Nature Is Giving Humanity Our Final Extinction Crisis Warning
Heron faces toxic algae bloom ~ photo by microfile.org
The joint climate and extinction crisis is now taking a dangerous turn for the worse, a turn which is giving us the most dire warning in our entire 300,000 year human history. It is an alarm, telling us we are facing our own near term extinction if we do not rapidly and dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, reverse deforestation, and curb farm and sewage runoff.
Current Human Caused Crisis Dangerously Similar To Ancient Extinction Event
For over three decades as a full time environmental organizer, I have educated myself on, and fought to reverse, the joint climate and extinction crisis. Part of my education has been to learn about ancient mass extinctions which can be compared to the one humans are causing now.
The most similar and important of these was the Permian Extinction, 250 million years ago. During that extinction, large volcanic eruptions in Siberia increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere causing streams, rivers, ponds, lakes, and the oceans to heat up, and to change in acidity. Various factors triggered by the eruptions (including deforestation) increased nutrient content in these water bodies (as humans are currently increasing it with both agricultural and urban sewage waste run-off, and most importantly, through deforestation).
During the late Permian these conditions combined to trigger massive 'blooms' of oxygen depleting algae and microbes which suffocated and killed nearly all water based life. Almost all life in the oceans died. Increased CO2, methane, and toxic emissions, along with a collapse of the global food web, all arising from this ocean die-off, then provoked a similar die-off on land. By the end of the Permian collapse, 95% of life on Earth was killed and around 75% of all species went extinct. See:
Wiki on the Permian Extinction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permian%E2%80%93Triassic_extinction_event
"Lethal microbial blooms delayed freshwater ecosystem recovery following the end-Permian extinction" https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8448769
The Current 6th Great Extinction
Human caused global warming, along with deforestation, land degradation, and other triggers of unnaturally high nutrient content in our water bodies, are now creating the same conditions as those during the Permian Extinction. We are currently seeing a Sixth Great Extinction because of these impacts. But this extinction is shockingly happening 10 to 100 times faster than the Permian Extinction. Animal and plant species are now going extinct 1,000 times faster than the Earth's normal extinction rate.
The two leading causes of this crisis are 1) animal agriculture - which is eating up 85% of the world's productive land, and is rapidly destroying forests, to produce only about 25% of our food value, while causing massive nutrient runoff into our water bodies, and 2) the burning of fossil fuels. See:
"The Anthropocene Extinction" https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/73ab69fedac54685ae837562e3389d13
WorldWatch Institute "Livestock and Climate Change" https://awellfedworld.org/world-watch-magazine
A New Age Of Alarming, Deadly Algae Blooms Is Happening Now
Over the past two decades we have been seeing an alarming increase in deadly algae blooms in ponds and lakes (and more recently in streams and rivers). Some of these blooms have even killed pets and people swimming through impacted waters (a problem previously almost never heard of). Algae bloom events have become so bad and widespread, that some states now test water bodies to determine if it is safe for animals and people to swim in, and drink from them. See:
- "How groups monitor toxic algae in the absence of state testing"
https://www.iowapublicradio.org/environment/2022-09-09/testing-the-waters-how-groups-monitor-toxic-algae-in-the-absence-of-state-testing
In my climate and extinction crisis work, as I have noticed more and more reports of deadly algae blooms in ponds and lakes, I have had in the back of my mind that these events might be a warning that the Earth's oceans may be next, and soon. My concerns have now been confirmed by a recent far more alarming die-off event.
The Final Warning - Major San Francisco Bay & Lake Merritt Die-Off
In late August 2022, Oakland California's very large Lake Merritt (part salt water because it is connected to the greater San Francisco Bay) suffered a near complete die-off, of all its life. The algae bloom which caused this die off was not limited to Lake Merritt, but also ominously spread into the far larger San Francisco Bay itself. It was the largest algae bloom in the San Francisco Bay's history. See the details in the two videos at the end of this article.
The Oceans Are Next
The reason this die off is far more alarming is clear. Previous algae bloom die-offs which have been this extreme have primarily been seen in smaller ponds and lakes. But this new die-off has entered a bay of the Pacific Ocean, and could signal that conditions are now building in the world's oceans that could trigger a mass die-off in all oceans worldwide, in our lifetimes.
While we cannot be absolutely certain that this is what is taking place, the signs are now strong enough, and the consequences serious enough, that the only safe course of action is for all of us to take immediate measures to make certain a collapse of the world's oceans does not hit us in this century.
Take Action In Your Local Community & In What You Eat
The Climate and Extinction Crisis is no longer merely a crisis. It is dangerously nearing an end stage that we must immediately reverse.
We can no longer wait for state, federal, or international government action. In the next decade we must take local action now to 1) build 100% local renewable energy, and universal mass transit in every community, 2) dramatically reduce nutrient runoff into our water bodies, bays and oceans, and 3) do everything we can to reverse deforestation.
And each of us as individuals must call on ourselves to shift as much as we can, as quickly as we can, to far more plant based diets, because that shift will do more to help achieve these changes, than any other personal choice we can make.
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Videos On Lake Merritt & San Francisco Bay Die-Off
What A Mass Die-Off Looks Like: Algae Bloom in Oakland’s Lake Merritt
(5 min)
Mitch Jeserich & Damon Tighe detailing Lake Merritt & SF Bay Die-Off
(22 min)
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Eric Brooks is a full time grassroots organizer specializing in the interplay of global capitalist economics with energy policy, the climate and extinction crisis, and environmental justice.