This, after following Jim’s link ( Scientists fear ‘tipping point’ in Pacific Ocean) , I was chilled, as I read further:

“Only once during the past seven years did the strong northerly winds of spring and summer go away — and that time, in spring and early summer of 2005, the pendulum swung wildly the other way, with little wind at all until partway through summer.

That set off a chain of events that scientists concluded were responsible for a startlingly widespread wave of seabird deaths — from the Farallon Islands off San Francisco to Vancouver Island.

After that, researchers from Oregon State University, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife looked intensely at waters off the Oregon coast for the research announced Thursday. And the same thing is happening off Washington’s coast.

Mary Sue Brancato and her colleagues first noticed it on a visit to the coast in 2000 or 2001.

We were out there for another (research) project and we were like, ‘What is it with these thousands of dead crabs?’ ” said Brancato, a marine biologist who works at the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary.

Those were Dungeness crabs. Later other species were affected, Brancato said, leading scientists to surmise it was some widespread cause. By 2004 they were taking measurements to document low levels of dissolved oxygen, the kind of oxygen sea creatures can use.

Holy shit.

I wept today. Really really wept. It was the Eighth Continent of trash (twice the size of Texas!), the Haitians eating dirt, the killer whales full of fire retardant, the dust clouds carrying SARS from the African deserts to my back yard, everything…on and on…it’s just all too much to fathom, all the pain and suffering people have caused.

I need to take a break and get outside, remind myself that the earth is still here, still beautiful, and worth any amount of work it takes to make any small improvement.

Jim