As our societies expanded these wild resources began to vanish which promoted the expansion of farming. As the trend to farming continued simple husbandry of domesticated animals and plants was not enough to meet the growing needs of our species. New areas of farming research were explored to help us, which has gone from something extra in our lives to something that is a requirement.

These new areas of research included selective breeding, feed research, the use of antibiotics and the intensive culture of fish to name a few. In our lifetime we have seen researchers scour the planet for new species of plants that could be used for food, medicine and cross breeding possibilities. The last ten years have seen an explosion in genetic research and the cloning of animals including sheep, cattle, cats and fish.

One of the things that I learned in statistics class was that it was almost as important to know where something wasn’t as it was to know where it was. The vast majority of our farming research has been taking place on land when over 70% of the earth’s surface is water. With 50% of the world’s plant species threatened with extinction in the next ten years due to, global warming and barring any unlooked for dramatic progress in current areas of terrestrial research, the oceans are the future of farming.

In the ocean we’re looking at plants like the kelp (Macrocystis) off California that grow three feet a day and have been harvested for years as a source of iodine. Plants like the kelps could be genetically altered to concentrate elements other than iodine produce carbohydrates and possibly antibiotics. Existing oceanic plant aggregations attract a host of vertebrates and invertebrates and with kelp as a new faster growing and more nutritious source of food two and three-tiered mariculture will be possible in existing coastal areas. Genetic manipulation of and research on salt and fresh water fish is on going. It has been done with trout, salmon and grass carp to name a very few. The goals of this research include larger faster growing fish, resistance to disease and parasites, the inability to reproduce and fish that are more nutritious.

One area of concern with genetically altered fish is that once they are released into the wild they will have some negative effects on native fish species. Some genetically altered fish that have already been accidentally released in the wild, have out competed native species and put a few others on the endangered list.

An example of this is the grass carp, which is a plant eater and used for weed control in farm ponds and lakes. Large floods in the mid-west a few years ago over ran some fish farms that were raising grass carp. Carp that had not been genetically altered got out. They have spread over the mid-western waterways and are coming down the Mississippi. If native species are driven to extinction by these grass carp the overall gene pool with be reduced by some finite amount and make that which was lost unavailable for the future.
Not even the very wisest can see all ends that future ocean research holds for humanity, whether for good or for ill. But one thing is certain, this type of ocean research will continue.

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Examples from field biology include the lemmings. The word “lemming” or “Lemmus” comes from a Norwegian word that means destroying. This is in reference to the destruction that is visited on the Norse landscape during a lemming migration. According to several sources, lemming suicide is a myth. It is the overpopulation of the lemmings that leads to a scarcity of food and overcrowding, which in turn causes the animals to migrate in search of food.

During the lemmings’ single-minded quest for food they swimming lakes and rivers, cross mountain ranges and eat all vegetation that is in their path. When they reach the sea, they try to swim it as if it was a river and drown for their efforts.

This mass migration does not occur very often, even though the lemming population fluctuations radically every three or four years. The lemmings are so single minded in their migration for food that nothing will stop them except death. The lemming migration could just be called a freak event in nature if something similar could not be replicated under controlled conditions in the laboratory.

The effect of stress due to overcrowding on rats (Rattus norvegicus) was demonstrated by John Calhoun. He created high-density populations of rats in which aggression; pack formation (gangs), homosexuality, infanticide, and infant neglect became rampant.

At the start of the study twenty pairs of rats were placed in a multi-partitioned enclosure and given unlimited food and water. After a year their population density was very high and resulted in the above negative sociological behaviors, all the while still receiving unlimited resources. It was not a shortage of resources that caused the social pathology but too much contact between animals. These findings were reported in a Scientific American article entitled “Population density and social pathology” (1962a).

We all were stressed by hurricanes Ivan and Katrina in one or several ways. As we look back on those times what forms of human behavior did we see that reminded us of what the rats and lemmings do and which of our behaviors didn’t? The key difference between the rats and us is that we are the only thinking animals on the planet. Their behavior is based on instinct and ours on reason.

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with the enormous increase in marine recreational fishing over the last 40 years, large increases in gasoline prices and the majority of the desirable fish species overfished, Gulf of Mexico will continue to have more fishing restrictions put in place.

People have been fishing just for the fun-of-it for the last several centuries. An English gentleman would spend hours tying the perfect fly in an attempt to fool Atlantic salmon. As children we would go out at night with a tin can and a flashlight rapped in yellow plastic to collect night crawlers.

The next day we would go out to the banks of a pond or stream with a stick, hook, six feet of monofilament and our best friend to see if we could catch something. Anything would do, just as long as it was a fish that we could brag to our friends about or use to scare the girl next door.

In the thousands of years before these gentler times fishing was used to help us survival. American Indians would use wooden trident spears and stalk trout shallow pools. They used basket traps and spears to catch salmon as they made their run up the rapids to spawn and die. One thing that never occurred to any of us at least or at least most of us, until the second half of the twentieth century, or at any stage in our fishing history for that matter was that there wouldn’t be enough fish to go around.

