Polluting Farmers Should Pay

This year’s dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico — an area where decomposing algae consumes all oxygen in the waterlogged in at nearly 7,000 square miles, about the size of New Jersey. Researchers in the Great Lakes region predict that this year’s harmful algal bloom in Lake Erie will be twice last year’s size, and larger than the 2014 bloom that shut down the drinking water supply in Toledo, Ohio. Floridians and Chesapeake Bay residents regularly experience the green gunk and odor symptomatic of algal blooms. The Environmental Protection Agency reports that all 50 states now experience harmful algal blooms. 

These blooms contain toxins that can make us sick after swimming or consuming tainted fish, kill pets and livestock, and raise treatment costs for drinking water. Algal blooms reduce recreational enjoyment from boating, fishing and swimming — resulting in less tourism and lower property values. The economic cost associated with the single shut down of Toledo’s drinking water system is estimated at $65 million. 

Read the story from The New York Times by Catherine Kling - “Polluting Farmers Should Pay.”

Why Saving the Earth Needs To Become Our Primary Political Obsession

Acting together to save earth needs to be our primary political obsession.

Oh man.

I come back from my holiday in the Dead Zone and my home harbor is dead too.

Don’t you just hate it when that happens?

The Dead Zone in question, by the way, is the Baltic Sea, 15% (20,000 square miles) of which has now officially been declared to be so oxygen-depleted that it is incapable of supporting marine life. It also has the sad distinction of being the largest of the planet’s 400 dead zones. The Baltic is so full of toxic cyanobacteria (a.k.a. green slime) that Polish authorities banned swimming on 50 beaches this summer.

Poisoned tourists being so bad for business, right?

Read the Medium story by Mike Hembury (on his soapbox) - “Why Saving the Earth Needs To Become Our Primary Political Obsession.”