1) There is evidence that ozone depletion and the resulting increase in UV
penetration have increased the severity of winters over Antarctica. This is
well described in an article by John Gribben: Climate & Ozone: The
Stratospheric Link. It was first published in Pacific World (New Zealand)
and then reprinted with permission in our publication, The International
Permaculture Solutions Journal. In our reprint, we also included extensive
commentary by myself. That is in Vol. I, No. 3, nominally the soils issue,
but as usual in our journals we published some articles on other themes that
we did not want to delay getting out. Email me privately for subscription
info. Pacific Institute of Resource Management, who publish Pacific World,
are out of Wellington--they have changed their address very recently and I
don't think I've entered the updated address in our TRIP (The Resources of
Internatoinal Permaculture) database yet. If you really want the publication
fromt hat resource and have sincerely tried to get in touch with them, then
email me and I'll sort through the pending work heap (nay, mountain) to
locate PW and the new address. (If you email me with this request tommorow,
I'll know you haven't tried very hard and ignore you.)
2) UV is the most energetic form of light. Mostly, the stuff in the
universe acquires added energy by moving faster. However, it appears that
the speed of light is a limit on how fast stuff can move. So light acquires
more energy by moving MORE INSTEAD OF FASTER. It vibrates between positive
and negative polarity more often per second or per foot(meter)--same thing at
the speed of light--so you could say it is vibrating faster, though it isn't
going faster. This greater frequency of vibration gives it more energy.
Light that cannot be seen, that vibrates more frequently than visible light,
is called ultra violet because the higest frequency visible light is
"violet." (Light really doesn't have color--that is a psychological
phenomenon--and too far afield to get into) When graphed for frequency,
ultra violet is right next to violet, hencethe name.
Now it is the added energy, to simplify things a bit, that gives you a
sunburn, skin cancer. UV also kills more directly. It is used in some water
purification systems to kill small organisms--zaps 'em.
It happens that the great engines for plankton production on Earth are at
the very high latitudes, Antarctic and Arctic. Here's a genuine edge effect
at work. Mechanims are probably several and they probably amplify one
another. First, there is the intrusion of fresh water over salt. This
always seems to stimulate aquatic life, thoough I've not been able to figure
out the specific mechanisms. Second, since this is often glacial melt-off,
there is the remineralized rock dust that could stimulate life. While this
may play a role, remember that the oceans are already mineral sinks and the
remineralization fanatics may have latched onto a fals example here. In any
event, we get tremendous crops of plankton--enough to attract plankton
feeding organisms such as krill and whles in what seems to us an univiting
environment.
Now we are creating the great water stilizer effect at the poles, zaping the
organisms in water with UV. These plankton engines are phenomenally
important to global ecology, probably in ways we won't understand fully until
they fail and we see the environment unravel at unprecedented speed. How
interesting! well gasp. Much of Gaia is plankton and we are messing way
beyond our reach to repair when we fry that part of her.
3) The greenhouse effect, whether it ultimately results in "Global Warming"
or whether it triggers glaciation (someone else can explain this one), is
probably right up there as a major concern to people, though not of as much co
ncern to Gaia who runs these little fevers and, pardon the expresssion,
weathers them nicely. Since UV is the most energetic amount of light,
admitting more UV to our part of the atmosphere lets in a lot more energy
than if it were merely additional brightness. Moreover, we have contaminated
the atmosphere with much increased proportions of gasses and particles that
absorb radiation and hold it close to the surface longer. Either we will get
glaciers faster or global warming, or, as I suspect, we will melt the ice
caps so fast that before the ice age mechanisms come to play we get
precession and then an ice age. Now the fact that MAYBE we can have large
rises in sea level (in which case glub glub for me in Florida), then a
flip-flop of the earth with universal earthquakes and mile high tidal waves,
and then an ice age, that should be enough to make us a little more careful
about dumping our shit into the atmosphere, no? We don't want to know if
this really will happen.
For Mother Earth, Dan Hemenway, Yankee Permaculture Publications (since
1982), Elfin Permaculture workshops, lectures, Permaculture Design Courses,
consulting and permaculture designs (since 1981), and now correspondence
courses via email. Internships available. Copyright, 1997, Dan & Cynthia
Hemenway, P.O. Box 2052, Ocala FL 34478 USA YankeePerm@aol.com
We don't have time to rush.