The ecosystem is the quintessential essence of life on our planet, and this crucial life system is showing signs of breaking down. It is likely a more pressing problem than climate change. Time will tell but time is short. The ecosystem consists of all living organisms that interact with nonliving components like air, water, and soil contained within the biosphere, which extends from the bottom of the oceans to the top of the mountains. Although unannounced by authorities or professional orgs, it is already becoming evident that the ecosystem is breaking down. Alas, it’s our only ecosystem. chris helweg

1. The Ecosystem is Breaking Down
by ROBERT HUNZIKER NOVEMBER 6, 2017
Photo by Richard Allaw ay | Public Domain
The ecosystem is the quintessential essence of life on our planet, and this
crucial life system is showing signs of breaking down. It is likely a more
pressing problem than climate change. Time will tell but time is short.
The ecosystem consists of all living organisms that interact with nonliving
components like air, water, and soil contained within the biosphere, which
extends from the bottom of the oceans to the top of the mountains.
Although unannouncedby authorities or professional orgs, it is already
becoming evident that the ecosystem is breaking down. Alas, it’s our only
ecosystem.
The evidence is too prevalent to ignore. For example, when (1) abundance
of insects plummets by 75%, and (2) tropical rainforests mysteriously emit
CO2, and (3) Mt Everest’s snow is too toxic to pass EPA drinking water
standards, and (4) squid at 1,000 fathoms carry toxic furniture protection
chemicals, and (5) ocean oxygen production plummets, then something is

2. wrong, horribly, horribly, horribly wrong. But, nobody has announcedit.
Global warming gets all of the attention.
All of which begs the question: What does it take to determine when the
ecosystem is losing it? After all, it surely looks like it is doing exactly that.
For example, the loss of 75% of insect abundance in a landmark study in
Germany (referenced in prior articles) released only last month is enough,
all by itself, to indicate an extinction event is in the works. That is a
monstrous wake up call.
Equally horrifying, recent studies show tropical rainforests emitting more
CO2 than automobiles, which is kinda like getting hit repeatedly in the
head with a wooden two-by-four, a deadly serious wake up call that says
the planet is breaking down.
As for the rainforest research: A 12-year study claims the world’s tropical
rainforests have reversed gears. Instead of absorbing CO2, as they have
forever and ever and ever, serving as a carbon sink, they are emitting CO2
into the atmosphere. It’s not supposedto work that way. (Source: A.
Baccini, et al, Tropical Forests are a Net Carbon Source Based on
AbovegroundMeasurements of Gain and Loss, Science, Vol. 358, Issue
6360, pp. 230-234, October 13, 2017)
“The forest is not doing what we thought it was doing,” said Alessandro
Baccini, who is one of the lead authors of the research team from Woods
Hole Research Centerand Boston University. “As always, trees are
removing carbon from the atmosphere, but the volume of the forest is no
longer enough to compensate for the losses. The region is not a sink any
more.” (Source: Jonathan Watts, Alarm as Study Reveals World’s Tropical
Forests are Huge Carbon Emission Source, The Guardian, Sept. 28, 2017)
The “region is not a sink any more” is almost impossible to accept. How
can it be true?
Rainforests competing head-to-headwith automobiles for most excessive
CO2 emissions is a real shocker, a haunting sign of ill-fated climate

3. change. Who would’ve ever thought? It seems as improbable as the Sun
shutting down. It is a spine-chilling signal that the ecosystem is really,
truly in trouble. What to do?
Not only is the ecosystem exhibiting undue stress, human health is under
attack like never before. Using a baseline year of 1975, observed case
counts of cancer are up 76.6% to 193%, depending upon race. As such,
Wall Street has discovered a new growth vehicle in biotechnology
companies searching for answers to cancer. Nearly 50 new cancer cases
are diagnosed in the time it takes (15 minutes) to read this article. These
days everybody knows somebody who has been stricken. It’s the leading
cause of death worldwide, and one can only wonder and speculate that
ecosystem carnage and the cancer epidemic seem to go hand in hand.
Ergo, whatever’s poisoning the ecosystem is the most important issue of
the 21st century.
The following quote from Julian Cribb’s Surviving the 21st Century
(Springer Int’l Publishing, Switzerland 2017) likely tells the story:
“The evidence that we ourselves—along with ourdescendants, potentially
for the rest of history— are at risk from the toxic flood we have unleashed
is piling up in literally tens of thousands of peer-reviewed scientific
research reports. Despite this mass of evidence, the public in most
countries is only dimly aware, or even largely unaware of what is being
done to them. The reason is twofold: First, most of these reports are
buried in scientific journals, written in the arcane and inaccessible
language usedby specialists. The public may hear a little about certain
chemical categories of concern, like pesticides and food additives, or the
‘dirty dozen’ (Stockholm C0nvention 2013) industrial super-poisons, or
‘air pollution’ in general. However, these represent only a scant few pixels
in a much larger image now amassing in the scientific literature of tens of
thousands of potentially harmful substances which are disseminating
worldwide. Second, the proportion of chemicals which have been well-
tested for human safety is quite small…” Ibid, page 108.

4. In short, humanity is poisoning itself with a massive flood of chemicals all
across the world, dripping wet with toxicity. It’s little wonder the
ecosystem is breaking down under the venom of peacetime chemical
warfare. Is it any wonder that insect abundance suddenly plummets by
75%, which is defined, by any book, as an extinction event? People need
insects a lot more than insects need people. Eighty percent (80%) of all
the world’s plants are angiosperms, dependent upon pollination. No
plants, no survival.
According to a United Nations study, most chemicals are never screened
for health concerns, and WWF Global claims only 14% of chemicals used
in largest volume have minimum data available for initial safety
assessments. Yet, the FDA carefully scrutinizes drugs that are used to
combat malfunctions like cancer, like Parkinson’s that may be caused by
failure to regulate chemicals in the environment in the first place. After all,
the chemicals become part of the living ecosystem!
Over time as the public wises up, it’ll be surprising if people do not come
to arms over the failure of government to protect life, its ultimate
responsibility. The ecosystem breaking down is too serious to avoid
responsibility. It does not happen on its own.
As it happens, the deadly combination of global warming, which may be
beyond control, and toxic chemicals, which are all over creation in all
quarters, destroys the ecosystem in a slow death march by a thousand
cuts, until, similar to Rachel Carson’s idyllic American town in her
landmark book Silent Spring, it suddenly experiences a “strange blight,”
leaving a swathe of inexplicable illnesses, birds founddead, farm animals
unable to reproduce, and fruitless apple trees, an eerie lifelessness, yet
unannounced, suddenly happening out of the blue. Like General Custer’s
troops, caught flat-footed, it’s over so quickly.
Ignorance of the breadth and depth and mass of our toxic chemical planet
will be no excuse when Rachel Carson’s “strange blight” suddenly hits

5. hard because ignorance is never an excuse, especially with life and death
at hand.
Join the debate on Facebook
More articles by:HTTPS://WWW.COUNTERP UNCH.ORG/AUTHOR/ROBERT-
HUNZIKER/
Robert Hunziker lives in Los Angeles and can be reached
at roberthunziker@icloud.com