The new 'Anthropocene Epoch' Means the Doom of Most Species on Earth

by RobertConnors

The 10,000+ years of the Holocene Epoch have ended abruptly, and a new Epoch is coming to dominate the Earth: that of the Anthropocene.

continued at Daily Kos....

World oceans leading the way through the looking glass?

by RobertConnors

As global temperatures rise, the oceans continue to absorb much of the excess heat, acting as a sort of 'shock-absorber' in modifying the impact of sharp changes in the atmospheric content of both CO2 and the even-more-dangerous methane.

continued at Daily Kos....

Scenes from a whale watch

by juliewolf

To start, a note: all these are thumbnails, pointing to photos over twice their size (just click on them to visit my web site).

Fair warning: I'm not going to include a lot of comments about the trip.  I just want to say that this is something I very much needed and I'm glad we made it, despite the universe's attempts to thwart us (I had to call Newburyport Whale Watch to ask them to wait for us, since we were delayed by traffic and construction).

After the other photos, I've got a couple comments, some personal, some political.

continued at Daily Kos....

Gulf gusher: a sort of requiem

by mwmwm

The oil and gas rush out of the pipe: a force we believed we could master. The oil explodes into droplets, then reforms into gobs, then into droplets once again. The oil rushes, then relaxes, and begins to move lazily in the currents. The lightest oil rises to the surface, forming a sheen that glistens in the sun. The heavier oil rises, or falls, or is swirled like heavy cream. Deep down, the ocean layers move in patterns we cannot see, and do not know, intermixing, carrying the oil inward and outward, forward and back, now diffusing, now coalescing, the soft light of the sun barely reaching the layers on layers of temperature gradients.

continued at Daily Kos....