“The sea is only the embodiment of a supernatural and wonderful existence. It is nothing but love and emotion; it is the Living Infinite…” Jules Verne
“Because of social taboos, despair at the state of our world and fear for our future are rarely acknowledged. The suppression of despair, like that of any deep recurring response, contributes to the numbing of the psyche. Expressions of anguish or outrage are muted, deadened as if a nerve had been cut. This refusal to feel impoverishes our emotional and sensory life. Flowers are dimmer and less fragrant, our loves less ecstatic. We create diversions for ourselves as individuals and as nations, in the fights we pick, the aims we pursue, and the stuff we buy.” The Greatest Danger; Joanna Macy
My ancestors were born on the island called Ireland/Éire, militarily occupied by the British for 800 years, divided for over a 100, by some fluke of chance my darling parents emigrated to Aotearoa New Zealand. Had I been born in the war zone, there is zero chance I would have survived my twenties! Adventures of a Member of the Diaspora in Occupied West Belfast
Dad arrived in NZ in 1957, to build the Auckland Harbour Bridge, he was the first person to need the decompression chamber at Devenport Naval Base, in an emergency, his timing to get the Bends whilst constructing the concrete piers on the bridge, was near perfect, the chamber had only just been installed, less than a mile from the construction site! The luck of the Irish huh?
I’ve been reasonably careful as a diver because the ‘old man’ nearly succumbed to the Bends.
Ma arrived in Aotearoa New Zealand with my three of my older siblings two years later in 1959, I arrived on the planet in 1960.
As an adolescent I became fixated on the oceans, mainly through watching Jaques Cousteau, as he explored the ocean depths, I was “Hooked”, pardon the pun!
Fascinatingly, in the above video, Jaques once blew up a reef, it was only later did he understand the implications of what he had done and what could and did happen on an industrial scale!
A wonderful consequence of my addiction was I obtained my yacht skippers ticket, in Gibraltar of all places, and I went on to do 16 ocean passages on small yachts, more than half as skipper. Two of those tales are embedded below! The transit of the Mediterranean detailed below doesn’t count as an ocean passage because the Med’ is considered to be an almost non-tidal, inland sea.
A Conversation Between a French F111 Fighter Jet Pilot, a Kiwi Yacht Skipper and Everything in Between.
Shark Attack at Minerva Reef
Neither of the experiences above nor the other 15 ocean passages would have happened in my life without the inspiration of Jaques Cousteau.
Five years ago, I was interviewed by the late great Michael Dowd, I spoke about how Jaques had changed my life!
More information on the above interview with corroborating links embedded at my blog post: “Post Doom” discussion featuring Michael Dowd and Kevin Hester. Navigating the Perfect Storm
One day after my birthday, on the 11 of March 2011, my worst nightmare came to fruition, with the triple melt downs at Fukushima Daiichi. I had some sleepless nights when I couldn’t stop grieving for the chaos, I had failed to prevent. It was gut wrenching!
The video above and corroborating links are embedded in my blog post titled: Fukushima Daiichi adds Insult to Injury for the Pacific’s Coral Reefs.
There is a multi-decadal lag between emissions and when their full consequences manifest, for massive pulses of carbon, it can take centuries to work its way through the climate system.
“In a recent letter, Ricke and Caldeira (2014 Environ. Res. Lett. 9 124002) estimated that the timing between an emission and the maximum temperature response is a decade on average. In their analysis, they took into account uncertainties about the carbon cycle, the rate of ocean heat uptake and the climate sensitivity but did not consider one important uncertainty: the size of the emission. Using simulations with an Earth System Model we show that the time lag between a carbon dioxide (CO2) emission pulse and the maximum warming increases for larger pulses. Our results suggest that as CO2 accumulates in the atmosphere, the full warming effect of an emission may not be felt for several decades, if not centuries.”
