Climate Change and the Ecology of the Gulf of Maine:
History, Biodiversity, Fisheries and the Pollution Cocktail
The focus of this publication is the impact of greenhouse gas emissions and environmental chemicals on the biodiversity and ecology of the Gulf of Maine. We use the term “pollution cocktail” to describe the effluents of the rapidly growing global military-industrial consumer society, the legacy of the age of plastics, and its progeny, the information technology revolution.
The Gulf of Maine is one of the biosphere’s most productive marine environments; its maritime communities produce vast quantities of seafood consumed throughout the world. Tens of thousands of citizens earn a living from its fisheries and associated industries, including tourism. The lobster and shellfish produced in the Gulf of Maine, including the Bay of Fundy, Georges Banks, Ipswich Bay, and Cape Cod Bay attract millions of visitors to its shoreline restaurants and yachting centers, picturesque fishing villages, and Acadia National Park. This publication explores the impact of our changing climate on the ecology and biodiversity of the Gulf of Maine. The marine environment of the Gulf of Maine now includes the growing presence of ecotoxins such as persistent organic pollutants (POPs), pharmaceuticals, plastic nanoparticles, and endocrine disrupting chemicals of every kind.
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Kirkus has reviewed this publication: "An environmental work explores the way pollution has altered the waters off Maine. The Gulf of Maine is a robust and vital environment, home to some of the world’s most productive fisheries. This biodiversity—and the economies that are sustained by it—is increasingly threatened by the plastics, chemicals, and other eco-toxins present in the Gulf’s waters. These pollutants, along with rising ocean temperatures, acidification, invasive pathogens, and unsustainable fishing practices, are coming together to pose an existential threat to the ecology of the Gulf and neighboring habitats. With this book, Brack seeks to diagnose these problems and describe their particular impacts on the health of the region. After a discussion of the history of cataclysmic climate change on the global scale—since, as the author points out, “any commentary on the ecology and biodiversity of the Gulf of Maine must begin with the observation that this bioregion is only one small component of an interconnected finite biosphere”—he sets his sights on the Gulf itself, including its geography, hydrology, biology, and the effects of both human commerce and regulation. He concludes by enumerating the specific threats that exist for Maine fisheries, many of which cannot be solved outside of addressing the global climate crisis. This is a technical work, and Brack’s prose is suited for its purpose: “It’s also important to note the role the diadromous fisheries played in the early economy of Maine fisheries. Diadromous fish are those species that migrate between the sea and freshwater environments.” The text features maps, charts, and graphs displaying information on fish landings, catch limits, invasive species, water cycles, and other relevant data. The author offers few solutions—indeed, there are few local fixes for a globalized crisis—but he does a fine job laying out the parameters of the problem and how it may worsen over time. This is not a work that will appeal to average readers, but those with a stake or interest in the ecology or economy of the Gulf of Maine may find the facts contained here helpful, if grim. A useful and sober evaluation of the changing situation in the Gulf of Maine."
The following is an excerpt from the book:
Climate Change in the Trumpocene
Rapid changes in the world’s environment are now occurring in the Trumpocene, that era in the late Anthropocene where one branch of the federal government in America is, in essence, a reality TV show series starring a cryptofascist nit-twit. Donald J Trump (DJT) is a master of media manipulation who is able to generate votes from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. A climate change denier, DJT is oblivious to rising atmospheric and seawater temperatures and a world water crisis, which includes depleted aquifers, contaminated surface waters, and the long-range atmospheric transport of environmental chemicals throughout the biosphere, coral reef die-offs, and increasing acidification from rising CO2 emissions.
Model 28: The Trumpocene
The growing concerns about these and many other environmental issues coincide with the rise of the scientific information police state that characterizes the Trumpocene. Important US governmental sources of scientific data such as the EPA, NOAA, CDC, NASA, and many others have been partially defunded, including important governmental EPA and CDC subdivisions and committees devoted to the analysis of and response to the threat of pandemics such as the COVID-19 onslaught. Their research, so essential for evaluating the threats from climate change, the threat of emerging viral infections, and the health impact of anthropogenic environmental chemicals, has been restricted, discarded, destroyed, classified, or deleted, limiting public access to taxpayer-funded public safety information. The rapid and initially undocumented spread of COVID-19 and the catastrophic lack of personal protection equipment (PPE) and testing supplies of all kinds are a direct result of the rise of a partisan wave of environmental fascism during the Trumpocene.
The recent federal government shutdown (December 22, 2018 – January 25, 2019), that successful implementation of the Steve Bannon-Republican Conservative Caucus ideal of deconstructing government, has further undermined attempts to document and control the environmental impact of the profit-driven petrochemical-industrial complex characterized by worldwide chemical fallout, in the social context of growing income and food availability inequalities. The government shutdown also curtailed governmental investigations of the vast network of racketeering-influenced corrupt activities of the Trumpocene. These range from the influence of Russia on the outcome of the 2016 presidential election, to Trump Tower payoffs, emoluments issues, DJT’s failure to release his tax returns, and the many ongoing investigations of Trump activities and organizations in the last decade. The recent impeachment efforts, a result of the attempted bribery of the Ukrainian government, ironically ended with the US Senate failing to vote for impeachment, enhancing the probability that our reigning nit-twit will be reelected in 2020, with a little help from disorganized Democrats.
Model 29: Biosphere as Bank Account
Cataclysmic climate change in the Trumpocene is part of a reality TV show series that includes our chemical warfare on the biosphere, growing indebtedness and infrastructure collapse, a scientific information police state, and the temporary ascendency of the most corrupt and dysfunctional president in American history. “Biosphere as bank account” is the prime mover of our TV show series best entitled “The Joys of Plastic” starring the honorary chairperson of the Organochlorine Soup Commission, whose December 2016 appointment has not yet been noted on his ongoing TV show. The sudden collapse of a highly profitable global consumer society as the result of the COVID-19 pandemic marks the end of the Trumpocene and the advent of the new Age of Zoom. An electromagnetic pulse (EMP) can cause the sudden birth of the new Age of Fried Transformers, putting a quick end to the many comforts of the electronic Age of Information Technology. This would complete the infrastructure collapse that was well underway when the COVID-19 pandemic suddenly germinated.
