Study: Ocean life on the brink of mass extinctions

"We now face losing marine species and entire marine ecosystems, such as coral reefs, within a single generation," according to the study by 27 experts to be presented to the United Nations.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/5a8cfcc9374b.jpg[/atsimg]
Corals and coral reefs are severely threatened by processes such as ocean acidification

Jelle Bijma, of the Alfred Wegener Institute, said the seas faced a "deadly trio" of threats of higher temperatures, acidification and lack of oxygen, known as anoxia, that had featured in several past mass extinctions.

Jelle Bijma, of the Alfred Wegener Institute, said the seas faced a "deadly trio" of threats of higher temperatures, acidification and lack of oxygen, known as anoxia, that had featured in several past mass extinctions.

A build-up of carbon dioxide, blamed by the U.N. panel of climate scientists on human use of fossil fuels, is heating the planet. Absorbed into the oceans, it causes acidification, while run-off of fertilizers and pollution stokes anoxia. "From a geological point of view, mass extinctions happen overnight, but on human timescales we may not realize that we are in the middle of such an event," Bijma wrote.

news.yahoo.com...

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With an ever growing world population the world's ecological systems have been stressed significantly. It's not like the UN is going to enforce its environmental and conservation policies on third world countries that breed like crazy and have hardly the means to survive on a day by day basis.
The outcome looks grim, not just for our oceans, but also for humans. There is simply not enough resources to go around and expect everyone to have a westernized, high standard of living...or even a sustainable one.
Sustinability has become a hot topic in the last decade, but it's far from being applied in a pragmatic manner.

reply to post by laiguana


Unbelieveably SAD what we are all doing to our beautiful earth, not to mention what we do to each other.
Something, I mean Something will happen to change it, the earth will find a way to heal herself, she will not
wait for us to do it. And we probably wont like her methods.

It scares me to even think of the repercussions of 'choking out' our ocean life will be.

Yes, the globalists have been destroying the OCEANS by intent as a way to control those who would wish to break away from their slavery: underwater nukes, BP, on purpose, Fukushima, on purpose, the disasters in Canada and the US nuclear emmissions and their weather control, on purpose.

Their big fishing fleets that drag in everything that put the smaller fisherman out of business, who was environmentally responsible, on purpose.

But its the common "slave"that is to take the blame,eh?

This article is loaded with distortions and intended for programming.

Its not the people who are the destroyers of this globe. The globalists have done this deliberately to disempower freedom.

One day soon, they will have a big fix, technology they will say they got from ETS, who they will claim created us, and that we need to now join together globally under NWO, and this new system, everything will be cleaned up they will claim,and the cancers cured. If we only go along with their NWO plans.

It will be slight of hand, and a huge illusion, for they won't bring ET forward.

This is what is coming soon I believe.

I'm surprised the article didn't say very much about the pollution. Only small mentions.

For the last 2 days, Cdn news has been talking about this, and they included BP both spilling and dumping as a contributing factor. As well as pesticide/herbacide run off from current agricultural practices.

reply to post by snowspirit


There are bacteria that will feast on oil, and oil vents are nothing new in the oceans. However, what I think was the worst thing about the BP oil was our response to it. The dispersants (corexit) created a toxic soup in our ocean and this was an attempt by BP to overup their mess and not be fined by environmental agencies that assess the the spill via planes.

(Environmental Engineer Joe Taylor) says the sulfur and sulfuric acid based dispersant makes the oil spewing into the gulf sink, where its impossible to clean up--and where it depletes oxygen levels under the water, killing plankton and everything above plankton in the food chain. "Corexit is toxic, petroleum is toxic, and its depleting the oxygen levels," he says.

www.huffingtonpost.com...

reply to post by laiguana


We'll probably never know just how much corexit went in the Gulf either

Probably more than they'll ever admit.

reply to post by laiguana


This was also mentioned on Physorg today.
www.physorg.com...

I cannot think of a comment that adequately conveys the importance of this without sounding alarmist, so I'll just say that I seriously hope that the governments of the world take heed of these scientists advice and take whatever means necessary to begin to reverse whatever damage possible.
People like to think being "green" is enough, but until the entire world becomes more "green" it is but a drop in the proverbial bucket...which just happens to be our oceans.

Thank you for posting about this OP. Threads like this need more attention.

Originally posted by laiguana

"We now face losing marine species and entire marine ecosystems, such as coral reefs, within a single generation," according to the study by 27 experts to be presented to the United Nations.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/5a8cfcc9374b.jpg[/atsimg]
Corals and coral reefs are severely threatened by processes such as ocean acidification

Jelle Bijma, of the Alfred Wegener Institute, said the seas faced a "deadly trio" of threats of higher temperatures, acidification and lack of oxygen, known as anoxia, that had featured in several past mass extinctions.

