If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It

The concept of geo-engineering--of deliberately altering the planet's climate to temper the effects of global warming--has been much on my mind lately. There are many different techniques for geo-engineering that have been proposed. Some of these include fertilizing the ocean with iron particles to encourage the growth of algae, using chemicals sprayed from airplanes to deflect sunlight and cool the earth, capturing carbon dioxide and turning it to stone, and launching giant mirrors into space to shade the earth.
On the surface, these seem like the ideal solution to the problems presented by climate change. They can be--at least theoretically--accomplished using existing technology, and have been demonstrated in sub-scale experiments to significantly impact greenhouse gas concentrations. So what, then, is the catch? The problem with a lot of geo-engineering scenarios is that while they do indeed decrease the average global temperature and reduce the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide, they cannot be tailored to suit specific ecosystems.
For example, one plan to remove carbon dioxide from the air is to release iron particles into the ocean, triggering the growth of large amounts of microscopic algae (single-celled plantlike organisms). As the algae photosynthesize, they would absorb carbon dioxide from the air and replace it with oxygen. The problem with this idea is that in nature, these massive concentrations of algae--called algal blooms--can produce deadly plagues known as red tides. Artificially encouraging algae to grow in order to reduce carbon dioxide could have the unintended consequence of making red tides more frequent.
Geo-engineering is a controversial concept. It should not, in my opinion, be viewed as the first and foremost solution to the environmental problems facing the world today, but at best as a last resort to fall back on if all else fails. For the time being, we should focus on preserving what is left of the world's ecosystems as they are, rather than trying to reverse the damage we have done by altering them further.

In this satellite photo, a huge algal bloom is visible off the coast of Argentina. Attempts to control greenhouse gases by fertilizing the ocean could lead to more events like this, and have potentially devastating effects for sea life.

Bee Afraid

Bees are probably the most important insects to the human experience, even though our relationship to them on a personal level is ambivalent. They are valued first and foremost as pollinators of food plants, and (in the case of the honeybee) as producers of honey and beeswax. While the widespread collapse of honeybee populations due to "colony collapse disorder" has made headlines worldwide,  the fact that other species of bees are in even greater danger is often forgotten, even though it has much darker implications.

Honeybees were originally native to Europe, Asia, and Africa, and were introduced to the Americas, Australia, and the Pacific islands by European colonists. Most plants native to these regions, therefore, have not evolved to be pollinated by honeybees; honeybees are technically an invasive species, albeit one that will probably never be removed. The native bees in these regions have not been so lucky. Many species  of New World bumblebee, for example, are in a steep decline. Competition for resources from honeybees may be a factor in this, as might use of pesticides and outright habitat destruction. One, the Franklin's bumblebee, is almost certainly extinct.

With the native bees dying out, many specialized plants in these areas will be left with nothing to pollinate them, and thus unable to reproduce. Fortunately, there are things one can do to help. "Native beekeeping" has become something of a trend among eco-savvy individuals in parts of the United States,  and it involves setting up wooden blocks with holes drilled in them for native stingless solitary bees to nest in. You won't get rewarded with honey or beeswax, but you'll get something a lot more valuable in the long run--a garden of native vegetation.

Eco-Tainment #1: Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

This is a new series I'm going to be doing here on Environmental Esotericism, called Eco-Tainment. Basically, it's about different ways that the environmental movement and environmentalism has been portrayed in popular culture, and how these portrayals can help or hurt actual environmental efforts. Our first inductee will be Japanese animator Hiyao Miyazaki's excellent film Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. First released in Japan in 1984 (and given a half-hearted, badly edited US release under the title Warriors of the Wind, before being picked up for distribution by Miramax), the film tells the story of a girl named Nausicaa, who must stop her village from using an ancient weapon--the "God Warrior"--to destroy the Toxic Jungle that surrounds them.
Nausicaa covers a number of bases that other environmental works rarely do. For starters, it focuses on insects and other invertebrates, creatures usually glossed over by popular entertainment. In fact, Nausicaa's mystical connection to the giant Ohmu--arthropods that resemble house-sized pillbugs--is one of the driving forces of the movie. The Toxic Jungle, meanwhile, is at first presented as a generic "polluted wasteland," but we later find out that it is in fact the opposite, that it is actually clearing pollutants out of the soil and water and making them safe for humans.
Even though Nausicaa does not take place on the Earth as we know it-- real-life animals aside from humans are absent, with the place of horses, for instance, being taken by large ostrich-like birds-- it is very clearly meant to serve as a parable for what may happen if we destroy our natural environment without taking heed of the consequences. When the inhabitants of Tolmekia, a neighboring kingdom to Nausicaa's, try to destroy the Toxic Jungle, they incite the wrath of the Ohmu and soon find themselves at the mercy of the creatures.
  Nausicaa is much more subtle about its message in these ways than many other environmental works, as we will see in later Eco-Tainment entries.

 A Japanese poster for Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. The creature behind Nausicaa is an Ohmu, a fictional species of giant arthropod.