The Oceans are Dying

Cid_Yama · Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 10:51 am Post subject: The Oceans are Dying

Marine dead zones, where fish and other sea life can suffocate from lack of oxygen, are spreading across the world’s tropical oceans, a study has warned.

Researchers found that the warming of sea water through climate change is reducing its ability to carry dissolved oxygen, potentially turning swathes of the world’s oceans into marine graveyards.

The study, by scientists from some of the world’s most prestigious marine research institutes, warns that if global temperatures keep rising there could be “dramatic consequences” for marine life and for humans in communities that depend on the sea for a living.

link
_________________
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. - George Orwell

dissident · Heavy Crude Joined: Apr 08, 2006 Posts: 419

Note how the Times introduces a whole load of waffle words to dilute the message. "If" temperatures continue to rise then there "could" be major impacts. Since everyone knows global warming is a commie scientist hoax this will never happen and we can keep using this planet as one big outhouse.

The fact is that there ARE impacts already and they exhibit a trend. The Times should ease off on the bootlick corporate appeasement.

Jack · Dark Lord Joined: Aug 11, 2004 Posts: 5085

The thread has an interesting title.

It is the same as a key phrase in the film "Soylent Green".

No doubt the collaps of the Northwestern Salmon fisheries is the first event of many to come.

Welcome to dieoff.

Cool

_________________
Dieoff. Fun to watch. Better with hot buttered popcorn! new_popcornsmiley

auscanman · Posted: Sun May 18, 2008 12:04 pm Post subject: Re: The Oceans are Dying

I wonder how many deep sea critters we've already caused the extinction of with these dead zones. Any deep sea species limited to the GOM are undoubtedly now extinct. Then again, this anoxic deposition of organic matter will result in future oil millions of years from now! Razz

jerry_mcmanus · Tar Sands Joined: Apr 18, 2008 Posts: 21

It's the last paragraph people should be most concerned about:

dorlomin · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Aug 05, 2007 Posts: 1062

Cid_Yama · Posted: Mon May 19, 2008 3:33 pm Post subject: Re: The Oceans are Dying

A sea of synthetic trash

The 26-million-square-kilometre area known as the North Pacific Gyre is essentially free of wind – a kind of ocean desert – and its slow-moving, clockwise vortex of water is nearly impossible to plow through.

What he discovered at the heart of the deep swirls were miles upon miles of water bottles, plastic tarpaulins, dolls and furniture that have been collecting there for as long as 60 years.

This plastic soup, with billions of tiny shards of the synthetic material floating just below the surface of the water, is estimated to span an area 1 1/2 times the size of the continental United States.

Alarming new data collected during Capt. Moore's most recent voyage to the gyre's centre in February shows the girth of the so-called Eastern Garbage Patch “dramatically increasing.”

The United Nations estimates that each square kilometre of ocean carries 13,000 pieces of debris, but this area in the north Pacific has something like 330,000 pieces per square kilometre.

Now, armed with proof that the plastic is making its way into the human food chain, experts warn the existence of the garbage patch and its far-reaching implications could be just as imminent as the worldwide food shortage and the effects of global warming.
_________________
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. - George Orwell

Cid_Yama · Posted: Mon May 26, 2008 11:33 pm Post subject: Re: The Oceans are Dying

International Scientists Find 'Acidified' Water on the Continental Shelf from Canada to Mexico

Evidence of corrosive water caused by the ocean's absorption of carbon dioxide (CO2) was found less than 20 miles off the west coast of North America during a field study from Canada to Mexico last summer. This was the first time "acidified" ocean water has been found on the continental shelf of western North America.

"We did not expect to see this extent of ocean acidification until the middle to the end of the century," said Sabine.

Previous studies found ocean acidification at deeper depths farther from shore. The researchers said that the movement of the corrosive water appears to happen during the upwhelling season during the spring and summer, when winds bring CO2 -rich water up from depths of about 400-600 feet onto the continental shelf. The water that upwells off of the North American Pacific coast has been away from the surface for about 50 years.

"When the upwelled water was last at the surface, it was exposed to an atmosphere with much less CO2 than today and future upwelled waters will probably be more acidic than today's because of increasing atmospheric CO2," said Hales, a professor of chemical oceanography, who is also funded by NASA.

"We don't know how this will affect species living in the zone below the level of the lowest tides, out to the edge of the continental shelf," said Ianson, an oceanographer. "We do know that organisms like corals or pteropods are affected by water saturated with CO2. The impacts on other species, such as shellfish and other juvenile fish that have economic significance, are not yet fully understood."
_________________
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. - George Orwell

dissident · Heavy Crude Joined: Apr 08, 2006 Posts: 419

Thanks, Cid.