Methods of dealing with an excess of hunting and fishing effort have been around for a while. Some that we are familiar with along the Gulf Coast include; closed seasons, closed areas, limits on the number you are allowed to catch and length limits. In other areas of the United States there are gear restrictions which include fly fishing only, barbless hooks, no treble hooks, artificial lures only, no night fishing, row boats only, no traps, no multi-hook gear and no snagging.

One way that is commonly used in hunting is license limitation. As an example, in some western states if you want to hunt elk you apply for a permit. Your name is put into a lottery and if it is drawn you get to purchase a permit and you’re then allowed to hunt that season.

The permits are expensive and there is still no guarantee that you will bag an elk. About three people in ten who apply for a permit have their name drawn and the application fee is non-refundable. In one state you are allowed only one permit every ten years, they are non-transferable and cannot be sold. Why all these restrictions? There is too much effort and not enough game to go around.

To my knowledge this type license limitation strategy has not been apply to marine recreational or commercial fishing. Looking at the increase in marine recreational and commercial fishing regulations and restrictions over the last twenty years it is only a matter of time before this proven concept is applied to marine waters.

It can be applied in many ways, for example, by lottery you get to fish only every other month, this includes catch and release, if your name is not drawn in the lottery you do not get to fish that year, and only people with last names ending in A through L are allowed to fish this year then M through Z the next. Some of the advantages of these types of license restrictions are that those who get to fish are allowed higher bag limits with fewer restrictions, favorite fishing spots are not crowded and over-fished species recover faster. The disadvantage is that you do not get to fish anytime that you feel like it. Commercial salmon fishing licenses in Alaska are a commodity and if you have one it can be sold, leased or traded to the highest bidder. We should all remember that fishing is a privilege not a right.

We this type of ‘limitation’ has been applied in many other arenas of the human experience all over the globe for centuries. There are close to 6.8 billion humans on the planet all wanting the best for their families and themselves.

The earth’s resources are finite and we are quickly reaching the end easily retrieved items like gas and oil. During WWII there were meatless days of the week in order to conserve protein for the troops. It is not too wild an imaging to say that in the not too distant future that there will be years without fishing and electricity-less days of the week.

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Up until this time most of us tended to live in the isolation of sameness. We chose this way of living or it was chosen for us, either by what we could afford or what we were born into. Selecting our own comfort level of sameness is what we seem to like the best.

With all this closeness that global environmental and economic forces will press upon us, it will require that individuals, societies and governments to find ways to interact with more successful consideration of our differences.

As in the past we dealt with similar new paradigms in many ways. One way of handling it was and is by creating gated communities. There is a guard at a gate who checks to see that each individual seeking to gain entrance is either a property owner or a registered guest. If you want to buy into some of these communities you must meet various requirements like finances, age and size of family among others. How old is this idea? Think castle.

Other way is co-dominions (condominiums). Owners either participate in or pay for common property maintenance and upkeep. Low fossil fuel use and a combination of high tech with hands on work will require more individual involvement in this situation. Less money more sweat. There is a book called the ˜Tragedy of the Commons” which goes into some of the problems associated with common property ownership.

Many people will still want to have a house away from the city or out in the country. This life style will require even more individual input of labor and skills. Running into town to get that part you need or to take care of many of our other needs will take more fuel, time and carbon production.

Local, state and national governments will be faced with similar choices. Centralization, consolidation and restructuring all will be used after some fashion to deal with global warming.

How we deal with these changes and others will be just one more challenge that ˜The New Age of Earth” has to offer us. Know that: If we walk backwards into the future, we will trip over mistakes we have already made.

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When the cost and global effects of heating and cooling our homes was only an after thought, if even that, it did not concern us. If our homes had a larger than necessary carbon footprint – who cared? With the dawning of the cause and effect relationship between our over use of energy resources and the warming of the planet, we have begun to rethink how we live.

The traditional home has wood framing with either wood or brick side walls. There is a shingle or tile roof and either single or double paned glass windows. Various R rated insulation is placed between the outer and inter-walls and in the ceiling. Add in the utilities, pretty it up a bit, and you have a house.

People have been refitting their homes with compact fluorescent light bulbs and energy efficient appliances. They are caulking of windows and adding new doorway fittings.
While these are all good things to do for existing homes we will have to look at a whole new way of building homes. In the near future homes will have to be designed with energy conservation in mind from the start – Not added on.

There is an old saying in the military: ˜we are always finding new and better ways to fight the last”. This has to stop when we build homes.

Houses that are built in the next few years will take on a variety of forms depending where in the country they are built. Anywhere, they are built they will have energy conservation in mind.

A home can be built into the side of a hill or on the flat with dirt providing the insulation for any of the walls and roof. These homes are not poorly lit caves. I’ve been in them and they are very comfortable.

This type of home is called earth bermed or earth sheltered. Surf into this web site for some ideas http://www.earthshelteredhome.com/building-styles.htm on what they look like.

Inside, things like drapes won’t be the lacey items like our parents had but rather heavy gauge like quilts and close fitting to the windows. Windows will most likely all be double paned and gas filled with edge seals that won’t let any air in or out.

