"Great Pacific Garbage Patch" / "North Pacific gyre"

http://www.alternet.org/water/76056/

Marcus Eriksen, a research director of the US-based Algalita Marine
Research Foundation, which Mr Moore founded, said yesterday: "The
original idea that people had was that it was an island of plastic
garbage that you could almost walk on. It is not quite like that. It is
almost like a plastic soup. It is endless for an area that is maybe
twice the size as continental United States."

...

According to the UN Environment Programme, plastic debris causes the
deaths of more than a million seabirds every year, as well as more than
100,000 marine mammals. Syringes, cigarette lighters and toothbrushes
have been found inside the stomachs of dead seabirds, which mistake
them for food.

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the beginning of civilisation - Göbekli Tepe

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/gobekli-tepe.html?c=y&page=1 'To Schmidt and others, these new findings suggest a novel theory of civilization. Scholars have long believed that only after people learned to farm and live in settled communities did they have the time, organization and resources to construct temples and support complicated social structures. But Schmidt argues it was the other way around: the extensive, coordinated effort to build the monoliths literally laid the groundwork for the development of complex societies.' Interesting theory - but why? What was the problem building temples solved? Why was building temples cheaper than the alternative? what was that alternative? 'Hodder is fascinated that Gobekli Tepe's pillar carvings are dominated not by edible prey like deer and cattle but by menacing creatures such as lions, spiders, snakes and scorpions. "It's a scary, fantastic world of nasty-looking beasts," he muses. Whi

1 cubic mile of oil

to create the energy we get from oil by least expensive means - wind - we would need to spend an extra $10 trillion and would require an area the size of three new zealands http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubic_mile_of_oil The world consumes approximately 3 CMO annually from all sources. Source CMO/yr Oil 1.06 Coal 0.81 Natural gas 0.61 Biomass 0.19 Nuclear 0.15 Hydroelectric 0.17 Geothermal <0.01 Wind+Photovoltaic+Solar thermal <0.005 Installing capacity to produce 1 CMO per year requires long and significant development. Allowing fifty years to develop the requisite capacity, 1 CMO of energy per year could be produced by any one of these developments: 4 Three Gorges Dams , [14] developed each year for 50 years, or 52 nuclear power plants , [15] developed each year for 50 years, or 104 coal-fired power plants , [16] developed each year for 50 years, or 32,850 wind turbines , [17] [18] developed each year for 50 years, or 91,250,000 rooftop

a goat song

you - middle aged me - you: your grandparents were the king and queen. their dominion seemed without end. few dared to challenge them and when they did they were crushed. they sponsored great artists, scientists and engineers, and the feasts i remember went on for days. but in they end, they were very very sick, and they died. we tried everything. the best doctors came and tried the latest operations. they got the best medicine. nothing worked and finally they passed away. at was then that i found out they were deep in debt. they had sold everything. the land and everything under it. the oceans and everything in it. they had left nothing. but that's not true - they had left behind the waste. CONTINUE: play as circus: generations, terrorist, extinction, torture, dance

civilization collapse

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