I find it very distressing that many people in the Western " civilized " world have become so cynical as to believe that the dangers of climate change and excessive population growth are nothing more than " media hype ", whatever this expression means.
I have lived in the Balearic Islands since 1970. In those days there was a mass of marine life on the literal areas - the shoreline, with small crabs and sea-urchins so abundant that you could hardly walk on the rocks without treading on one.
39 years later there is not one sea urchin to be seen and small crabs in the rocks are extremely rare.
Instead of clear blue uncontaminated water, you see the streaky colours of petrol when you swim with a diving mask.
The ever-increasing carbon dioxide present in the atmosphere is disolving in the sea to create a much more acidic environment, making the formation of the sea-urchin's shells impossible since they consist largely of calcium which is being disolved by the acidic water.
This is not " media hype ". It is only one small way to demonstrate the effect of pollution, due to human activity, on Life on Earth.
Creatures that have been supported by the critical acidic balance of sea-water that have taken millions of years to evolve are being wiped-out in under 3 decades.
Those that argue " media hype " are in denial of real events, too busy with making money to seriously study proper science, but do have time to glance at the tabloids which, admittedly, do ratchet-up stories to sell the papers.
I am confident, however, that these opinions will change as things become progressively nastier.
I have lived in the Balearic Islands since 1970. In those days there was a mass of marine life on the literal areas - the shoreline, with small crabs and sea-urchins so abundant that you could hardly walk on the rocks without treading on one.
39 years later there is not one sea urchin to be seen and small crabs in the rocks are extremely rare.
Instead of clear blue uncontaminated water, you see the streaky colours of petrol when you swim with a diving mask.
The ever-increasing carbon dioxide present in the atmosphere is disolving in the sea to create a much more acidic environment, making the formation of the sea-urchin's shells impossible since they consist largely of calcium which is being disolved by the acidic water.
This is not " media hype ". It is only one small way to demonstrate the effect of pollution, due to human activity, on Life on Earth.
Creatures that have been supported by the critical acidic balance of sea-water that have taken millions of years to evolve are being wiped-out in under 3 decades.
Those that argue " media hype " are in denial of real events, too busy with making money to seriously study proper science, but do have time to glance at the tabloids which, admittedly, do ratchet-up stories to sell the papers.
I am confident, however, that these opinions will change as things become progressively nastier.