health of world's oceans is failing faster than was thought
Jeanwah
Posts: 6,363
WASHINGTON -- The health of the world's oceans is declining much faster than originally thought -- under siege from pollution, overfishing and other man-made problems all at once -- scientists say in a new report.
The mix of interacting ingredients is in place for a mass extinction in the world's oceans, said a report by a top panel of scientists that will be presented to the United Nations on Tuesday.
The report says the troubles from global warming and other factors are worse when they combine with each other. Factors include dead zones from farm run-off, an increase in acidity from too much carbon dioxide, habitat destruction and melting sea ice, along with overfishing.
"Things seem to be going wrong on several different levels," said Carl Lundin, director of global marine programs at the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which helped produce the report with the International Programme on the State of the Ocean. The conclusions follow an international meeting this spring in England to discuss the fate of the world's oceans.
Some of the changes affecting the world's seas -- all of which have been warned about individually in the past -- are happening faster than the worst case scenarios that were predicted just a few years ago, the report said.
"It was a more dire report than any of us thought because we look at our own little issues," Lundin said in an interview. "When you put them all together, it's a pretty bleak situation."
The combination of problems suggests there's a brewing worldwide die-off of species that would rival past mass extinctions, scientists said in the document. Coral deaths alone would be considered a mass extinction, according to study chief author Alex Rogers of the University of Oxford.
A single bleaching event in 1998 killed one-sixth of the world's tropical coral reefs.
Lundin pointed to deaths of 1,000-year-old coral in the Indian Ocean and called it "really unprecedented."
"We now face losing marine species and entire marine ecosystems, such as coral reefs, within a single generation," the report said.
"Multiple high intensity" factors also led to the previous five mass extinction events in the past 600 million years, the scientists note.
The chief causes for extinctions at the moment are overfishing and habitat loss, but global warming is "increasingly adding to this," the report said.
Carbon dioxide from the burning of coal and other fossil fuels ends up sinking in the ocean which then becomes more acidic.
Warmer ocean temperatures also are shifting species from their normal habitats, Rogers said. Add to that melting sea ice and glaciers.
Chemicals and plastics from daily life are also causing problems for sea creatures, the report said. Overall, the world's oceans just can't bounce back from problems -- such as oil spills -- like they used to, scientists said.
However, Lundin said, "Some of these things are reversible if we change our behavior."
Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/ ... z1PwJdxI4S
The mix of interacting ingredients is in place for a mass extinction in the world's oceans, said a report by a top panel of scientists that will be presented to the United Nations on Tuesday.
The report says the troubles from global warming and other factors are worse when they combine with each other. Factors include dead zones from farm run-off, an increase in acidity from too much carbon dioxide, habitat destruction and melting sea ice, along with overfishing.
"Things seem to be going wrong on several different levels," said Carl Lundin, director of global marine programs at the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which helped produce the report with the International Programme on the State of the Ocean. The conclusions follow an international meeting this spring in England to discuss the fate of the world's oceans.
Some of the changes affecting the world's seas -- all of which have been warned about individually in the past -- are happening faster than the worst case scenarios that were predicted just a few years ago, the report said.
"It was a more dire report than any of us thought because we look at our own little issues," Lundin said in an interview. "When you put them all together, it's a pretty bleak situation."
The combination of problems suggests there's a brewing worldwide die-off of species that would rival past mass extinctions, scientists said in the document. Coral deaths alone would be considered a mass extinction, according to study chief author Alex Rogers of the University of Oxford.
A single bleaching event in 1998 killed one-sixth of the world's tropical coral reefs.
Lundin pointed to deaths of 1,000-year-old coral in the Indian Ocean and called it "really unprecedented."
"We now face losing marine species and entire marine ecosystems, such as coral reefs, within a single generation," the report said.
"Multiple high intensity" factors also led to the previous five mass extinction events in the past 600 million years, the scientists note.
The chief causes for extinctions at the moment are overfishing and habitat loss, but global warming is "increasingly adding to this," the report said.
Carbon dioxide from the burning of coal and other fossil fuels ends up sinking in the ocean which then becomes more acidic.
Warmer ocean temperatures also are shifting species from their normal habitats, Rogers said. Add to that melting sea ice and glaciers.
Chemicals and plastics from daily life are also causing problems for sea creatures, the report said. Overall, the world's oceans just can't bounce back from problems -- such as oil spills -- like they used to, scientists said.
However, Lundin said, "Some of these things are reversible if we change our behavior."
Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/ ... z1PwJdxI4S
Post edited by Unknown User on
0
Comments
And I love the hypocrisy, none of you care about species when your building your house, taking away the homes of millions of insects, rodents, not to mention all the trees used for your builidng materials.
I could go on and on. Hell, how many trees/animals/insects were affected when they built the Verizon towers so you can talk on your cell phone everywhere...
Lets be consistent here, folks...
From David Suzuki:
http://www.davidsuzuki.org/blogs/health ... /index.php
Mass ocean extinction within a generation unless we act now
Human activity could cause many of the world's ocean plants and animals to become extinct within our lifetimes or the lifetimes of our children, according to a report released today by the International Programme on the State of the Ocean. The report, produced by the first-ever international, inter-disciplinary panel of marine experts, reviews the latest scientific research and concludes the cumulative effects of numerous pressures like overfishing, pollution, acidification and climate change will be worse than anticipated, wiping out marine species and ecosystems on a global scale.
Many of these pressures are the result of human actions. In an attempt to support an increasingly demanding global economy we're pushing the oceans to their limit. As a result of overfishing many species are no longer available in numbers large enough to support a fishery, and by killing many of the top marine predators food chains are seriously altered and degraded. Climate change means increased temperatures, more acidity and more "dead zones" where conditions have become so void of oxygen they can no longer support marine life. The more we stress the oceans, the less resilient they become and the more likely they won't recover.
The catastrophe lies in the combination of these pressures. We're seeing the effects much sooner than we anticipated, and they're more damaging than we previously thought. Ocean acidification and warming has preceded every past mass extinction event in the last 600 million years. It now looks like it's happening again, and we can see the signs right here in Canada, with declining fish stocks, increased ocean acidity, and pollution. Pacific orcas are now some of the most contaminated animals on the planet, for example.
This report is just the latest signal that time is running out. Fortunately, there are solutions. The panel is calling for an immediate reduction in carbon emissions and urgent action on restoring marine ecosystems. It's clear that the longer we delay action, the greater the long-term cost will be.
Everyone has to take responsibility for conserving our ocean environments. There's a lot that individuals can do. Find out what you can do to help today: Start by demanding national action on healthy oceans.
Listen to DSF's senior conservation specialist Bill Wareham talk about the report on the CBC's B.C. Almanac podcast.
Who is the IPSO http://www.stateoftheocean.org/
While were at it, lets get some ecological impact statements from BP...
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
I know what you're trying to do here. Trying to show that everyone's a hypocrite because no one can be a pure environmentalist in every facet of life. Which is a total Republican strategy. Not to mention trying to get off topic.
And yet STILL the skeptics will ignore what's going on... that's what really upsetting.
bottom line is humanity as a whole is guilty, don't point a finger at me, because you have 3 pointing back at yourself...
"Well, you tell him that I don't talk to suckas."
just because i cant avoid living in a wooden domain i should forget all aspects of environmental responsibility
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyZbw8waVwk