Here’s a story that has sex, octopuses, population genetics, and climate change, all at once.
What should catch your eye, after the octopus sex, is the shift that enabled those populations to meet across the vast (currently) frozen mass of ice of the Antarctic: a 2°C increase in temperature relative to the modern day. Just 2°C will cause an ice sheet collapse, dramatic rises in sea level, and an increase in the frequency of extreme weather.
Earth scientists continually emphasize that humanity isn’t inescapably doomed by the coming, inevitable disruptions to the climate. It’s just the opposite. Society still has an extraordinary amount of influence in the matter: The more warming, the worse the impacts. But Earth’s inhabitants should be aware that a 2 C world has extreme effects. It’s all the more reason to avoid any warming above 2 C.
The Earth has been there before. It’s not a world we’d enjoy living on.
Dunno if Firstdog can get away with muscling in on Oglaf’s schtick.
I was excited by the mention of octopus scientists. Then I found out that it does not mean what I thought it meant, instead it’s human scientists who study octopuses. That was disappointing. Then I learned about one more sign of the disaster that humans are causing to themselves and their planet and I was ok with that, because I already have no hope.
I don’t know if “Octopus Sex Bus” is a band name or not, but it definitely should be.
@ ^ cartomancer : If Octopuses can have gardens a la the beatles then I can’t see why they can have sex buses to travel to them..
PS. I wonder if there are the marine equivalent of beetles (arthropods? Isopods?) in octopuses gardens?
@ StevoR #4
I don’t get it – why would they need to charter a “sex bus” when they can just go in the… “Yell-ow submarine”?
@ StevoR
Yes! See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isopoda#/media/File:Representative_marine_isopod_forms.png for some examples :-D
And when they hang out in the gardens they rely on rock lobsters for the entertainment.
ChatGPT Prompt: Write a song about an octopus fornication highway.
Verse 1:
Eight arms to hold me tight
As we swim through the ocean’s night
In the depths, we move with grace
Our love, a forbidden embrace
Chorus:
Octopus fornication highway
Where we twist and turn, our love will never decay
Through the seaweed and the coral reef
Our love is all we need
Verse 2:
We twist and twirl in a dance so wild
Our bodies intertwined, love in full shine
Our colors change, a display of bliss
Together, forever, we’ll find our miss
Chorus:
Octopus fornication highway
Where we twist and turn, our love will never decay
Through the seaweed and the coral reef
Our love is all we need
Bridge:
In this underwater world, we rule
Our love, a beautiful, aquatic jewel
No one can stop us, we’ll always be
Together, forever, on the octopus fornication highway
Chorus:
Octopus fornication highway
Where we twist and turn, our love will never decay
Through the seaweed and the coral reef
Our love is all we need
Outro:
We’ll keep swimming, forever true
Our love, an underwater tale for me and you
On the octopus fornication highway
Our love will always find its way.
@ ^ Robert Westbrook & #6. Jazzlet : Thanks!
Except trying to get the tune for that AI song now..