Aneirin
Posts: 6121
Joined: 3/18/2006
From: Tamaris
Status: offline
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The sea is a fascinating place, where new discoveries are being made on a daily basis, we, humanity, despite our arrogance, simply do not know enough about the mechanism of the oceans or for that matter, the planet itself.
Take for example new lifeforms being discovered around the perimeters of undersea black smokers, lifeforms that exist without sunlight and in the case of a sea snail discovered in 2001, it uses iron sulphides in the form of pyrite and greigite for it's hardened body parts in lieu of the more usual calcium carbonate. In fact, many scientists think the regions of the black smokers would be ideal places for the origins of life on earth.
But let's take what wiki says about black smokers, what effect they have on water ;
The water at a vent can reach 400 °C (752 °F), but does not usually boil at the seafloor because the water pressure at that depth exceeds the vapor pressure of the aqueous solution. The water is also extremely acidic, often having a pH, value as low as 2.8, approximately that of vinegar. Each year 1.4 × 1014 kg (370 trillion gallons) of water is passed through black smokers.
Whether it bears any relevance or not, the link I gave for the black smoker leads to an article about them being found in the arctic sea, could they even have a bearing on the issue of arctic ice melting I wonder, I am not a scientist, I simply don't know, but I have to wonder, all that water passing through these hydrothermal vents under the arctic sea, they just have to be having some influence, even if it is infinitesimal. Then take the fact that these undersea vents belch metallic sulphides from the earth's crust and there raise the pH of the surrounding water to the strength of Vinegar, I can see many calcium carbonate based life forms not lasting long in that concentration, a fair bit of fizzing going on.
But, what of these hydrothermal vents called black smokers, where are they, how many are there of them, have they all been found I wonder, and guess not , but so far, they appear to have been found in the Atlantic, Pacific oceans and the sea between Greenland and Norway, so I guess there is more to find yet. But of the known volcanic deposits in the sea, they are so far known to number around 30,000, made up of both active and inactive mounts, though the black smokers might be something different.
So, what I can conclude from this, is basically;
1.The planet does what the planet does, because it always has done, and will always do so, bar misinformed human arrogance fucking things up.
2.We in reality know fuck all about the planets actions
3. Life does not stand still
4. There are many kinds of scientist, two types include the true explorers who explore, find, record and wonder, and then another kind of scientist that has an agenda, and so researches based on their agenda, ignoring what does not fit, and pulling the things that do fit, out of context.
5. Politicians have at last found a use for scientists, they can be used to further ambition, and because of human nature, when politicians listen to scientists, ambition becomes infectious.
So, what can we do, for a start tell the politicians to fuck off until they come up with some credible science, from credible scientists, who present ALL research data in it's entirety and with the agreement of the majority of the credible scientific community, as anything less than, is open to denial. For example, if a bloody great big earth shattering asteroid was on course, and definately heading for us, and all of us, could see it getting bigger in the night sky, would the data available be anything other than truthful, like, yeah, shit, as you can see, a big rock is heading this way.
We, on a personal basis, as I expect most of us do already because of monetary cost, limit our impact on the enviroment, but where the majority of pollution actually comes from, is industry. If industry cannot function without polluting, then, it should not function, if the control and clean removal of pollutants makes a product too expensive to create, then ask yourself, should it be created, and, is it actually needed. If big companies are polluting with disregard to the land, then, we have our own personal conscience to consider, and with that, the money in our pocket to decide.
( And for those interested in the Black Smoker hydrothermal vents, see here for interesting sources of web research )
( Oh, and for Pahunk, black smokers have been found to contain gold )
< Message edited by Aneirin -- 12/20/2009 1:50:15 AM >
_____________________________
Everything we are is the result of what we have thought, the mind is everything, what we think, we become - Guatama Buddha
Conservatism is distrust of people tempered by fear - William Gladstone
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RE: Acid oceans: the 'evil twin' of climate change - 
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