Jelle Bijma, of the Alfred Wegener Institute, said the seas faced a "deadly trio" of threats of higher temperatures, acidification and lack of oxygen, known as anoxia, that had featured in several past mass extinctions.

A build-up of carbon dioxide, blamed by the U.N. panel of climate scientists on human use of fossil fuels, is heating the planet. Absorbed into the oceans, it causes acidification, while run-off of fertilizers and pollution stokes anoxia. "From a geological point of view, mass extinctions happen overnight, but on human timescales we may not realize that we are in the middle of such an event," Bijma wrote.

news.yahoo.com...

------


With an ever growing world population the world's ecological systems have been stressed significantly. It's not like the UN is going to enforce its environmental and conservation policies on third world countries that breed like crazy and have hardly the means to survive on a day by day basis.
The outcome looks grim, not just for our oceans, but also for humans. There is simply not enough resources to go around and expect everyone to have a westernized, high standard of living...or even a sustainable one.
Sustinability has become a hot topic in the last decade, but it's far from being applied in a pragmatic manner.

edit on 22-6-2011 by laiguana because: (no reason given)

Just a couple of points. The first one is that ocean acidification, which seems to have taken over global warming as the Scare of the Week, is a joke. The oceans aren't becoming more acidic--they're becoming less basic. Huge difference there. And it takes a long, long time for that to happen. Carbonic acid is a buffer in conjunction with bicarbonate, that helps maintain the pH of the oceans. When it dissociates, it gives up a hydrogen ion, forming bicarbonate. If the acid becomes too strong, the bicarbonate absorbs hydrogen ions, making the acid weaker. It's so common in the natural world--it's even found in good old rain with a pH of around 5.5 or so. And yet, with all that acid pounding down on us year after year, we're still here.

The concentration of carbonic acid is also one of the determining factors of the rate of photosynthesis and it's an indication of metabolic processes. In other words, we can't live without it.

Ocean acidification happens when it gets cold, not warm. Cold water absorbs CO2.

The report isn't from any "expert panel" of scientists. It's from the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, which...

A coordination team works together with a Steering Group that currently consists of the Ecology Action Centre, Greenpeace International, Marine Conservation Biology Institute, Natural Resources Defense Council, Pew Environment Group and Seas at Risk. The DSCC has developed a formidable international team of scientists, policy and communication experts, lawyers and political activists who on behalf of the deep sea have established a strong reputation and profile on the issue at the UN and in other fora.

More politics. What a shocker.

Now, there may well be some experts on that panel, but I have a really hard time swallowing anything that has "Greenpeace" and "National Resources Defense Council" attached to it.

See: www.savethehighseas.org...

And just who is the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO)?

See www.stateoftheocean.org...

Their "expert report" was prepared in just three days.

The 3 day workshop, co-sponsored by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), looked at the latest science across different disciplines.

The 27 participants from 18 organisations in 6 countries produced a grave assessment of current threats — and a stark conclusion about future risks to marine and human life if the current trajectory of damage continues: that the world’s ocean is at high risk of entering a phase of extinction of marine species unprecedented in human history.

The workshop provided a rare opportunity to interact with other disciplines to determine the net effect of what is already happening to the ocean and is projected to do so in the future. Over the three days 27 participants from 18 organisations in 6 countries (Annex 1) assessed the latest information on impacts and stresses, and the synergistic effects these are having on the global ocean.

Through presentations, discussions and recommendations the workshop documented and described the cumulative effects of such impacts, how these commonly act in a negatively synergistic way, and why therefore concerted action is now needed to address the consequences set out in this report.

The scientific outcomes from this workshop will be used first and foremost to strengthen the case for greater action to reduce anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide related to climate change and ocean acidification while also reducing other stressors. The findings underscore the need for more effective management of fisheries and pollution and for strengthening protection of the 64% of the ocean that lies beyond the zones of national jurisdiction. They thereby form a major contribution to implementation of the major IPSO report on the Global State of the Ocean. This event follows on from the IPSO/Royal Society event in 2009 that focussed on the future for coral reefs.

How is a 3 day workshop a "scientific outcome"? Someone please explain that, because I don't get it.

Now, IPSO's scientific director is Alex Rodgers Professor of Conservation Biology at Oxford. Here is his web page:

www.zoo.ox.ac.uk...

Greenpeace and WWF. Why do we keep listening to these people? They are activists, not scientists.

Now, yes, pollution is a big problem. But they need a good scare and I for one am sick of them trying to scare us to death. They've been doing it since the 60's and none of their predictions of doom and gloom EVER come to pass.