One more example of a current problem that was not supposed to happen until 50 years from now. The problems are compounding fast and all the denialist chirping about how we are not responsible is making sure mediation is delayed and we get what we deserve.

Cid_Yama · Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 1:58 pm Post subject: Re: The Oceans are Dying

Seafloor sediments hold clues to runaway global warming

This from 2003, provides insight into the consequences of acidification of the ocean.

Scientists from UCSC and other institutions around the world arrived in Rio de Janeiro last week after spending two months at sea on the research ship JOIDES Resolution near an ancient submarine mountain chain off Africa, known as the Walvis Ridge.

There they studied evidence of a massive release of methane that caused extreme global warming 55 million years ago.

This extraordinary episode of global warming, often referred to as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, is unique in Earth's history in terms of magnitude and rate of warming, as well as in the manner in which it began.

"Several of us suspect that the melting of clathrates and rapid release of methane was initiated by gradual warming that pushed the climate system across a physical threshold," Zachos said.

Once started, the release of methane and resultant warming fueled the release of more methane, a positive feedback effect. This phenomenon is a concern for future global warming, Zachos said.

Initial examination of the sediments provided immediate insight into the scale of calcite dissolution during this event. Micah Nicolo, a graduate student at Rice University, remarked, "When the cores were opened in the ship's lab, we were stunned by the change in colors of the sediment, from bright white carbonate to deep red clays."

Each core, regardless of depth, yielded a sequence of carbonate-rich sediment dissected by a distinct, dark clay layer, varying in thickness from 100 to 50 centimeters. The base of each clay layer, regardless of depth, contained essentially no calcite--indicating dissolution of calcite sediment throughout the ocean.

Ellen Thomas of Wesleyan University studied additional impacts of the methane release.

"The extent of dissolution may explain why so many bottom-dwelling organisms that precipitate calcite shells became extinct at that time," she said.

This is because the rapid release of such a large mass of methane and its subsequent oxidation to carbon dioxide would have significantly altered ocean chemistry. The added carbon dioxide would have increased the overall acidity or corrosiveness of seawater. This, in turn, would increase the dissolution of calcite shells of microplankton, which are the dominant component of seafloor sediments, leaving behind only nonsoluble clays. The dissolution of calcite would initiate in the deepest parts of the ocean and rapidly spread upwards as additional carbon dioxide entered the ocean.

The scale of carbonate dissolution recorded in these cores is significant. It is suggestive of a much larger flux of methane, possibly double original estimates.
"It far exceeds what has been estimated by models assuming a release of 2,000 gigatons of methane," Kroon said.

The initial results also suggest that the deposition of carbonate shells on the deeper reaches of the seafloor did not resume for at least 50,000 years, and that the total recovery time to a "normal state" took as long as 100,000 years. This result suggests that full recovery from these extreme events takes considerable time.
_________________
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. - George Orwell

Cid_Yama · Posted: Tue May 27, 2008 10:29 pm Post subject: Re: The Oceans are Dying

From an acidification standpoint, the ocean is on fire

And it's not just humans' food that's at risk, said witnesses at a congressional field hearing in Seattle on Tuesday. An intense and sudden acidification of the Pacific resulting from climate change presages a possible breakdown in the marine food web, experts said at the hearing, headed by Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash.

It focused mostly on scientific studies showing rapid acidification of the Pacific Ocean due to chemical reaction with atmospheric carbon dioxide.

"These studies have confirmed that the oceans are absorbing approximately one third of the carbon emissions," said Chris Sabine, an oceanographer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle. He was co-leader of a study released last week showing the waters off the West Coast are becoming increasingly more acidic -- and much closer to shore, much faster, than anticipated.

The new findings on Pacific Ocean acidification demand quick action, Inslee said.

"From an acidification standpoint, the ocean is on fire," he said. "We need to respond as if it is on fire."

I feel like Edward G. Robinson in Soylent Green.
_________________
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. - George Orwell

DoomWarrior · Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 12:09 am Post subject: Re: The Oceans are Dying

startswithearthquakes · Tar Sands Joined: May 27, 2008 Posts: 87

so .. how do you suppose YOU will die? Shot to the face? Starvation? Being set on fire? being digested by your neighbor? Bombed? Stabbed by some kids? devoured by an animal? melted in the heat ...?

we are all facing some interesting deaths soon ... will be fun dying a writhing painful death on the ground ...

Let the good times roll...

Cid_Yama · Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 9:59 am Post subject: Re: The Oceans are Dying

I imagine I will die from some disease that antibiotics would have taken care of, had any been available.
_________________
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. - George Orwell

DoomWarrior · Posted: Wed May 28, 2008 10:07 am Post subject: Re: The Oceans are Dying

"From an acidification standpoint, the ocean is on fire," he said. "We need to respond as if it is on fire."

Good luck trying to elicit a response from politicians. They just don't care.