Michael Tat Independent Study Ramapo College of New Jersey Advisor

91 Pages·2009·13.17 MB·English

by  Sa Tat

Michael Tat
Independent Study
Ramapo College of New Jersey
Advisor: Professor Howard Horowitz
Spring, 2009
[email protected]
Clean Water, Rich Land:
SYNPOSIS
Resolution to the Challenge Surrounding Clean Water vs. Human
(and Domestic Animal) Material Emissions

Syntheses actually exist that link the intensely polarized camps of the
Industrialist - Environmentalist tangle in healthy, harmonious ways. Repeating
platitudes and strident re-affirmations of spiritual laws and aesthetic inspirations is
not enough; the key to the creative re – union of Humanity and Nature is material:
on one level, it is founded in the simple consensus that clean water is a rational
necessity. Our joyful bodies, not sewage sludge and other contaminants, should be
put into our pure natural waters.
Water - violating habits developed incrementally, hence were almost
unnoticeable: the transition from cozy agrarian village to stultifying city was almost
imperceptible from within the slowly evolving generations. Ancestors had learned
that waste and water did not mix from natural life systems experiences, but large
swift rivers were tempting disposal routes for human & domestic animal bio –
emissions. As populations grew, the almost inconsequential impositions of small
settlements grew into the oppressively burdensome pollutions of modern cities.
Nature’s best interest is Humanity’s own best interest. With the accelerating
expansion of aquatic ‘dead zones’, caused by disposal into water of human and
domestic animal material emissions and the concomitant use of synthetic fertilizers,
the re-direction of bio-soils into the soil as organic fertilizers has become the timely
imperative. Apart from obvious benefit to public health, restoring purity to our
waterways has great bearing upon psycho-social intangibles such as the sense of self
– worth, the satisfaction in living, and the faith in the goodness of civilization and in
the purpose and productiveness of Humanity.
Human feelings and water, the medium of Life, are correlated strongly by
both ancient and modern systems of order. Ancient spiritual disciplines, as well as
inspired poets and mystics through the centuries, also modern faiths, and even the
modern science of Psychology, all emphatically proclaim the intimate association of
water and aquatic realms with human feelings. We cannot feel good about ourselves
as long as human actions are fouling our natural environment. And the purity of our
water is a prime indicator of the health of the natural environment.
Careful analysis of all the potentials composing the present situation has led
us to conclude that re - qualifying bio – solids as soil nutrients, rather than aquatic
toxins shall actually constitute a financial blessing instead of a burden. We must
emphasize that bio – solids should not be processed for methane, burned, or made
into other products. Our bio – emissions need to be returned as soil fortification to
the plant communities that have provided nourishment to us and to our livestock.
The Plant Kingdom and the Animal Kingdom co – creatively exchange not only
breath, but also sustenance. The establishment of the co – creative balance between
Humanity and the Primordial Realms of Life that supports us depends upon our
leading the Animal Kingdom into the more intimately productive relationship with our
natural symbiote, the Plant Kingdom, that we describe in this expression.
Recognizing Perfect Solutions: The All-Win Archetype
In the Resolution to the Challenge Surrounding Clean Water
vs. Human (and Domestic Animal) Material Emissions

Introduction:
Resolving This Most Fundamental of All Environmental Errors Could
Release the Dynamism to Effectively Marshall and Focus Support for the More
Complex Challenges that the Future Holds

The problem of the presence of human material bio-emissions causing
a disrupted spawning run in the neighboring stream, or requiring the posting
of use - restriction signage when an abundance of rainfall is blamed for a
sewage outfall upon one of the local swimming beaches, is an irritating shout
in one’s backyard that certainly needs to call attention to the fact that our
rich bio-soils need to be placed not into our waters, but again into our soil,
where their fertility can serve as a blessing, rather than a curse.
But the problem is so far beyond the shout of irritation from our
figurative backyards. The effect of myriad such indiscretions has already
changed the challenge of proper regulation of human waste waters from a
mere backyard embarrassment to something of far greater magnitude.
The ‘dead zone’ phenomenon is an unfolding worldwide environmental
catastrophe that contaminates the greatest of our planetary waters, and has
left the message that this species, the human, is capable of negating the Life
System that sustains all living beings in ways that virtually exterminate the
vital presence of Life across not merely neighborhoods but across relatively
vast aquatic bio-regions.