The time lag between a carbon dioxide emission and maximum warming increases with the size of the emission
All the unfolding chaos we are witnessing today, is from emissions from last century and before, effectively this centuries consequences, have yet to manifest! The lag in the climate system is a critical detail!
There is a tsunami of grief building in our human community, especially in our youth, we need to talk about it publicly so that everyone can see that they are not alone.
The Coming Tsunami of Grief
The article below was written by Professor Henry Gee, he is the senior editor at Nature.com one of the most influential peer reviewed journals.
Habitat degradation, low genetic variation and declining fertility are setting Homo sapiens up for collapse.
Humans Are Doomed to Go Extinct
I’m editing into this blog this amazing video about Jaques Cousteau’s adventures and candidly his mistakes of blowing up reefs as part of a science project!
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I'm an anti-imperialist, environmental activist and blue ocean sailor, who is passionate about the earth and all it's inhabitants without favour. Brace for imminent impact as we bare witness to the non-linear unraveling of the biosphere and habitability disappearing for most if not all complex life on the only habitable planet we know of. To quote President Niinistö in North Russia: ‘If We Lose the Arctic, We Lose the World’. Folks we have lost the Arctic.
Kevin Hester 
That was such a heavy-duty article, including the videos, that it’s hard to decide where to begin, and there isn’t enough space to comment on all.
The Jacques Cousteau documentary was a true eye-opener–good, but eye-opening about the evolution of Cousteau and his understanding and attitudes.
The Post-Doom video was dynamite, BTW. Kevin, in case you didn’t know, you are hilarious! It’s true–somebody has to be the last person to plant a tree! And somebody has to be the last one to create a Marine Reserve! LOL
Another BTW: Having read Silent Spring as a teenager, I became aware that “we are in trouble!” a long time ago. Of course, it’s now much worse.
You said something that I occasionally recite to those who seem receptive: everything we own and everything we do and our entire world could, on a moment’s notice, suddenly go poof! Somehow most people don’t want to go there, so I retreat back under my rock for a while.
Your advice about finding your tribe is excellentissimo! That has been an idea I’ve worked on for years, but now with more intensity. For years I’ve mentally and secretly categorized friends and acquaintances into one of two categories, without their knowledge of course.
It works like this: just listening to people talk about their attitudes toward Nature and wildlife, as well as other people gives one a fairly good idea of whether they’d be good tribemates. Whether the person is “potential tribemate” or “definitely not a tribemate” doesn’t mean bad or good. It just means if you listen carefully and you can usually pick the tribemates.
Excellent advice: Engage in what motivates you, especially if it involves helping other species or other humans. At the same time: Find Your Tribemates.
Thanks for this excellent piece!
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hi Kevin … I was looking for your email sent recently … “everything is falling apart” to begin my update to you … sadly been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer … doc says “weeks, months, years – 5 tops” … Hospice is coming 3/4 times a week…with pain meds etc … sooo obviously I will need to stop posting and hopefully you can be lead admin …both NuclearGenocide and 3.11 Thirteenth (soon to be Fourteenth) beAnniversary of Fukushima Nuclear Acciident, Events/Actions
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Kia Kaha, stay strong, Laura, all the best through these harrowing times.
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Professor Guy McPhersons latest video on our broiling oceans.
Science Snippets: Marine Heat Waves Rising Worldwide
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[…] For anyone who would prefer to read than listen, everything Professor McPherson discussed above can be found at: As Overheated Ocean Continues to Warm, What Priorities Arise?For this student of Jaques Cousteau watching the oceans getting raped and pillaged is bad enough without the threat multiplier of turning up the heat relentlessly for 300 years. 80% of the worlds coral reefs have been hammered by stress induced heating, acidification and fertilizer and other runoff. It takes about 15 years for a coral reef to recover from a bleaching event, clearly there will be no respite. I’ve added this analysis to my blog post on Jaques Cousteau, which I’ll drop below for further reference.How Jaques Cousteau got me Addicted to the Oceans and why I’m Grieving. […]
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