published only a few years prior.

• Randers, Jorgen. "8 Ways the World Will Change by 2052." Link 10 min.

Business school professor Jorgen Randers gives opinions in response to 8 questions about changes pertinent to the lives of all he expects over the next 40 years.

• Seaman, Laura. (2014). "U.S. Corn Yields Are Increasingly Vulnerable to Hot, Dry Weather, Stanford Research Shows." Stanford Report. Link 5 min.

Stanford researcher demonstrates falling US corn yields with drought, more of which is predicted for US corn belt as humans continue to change climate.

• Magill, Bobby. (2014). "Arctic Methane Emissions 'Certain to Trigger Warming'". Climate Central. Link 5 min.

In study using widely scatter sites throughout Arctic, researchers show increased emissions of methane as permafrost thaws. Methane is many times more potent than CO2 as a greenhouse gas.

• Mooney, Chris. "Scientists confirm that the Arctic could become a major new source of carbon emissions." Washington Post. Link 5pp. 10 min.

Chris Mooney reports on a recently published study whose authors estimate that releases of carbon from permafrost and other Arctic reservoirs may use a third or more of the carbon budget remaining.

• Urbina, Ian and Fink, Sheri. (2014). "A Deadly Fungus and Questions at a Hospital" New York Times. Link 5 min.

Outbreak of communicable disease caused by flesh-eating fungus, and spread by improper handling of linens results in deaths of several children at top-rated New Orleans Children's Hospital.

• Murphy, David. (2010). "Does Peak Oil Even Matter?" The Oil Drum. Link 5 min.

Murphy argues that ERoEI is the critical factor.

• Post Carbon Institute. (2012). "300 Years of Fossil Fuels in 300 Seconds." Link 5 min.

Video describing history and consequences of fossil fuel use.

• Mooallem, Jon. "There's a Reason They Call Them Crazy Ants." New York Times. Link 5 min.

Like so many ecological disruptions invasive species pose threats difficult to calibrate. Some become minor nuisances; others, major plagues. As instances of invasion grow odds of catastrophe increase. Imagine Stanford or your home town awash in these critters.

• Marchione, Marilyn. "Staph germs harder than ever to treat, studies say." Associated Press. Link 2 min.

MRSA cases rising.

• CNN. (2013) "New SARS-like Virus is a 'Threat to the Entire World.'" Link. 2 min.

MERS, an emergent communicable disease, poses global threat.

• Hannibal, Mary Ellen. (2015). "Precarious Ark." Huffington Post. Link 1 p., 3 min.

Hannibal reviews Paul and Anne Ehrlich's book, The Annihilation of Nature: Human Extinction of Birds and Mammals, with a reminder of how we routinely proceed with everyday life, imagining that we're making progress even as we impoverish our future with the sixth great extinction.

• Catton, William. (1998). "Malthus: More Relevant than Ever." Link 4pp., 5 min.

Catton explains how people misinterpreted Malthus and why his insight is applicable now.

• Butler, Declan. (2015). "How to Beat the Next Ebola." Nature. Link 14 pp., 10 min.

Butler describes the risk of epidemic and current thinking about how to lessen it.

• Kendall, Henry. (1992). "World Scientists' Warning to Humanity." Union of Concerned Scientists. Link 5 min.
• Revkin, Andrew. (2011). "In ‘Earth v. Humanity,’ Nobelists Issue Verdict." New York Times. Link 5 min.
• Post Carbon Institute. "Energy Primer." Link 10-100 pp., 10 min. - 1+ hour.

Concise and thorough overview of energy from thermodynamics to declining availability and its myriad consequences.

• Jancovici, Jean-Marc. (2005). "How Much of a Slave Master Am I?"; Manicore. Link

Energy slave calculations.

• RAP Burruss. (2005). "100-Watt Virtual People." Link

Energy slave calculations.

• Mingle, Jonathan. (2013). "A Dangerous Fixation." Slate. Link

A brief history of nitrogen fertilizer and its consequences.