Dr. Klaus Toepfer, former executive director the United Nations
Environmental Programme, in 2004 stated regarding the causes of the ‘dead
zone’ phenomenon: “Unless urgent action is taken to tackle the
sources of the problem, it is likely to escalate rapidly.”1
The United States Geologic Survey website defines the conditions that
precipitate the ‘dead zone’ phenomenon as follows:
“Hypoxia means "low oxygen." In estuaries, lakes, and coastal
waters low oxygen usually means a concentration of less than 2 parts
per million. In many cases hypoxic waters do not have enough oxygen
to support fish and other aquatic animals. Hypoxia can be caused by
the presence of excess nutrients in water. Excess nutrients can cause
intensive growth of algae. The consequences of this enhanced growth
are reduced sunlight penetrating the water, a decreased amount of
oxygen dissolved in the water, and a loss of habitat for aquatic animals
and plants. The decrease in dissolved oxygen is caused by the
degradation of dead plant material (algae), which consumes available
oxygen. The overall effect is called eutrophication. Nutrients can come
from many sources, such as fertilizers applied to agricultural fields,
golf courses, and suburban lawns; deposition of nitrogen from the
atmosphere; erosion of soil containing nutrients; and sewage
treatment plant discharges.”2

The discussion of hypoxia situations changes into discussion of
“anoxia” situations when the oxygen level has fallen below the threshold
necessary to sustain even the simplest aquatic life systems. Instead of
serving as the precious medium of Life, the water becomes a stultifying
blanket of death, causing motile organisms to flee or die. And the anchored
species of marine life, such as oysters, mussels, barnacles, and clams have
no choice but to face an agonized suffocation under the unnatural pall of “the
liquid of Life” deprived of its vital essence.
Note the graphic evidence revealed in the following article excerpted
from one of NASA’s environmental web pages:
Creeping Dead Zones
“This is not the title of a sequel to a Stephen King novel. "Dead
zones" in this context are areas where the bottom water (the water at
the sea floor) is anoxic — meaning that it has very low (or completely
zero) concentrations of dissolved oxygen. These dead zones are
occurring in many areas along the coasts of major continents, and
they are spreading over larger areas of the sea floor. Because very few
organisms can tolerate the lack of oxygen in these areas, they can
destroy the habitat in which numerous organisms make their home.”
“The cause of anoxic bottom waters is fairly simple: the organic
matter produced by phytoplankton at the surface of the ocean (in the
euphotic zone) sinks to the bottom (the benthic zone),where it is
subject to breakdown by the action of bacteria, a process known as
bacterial respiration. The problem is, while phytoplankton use carbon
dioxide and produce oxygen during photosynthesis, bacteria use
oxygen and give off carbon dioxide during respiration. The oxygen
used by bacteria is the oxygen dissolved in the water, and that’s the
same oxygen that all of the other oxygen-respiring animals on the
bottom (crabs, clams, shrimp, and a host of mud-loving creatures) and
swimming in the water (zooplankton, fish) require for life to continue.”
“The "creeping dead zones" are areas in the ocean where it
appears that phytoplankton productivity has been enhanced, or natural
water flow has been restricted, leading to increasing bottom water
anoxia. If phytoplankton productivity is enhanced, more organic
matter is produced, more organic matter sinks to the bottom and is
respired by bacteria, and thus more oxygen is consumed. If water flow
is restricted, the natural refreshing flow of oxic waters (water with
normal dissolved oxygen concentrations) is reduced, so that the
remaining oxygen is depleted faster.”
“Many of the areas where increasing bottom water anoxia has
recently been observed are near the mouths of major river systems.
While the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) can’t see
the bottom of the ocean, it can see the surface, where sediments from
rivers mix with ocean waters. The images shown here are SeaWiFS
observations of the Mississippi River delta, the Yangtze River mouth in
China …, and the Pearl River mouth in China, near Hong Kong.”

