Biosphere Other Resources
Core Readings
Introduction: Radical Change to Human Ecology
- Raven, Peter. "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
- Harvey, Joe. (1990). "Growth in Perspective." Rocky Mountain Institute Newsletter. p. 4, 7. Link (10 min) [Note: This reading is also included under the topic of Universe, "Earth, Life: First 14 Billion Years." We include it here because we think it applicable and worth reviewing.]
Harvey draws one-day analogy to 3.5billion years of life on Earth and shows destructiveness of what humans have done and impossibility of continuing.
- "A Graphic Simulation of World Population Growth." 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 End of the Population Pyramid." The Economist. Link 5min. 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." Link (3 pp., 5 min)
Resource Depletion: Soil, Energy, Biodiversity
- World Economic Forum. "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. "Dangerous Times As Energy Sources Get Costlier To Extract" (3 pp) 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. "Our Vanishing Flowers." (16 October 2015.) NYTimes. 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." (Please read "Abstract"; read full text if interested.) Link 1 p., 2 min.
The authors provide evidence that current rates of extinction are 8-100+ those that prevailed for millions of years.
- Grantham, Jeremy. (2011). "Time to Wake Up: Days of Abundant Resources and Falling Prices are Over Forever." Link You can read a one sentence "Summary of Summary," a one page "Summary," or the full article. (1-20 min)
Jeremy Grantham, an investment manager for a $100+ billion fund whose multi-decade record of exceptionally high returns earned in large part by accurately identifying price "bubbles," claims that we've entered a trend that will persist for the indefinite future: rising food, fiber, fuel, and mineral prices. He notes that this is an historic reversal of a trend to lower prices that lasted more than a hundred years.
- Abraham, David. "The Next Resource Shortage?" (20 November 2015). NYTimes. 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. "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. "What's Really Warming the World?" Bloomberg News. (24 June 2015.) 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.
- "Infection Raises Specter of Infections Resistant to All Antibiotics." NYTimes. (26 May 2016) Link 4pp.
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. Read 1st two paragraphs and skim list. Link 2 pp.,3 min.
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. "Climate Model Predicts West Antarctic Ice Sheet Could Melt Rapidly." NYTimes, 30 March 2016. {http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/31/science/global-warming-antarctica-ice-sheet-sea-level-rise.html?emc=eta1]
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.
- Link (5 min)
Matt Ridley argues in the Wall Street Journal the familiar claim "The World's Resources Aren't Running Out" citing prior escapes from predicted shortages and promising more of the same.
- 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.
- 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. "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. "300 Years of Fossil Fuels in 300 Seconds." Link (5 min).
Video describing history and consequences of fossil fuel use.
- U.C.Berkeley. "The Energy Story: Chapter 8, Fossil Fuels." Link 20 pp., 20 min.
This chapter, part of a larger work that explains energy from first principles, succinctly outlines the origins, use, risks, and rewards of fossil fuels.
- 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, Associated Press. "Staph germs harder than ever to treat, studies say." 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. (16 October 2015.) "Precarious Ark." Huff 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. "How to Beat the Next Ebola." (5 August 2015.) 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.