What's Happening to Our Environment?

I write environmental mysteries I call 'eco-thrillers.' My new book Red Tide deals with what might happen if criminals dumped extremely dangerous chemicals into the Gulf of Mexico. In fact dolphins, whales, manatees, shrimp, oysters, and other coastal and offshore wildlife are dying off in unprecedented numbers in the Gulf. Presumably that was due to the Deepwater Horizon disaster. But my plot suggested others could be using that as an excuse for dumping deadly chemicals.

Meanwhile, what is happening to our environment worldwide? According to today's NPR World News glaciers throughout the world are melting. Our Republican congress can't even agree that climate change is happening, let alone that it is man-made. According to Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe global warming is a 'hoax.' Pretty good hoax, to be melting every glacier on the planet, Jim.

There are other changes happening as well, at an alarming rate. We depend on photo-plankton for half the oxygen we breathe. Yet plankton is disappearing from the oceans. Whales depend on plankton for food. But we depend on it to breathe. Hello?

Then there are the fires. The wildfires in northern California (more than a dozen, besides the major Rocky Fire north of San Francisco) have burned 70,000 acres. And that's just California. Fires in Oregon, Washington (now suffering a never-before happened drought) are also burning out of control.

So what are we to do about all this? It's almost too late. But we have to do something. Maybe start with calling your Senator?

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