. . . “The apparent cause of the creeping dead zones is
agriculture, specifically fertilizer. While fertilizer is necessary to foster
bumper agricultural crops, it also runs off the fields into the streams
and rivers of a watershed. When the fertilizer reaches the ocean, it
just becomes more nutrients for the phytoplankton, so they do what
they do best: they grow and multiply. Which leads to more organic
matter reaching the bottom, more bacterial respiration, and more
anoxic bottom water.” . . .
. . . “Dr. Robert Diaz of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science
(VIMS) has created a map of dead zones throughout the world (a
version of this map also appeared in the March 2000 issue of Discover
magazine). Diaz estimates that the number of such sites will double
within a decade.”3

This is Dr. Diaz’ Year 2000 “dead zone” Map4

In consonance with Dr. Diaz’ prediction, the number and extent of the
“dead zones” has been expanding year by year. The United Nations
Environmental Programme is quoted within the following article, dated April,
2004, as estimating the number of “dead zones” at “nearly 150 worldwide,
43 of which occur within the coastal waters of the USA.” Therefore the scant
red dots on the World Map above, a mere 38 or so in number, give us only
the sketchiest outline of a problem that has already been measured as far
more widespread.
But the serious hypoxia events, especially on the coastlines of USA and
Europe, as well as Japan, have begun to merge, with one contaminated
estuary overlaying and exacerbating the eutrophication problems of adjacent
systems. Thus the toxicity caused primarily by the misdirection of the human
material bio-emissions and agriculture has reached a stage of shockingly
accelerating anoxic degradation of our natural water resources. The number
of “dead zones” referred to in the 2008 Power Point presentation by the
USGS has been quantified at over 4005, an accelerating degradation even
outstripping the shocking “doubling within the next decade” predicted by Dr.
Diaz and the UNEP. The comparison of these most responsible sources of
scientific data reveals the truth of a wildfire contamination so astounding that
only the most energetic emergency-level responses could be appropriate.
Dr. Diaz’ dire prediction in year 2000 of a doubling of dead zones
“within a decade” is paled by the comparison of the empirical data of the
United Nations Environmental Programme, quoted above in 2006 as “nearly
150 (“dead zones”) worldwide”,6 beside the Environmental Protection
Agency’s Mississippi River Gulf of Mexico Water Nutrient Task Force 2008
Power Point presentation which reveals 405 known “dead zones”7. . . the
doubling in number is now occurring in closer to two or three years than to a
decade. It is very likely that the estimate of “150 worldwide” came from an
earlier 2004 UNEP report, and by 2006 their official estimate may well have
expanded by a significant measure. Therefore, adopting the most
conservative view, we see that the expansion of “nearly 150” to 405 dead
zones planetwide may have taken as much as four years- 2004 to 2008. This
more moderate estimate still produces emergency-level realizations as to a
catastrophic rate of acceleration of the “dead zone” phenomenon. This most
conservative estimate has ratcheted up the earlier UNEP warning of a
doubling every decade, to the most recent doubling in only 2.96 years.
The situation is no longer in the category of merely a threat to our
coastal estuaries, bays, and near ocean areas, and shore-nesting birds. What
is implied by this overlapping acceleration effect is the impending decimation
of some of the most crucial fish, mollusk, coral and crustacean nurseries on
our planet. If these eco-regions collapse, the ramifications will be drastic and
profound for every dimension of the Life of our great waters. Who could
assure with genuine confidence that such grossly callous insensitivity toward
the sentience of our estuaries and coastal realms mightn’t stimulate a
calamitously convulsive reflex from the mighty life systems of our Planet in
the aquatic realms? Strident decisive action from the highest levels of
governmental and industrial power, is what is called for, with a respectful
recognition for the imperative essentiality of protecting the future of the
oceans and the other great waters struggling under Humanity’s grave
indiscretions. Nations worldwide must commit the necessary resources and
mindpower essential to achieve the genuine rectification of this problem.
The far-reaching ramifications of this challenge begin to be explored
by this article by Mark Clayton of The Christian Science Monitor:

