i-Pc models over estimate the emissions from fossil fuels that will be possible this century. But i think they dramatically underestimate the biological feed backs, because there are so many. We're removing one of the biggest areas for forest rain in the ocean - it's a global problem. The first trees to go lined puget sound have been replaced by deciduous leaf dropping trees pushaSound every fall has untold tons of leaves falling into it which had never happened before. And when you cut down all those trees, trees grow back. It's not just here: sea grass is dying all over the world. You can talk yourself into an ever greater sort of frison of horror.
On this episode, we meet with author and paleobiologist Peter Ward.
Ward helps us catalogue the various risks facing Earth’s oceans, how the Atlantic Ocean’s currents are slowing due to warming, what happened in Earths history when ocean currents stopped, and why a reduction in elephant poaching is contributing to the destruction of coral reefs.
About Peter Ward:
Peter Ward is a Professor of Biology and Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington. He is author of over a dozen books on Earth's natural history including On Methuselah's Trail: Living Fossils and the Great Extinctions; Under a Green Sky; and The Medea Hypothesis, 2009, (listed by the New York Times as one of the “100 most important ideas of 2009”). Ward gave a TED talk in 2008 about mass extinctions.
For Show Notes and Transcript visit: https://www.thegreatsimplification.com/episode/08-peter-ward