Page 78 - AlertDiver_Spring2013

A Sweet Spot
76 | SPRING 2013
W hen I was born in the
mid-1930s, Earth’s
2 billion people were
about to enter an
unprecedented era of
prosperity. Despite
crippling wars and diseases
that took the lives of millions,
economic recovery surged
through the aftermath of the
Great Depression and two world
wars, the population doubling in
less than a half a century to reach
4 billion by 1980. With nearly
7 billion of us on Earth today and
2 billion more expected by the
middle of this century, our growth
as a species may appear boundless.
But this growth is not without
cost. About half of the world’s
original forests have been
consumed, most of them since
1950. Ninety percent of all large
wild fish (and many small ones as
well) have disappeared from the
oceans, the result of devastatingly
efficient industrial fishing. Entire
ecosystems with their treasuries of
distinctive plants and animals have
been extinguished, both on land and
in the sea. Only in times of great
natural catastrophes, such as when
comets or meteors collided with our
planet, has the way forward been
so swiftly and dramatically altered.
Never before have such powerful
changes been caused by the actions
of a single species.
A Legacy of Abundance
I experienced my first breath
underwater as a young scientist
in 1953, and I marveled at the
clarity of the ocean and the wealth
and diversity of life during trips
to the Florida Keys. Pink conchs
plowed trails though seagrass
meadows, and schools of colorful STEPHEN FRINK