“ ‘Dead zones’ Threaten Fisheries”
“In midsummer, the northern Gulf of Mexico, where the
Mississippi River empties into it, may shimmer like any other swath of
sea. But a few score feet below, bottom-dwelling fish and other
creatures struggle just to breathe.”
“This area - one of the world's biggest coastal ‘dead zones’ - is
rapidly being joined by a growing number of "hypoxic," or oxygen-
depleted areas around the world. At least 146 such zones have been
documented through 2000 - from the northern Adriatic Sea to the Gulf
of Thailand to the Yellow Sea, according to a United Nations
Environment Program (UNEP) report released in March. And their
number has been doubling every decade since 1960, it adds. At risk:
coastal fisheries near the most populous regions.”
“A handful of efforts are under way that could mitigate the
effects. But because of lag times involved, the problem is likely to get
worse before it gets better.”
“ "I'm convinced this is going to be the biggest environmental
issue in the aquatic marine realm in the 21st century," says Robert
Diaz, a marine biologist and professor at the Virginia Institute of
Marine Science, who coauthored the study undergirding the UNEP
report. "It won't take too much for these annual lower-oxygen events
to expand throughout the year and actually eliminate fisheries." ”
“ Dead zones’ often grow where populations grow. But the real
driver is the spread of nitrogen, many observers say, caused by runoff
of nitrogen-based fertilizers, sewage outflows, and nitrogen deposits
from burning fossil fuels. Some waters remain oxygen-depleted year-
around. In other waters, the problem appears periodically.” ”
“ “In the northern Gulf of Mexico, one of the best-known and
best-studied ‘dead zones’, hypoxia occurs seasonally from April to
September. The zone's size depends on the weather and how much
flow the Mississippi brings each year. Its waters are laden with
fertilizer runoff from farms and lawns across the Midwest. Sewage and
fossil-fuel emissions exhaust (from power plants and autos) are also
factors, says a 1999 University of Alabama study sponsored by the
fertilizer industry.” ”
“ “Excess nitrogen combined with placid summer weather
results in an oxygen-poor bottom layer of water. The process works
this way: In the top layer, the nitrogen and sun feed phytoplankton,
which grow rapidly, then die and fall to the bottom. As they decay,
they consume oxygen. Called eutrophication, the cycle depletes
oxygen in isolated bottom waters. In 2002, one of the worst years
since it was first documented in the 1970s, the northern Gulf's hypoxic
zone reached more than 7,700 square miles. Despite its size, the
problem is largely hidden from view, except to the trained eye.” ”
“ "I see massive schools of stingrays, bottom dwellers, moving
on the surface. Even shrimp come up 20 feet or so off the bottom
trying to get to oxygen," says Nancy Rabalais, a marine biologist at
the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium in Chauvin, La. Only
because they are desperate to breathe do such bottom-dwelling
creatures flee upward, risking becoming easy prey.” ”
“Such scenes will become more common worldwide, scientists
predict. As populations grow, nitrogen and phosphorous-caused
eutrophication will more than double in coastal areas by 2050, predicts
a 2001 study published in Science magazine. "There's been a big
increase in these hypoxic zones that correlates strongly with increased
use of nitrogen fertilizers, particularly in the '60s and 1970s," says
Robert Howarth, a coauthor of the Science study and professor of
environmental biology at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. "About half
of the nitrogen fertilizer used on Earth in all of history has been used
in the last 15 years."
“One positive trend: Total global fertilizer use seems to be
growing more slowly than in the past few decades. It plateaued in
1990 then declined after the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the mid-
'90s, global growth resumed, but much more slowly. For the decade,
nitrogen fertilizer rose only slightly from 79 million to 82 million tons.”
“Still, scientists say it takes time for a rise in fertilizer use to
harm coastal ecosystems. In a 2002 study, Howarth and other
scientists found that falling levels of dissolved oxygen in coastal waters
lagged 10 to 20 years behind increased chemical fertilizer use
beginning in the 1940s. That lag effect is worrisome, he says, because
fertilizer use has more than quadrupled globally since 1960.”
“The use of nitrogen has increased, too. Nitrogen fertilizers were
37 percent of all fertilizers used in 1961, but grew to 60 percent by
2001, according to Fertilizer Institute data. "If you look globally at
what humans are doing to the nitrogen cycle, we're increasingly
making nitrogen available to the environment," Dr. Howarth says.
"Almost 75 percent of the increase is through fertilizers." ”
“The fertilizer industry in the US has been working with farmers
to reduce fertilizer overuse and resulting runoff since the 1960s. But
pressure from the Environmental Protection Agency in the '90s also
has pushed the industry toward new technologies. Global positioning
satellite technology, linked to fertilizer applicators on tractors, permits