Recycling of almost all household items will become standard to all homes. It will probably be mandatory with penalties for failure to comply.
Homes will be built not only for energy conservation but water saving as well. Grey water systems will be an integral part of houses in arid regions of the country. You can find out what a grey water system is by checking out this web site http://www.oasisdesign.net/greywater/.

Active and passive solar systems will be part of these houses with the goal to be˜carbon neutral” and ˜energy positive”.
If you think this type of home is something from the hippy ˜daze” you would be wrong. Earth bermed houses have been around for centuries only without all the modern engineering and technology.

This an entire community currently being built in the panhandle of Florida based on these principles.
Check one these types of homes out, you might be surprised. Oh, they are pretty much hurricane proof too.

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We’ll have to spend some time figuring out new ways of moving our goods and ourselves around the country and planet. We’ve been learning about E85 gasoline, biodiesel and maybe hydrogen powered cars coming along in the near future. These fuels are old wine in new bottles with the same promise of transportation on tap – locomotion when you want it and how you want it.

This traditional mode is primarily individual or small group based transportation that is unscheduled, generally inefficient and requiring a very large distributed network overhead to keep it running. This overhead includes a lot of gasoline stations, mechanics and parts suppliers to service all these vehicles.

As society addresses global warming through modifications to its transportation system it will seek new ways to streamline the system. We already have the basic trunk lines of our road system in place. It is called the interstate and state highway systems. Like Europe with its network of rail lines we will most likely seek to use what we already have in a manner to maximize movement while reducing carbon emissions. This could take the form of mass transport with only multiple car buses and trucks allowed to use the freeways and major state roads. These would be regularly scheduled, modern and run around the clock from transport hub to transport hub.

From the major hubs smaller vehicles would take people and goods to minor hubs. Then individual vehicles, powered by one of the alternative fuels mentioned, would be available.

Local transport in your hometown area would still be primarily by individually owned vehicles. Their range would be limited by the fuel infrastructure for their particular power system and available roads. Bicycling and walking will take on a whole new meaning other than recreation or exercise. Our towns and cities will have to adapt to these changes by creating pathways and crossings that will allow all of these methods to safely coexist. Because of this people will seek to live closer to the cities rather than farther away. We will have to make adjustments if a system like this comes into place in the future. We are used to doing what we want, when we want, how we want and not conforming to a schedule.

Over 2.5 billion people live like this everyday, in China, India and Japan. They do not seem to have a problem getting around and ahead with a system like this.
Without major changes in the way we move our goods and ourselves we will keep on pumping out carbon and the global temperature will continue to rise.

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An example of this is, say, whole pineapples produced in Hawaii and transported to the Gulf Coast. In growing this food product the soil has to be prepared using fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides used. All these items use oil in some direct or indirect way releasing CO2 in their production or application.

Pineapples are harvested and transported by cargo ships and sometimes flow to the mainland. Once they reach the West Coast they are usually trucked to their final destination. All this transportation uses fossil fuels in some form and all release CO2. If pineapples were grown along the Gulf Coast there would be a significant reduction in their carbon cost because transportation of the product would be greatly reduced. A carbon cost is associated with all agricultural and manufactured products and can be calculated.

Thinking just about food products, there is a grassroots movement underway nation-wide to use only locally grown produce, chicken and beef. This movement is called ˜eating ethically”. To eat ethically is to eat only locally produced food that is grown or raised in a manner that in general is the least harmful to the environment and contains the fewest possible contaminants. Book called the ˜100-Mile Diet: A Year of Eating Locally” has been the inspiration for hundreds of markets and restaurants across the country. If this concept was put into action across the nation the fossil fuel savings would be huge and our national carbon footprint significantly reduced.

Looking at the seafood industry, importing shrimp from South America or Vietnam, is not eating locally and uses up a lot of fossil fuel. So, if you use only local seafood you are helping the environment by reducing CO2 “ interesting concept”.
It is a given that all areas of our nation cannot produce all the food they need. What places? It would be a tough job for Arizona or New Mexico to produce all the food needed to feed their millions. And, have you ever been to Los Angeles?

If we all did what we could, where we could, it would help in reducing the carbon cost of the food we eat and help to reduce global warming. The link http://eatkind.net/, will give you a starting point to learn more about eating ethically movement.

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The money from these taxes could go toward things like low cost loans to individuals and businesses for reducing their energy use, education and recycling programs.

It will not only be taxes, there will be tax rebates too. You have got to love these. If you remember back a few years ago there were federal tax credits given for installing passive solar arrays to heat household water. Credits were also given for installing solar cell panels and insulation with a higher R rating in your home. I was given a $500 federal tax credit for buying a diesel pickup truck in 1985. It is highly probable that we will see some these and others come back into the tax code in the near future.

Some of the new tax breaks could include a reduction in fuel taxes for using bio-diesel or E85 gasoline in a company’s fleet of delivery trucks or on the farm. Things like putting in double pane windows on your homestead or a high efficiency AC unit will get you a tax credit.

Basically, the more you save on energy the lower your taxes. Sounds like a whole new way of doing things. Only time will time if these any of these and others are put into use. Check out this web site for more information – http://www.carbontax.org.

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