CONSEQUENCES

While this post is not exactly related to climate change, it does relate to the consequences of human activities on a very critical component of the biosphere namely our oceans. Plastic debris in the world’s oceans is of a particular concern of mine, a very profound concern in fact and it should be a concern of everyone because ocean plastic pollution is killing the most significant of earth’s ecological systems, our oceans. Note that I do not write ‘the oceans’ but ‘our oceans’ and yes ‘we’ are all responsible for them!

North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre

Sea Education Association (SEA) is conducting the first federally-funded research expedition dedicated solely to examining the accumulation of plastic debris in the North Atlantic Ocean.

On June 10, the Plastics at SEA: North Atlantic Expedition set sail to expand upon 25 years’ worth of data previously collected by SEA that reveals a region of extensive plastic pollution in a narrow latitude band in the western North Atlantic Ocean called the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre, the Atlantic Ocean’s version of the region of the eastern North Pacific Ocean dubbed the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch.”

SSV Corwith Cramer

The cruise, which ended on July 14, took place onboard the SSV Corwith Cramer, SEA’s 134-foot brigantine-rigged sailing oceanographic research vessel. The crew consists of 11 professional mariners and 22 additional participants.

This expedition was funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Marine Debris Program and Sea Education Association, and is conducted in collaboration with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Woods Hole Sea Grant. The Henry L. and Grace Doherty Foundation and the American Chemistry Council provided additional funding to support educational outreach for this project.

Source: Sea Education Association (SEA)

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Commentary: The fact that mankind has been able to pollute the oceans to the degree we have, not to mention the remaining land masses, is for me probably the most discouraging thing I can imagine. I can recall back in my days in college in the late ’70′s dreaming of how I, as a biologist, would one day travel on expedition to some of the planets most wonderful habitats. Yes, I did lead several research expeditions but as time went on I began to witness more and more lose to pollution and devastation. I find the percentage of that loss, in just my own life time, to be ever so disheartening. It is a travesty I fear from which we will never truly recover. Now, I am not a doomsday type of person and I am not a pessimist, quite the contrary. But I fear that humans as a species have crested the top of the bell shaped culture curve in the petri dish that is the earth.

This is not a message to give up hope, understand. It does not mean that things are hopeless and that we should just not give a damn and give up and allow it to get worse. Let’s make the best of what we have left. Let’s appreciate what we have lost, fix what we can, respect what we still have and learn to cherish our home. There is no other place like it.

Support the work in the Plastics at SEA: North Atlantic Expedition. Get involved. Join with Dr. Sylvia Earle and Mission Blue and remember Sylvia’s words: “No Blue, No Green”.

Some 3.8 billion years ago was a mystery that scientists have long attempted to solve.

Way back then, the Earth was a completely different place, and so was the solar system. The sun shined with less luminescence – as much as 30 percent weaker – which meant the Earth should have been really cold. So cold, in fact, that liquid water would not have existed.

11 Year Solar Cycle

But the geologic record shows that water was, indeed, present and provided the foundation for the proverbial “primordial soup” that gave rise to life. How come? This is what’s called the “faint young sun problem.”

There are many theories… Clearly more went on than we know.

Why does this matter to modern day climate change?

“One thing that paleoclimate research definitely does do is to put modern day climate change into perspective,” Geochemist James Kasting of Penn State University points out.

The disappearance of glaciers goes hand in hand with warming temperatures. But it turns out that the process may be more complicated than rising CO2 levels in the atmosphere. For insight, we look to the past.

Dr. M. Vizcaino Trueba

What kept the ice sheets at bay has been explored in a recent paper in the journal Paleoceanography by UC Berkeley geographer M. Vizcaino and colleagues.

The scientists believe that during the Pliocene, a permanent “El Nino state” may have been taking place.

In a permanent El Nino, sea temperatures remain constant across the Pacific, and the cold water upwelling, known poetically as the “cold tongue” goes limp. As a result, warmer air invades North America, Greenland, and part of Eurasia around the Black Sea, raising temperatures by as much as 9 degrees Fahrenheit. Conversely, temperatures become the coolest in much of northeast Eurasia. This overlaps nicely with where glaciers would otherwise exist, northeast Eurasia being glacier-free. The researchers write:

The climate reorganization caused by a permanent El Nino results in temperature anomalies over the northern high latitudes remarkably coincident with known locations of ice sheet growth.

The “cold tongue” could be more important than we thought.

Please read the article in full here: http://www.terradaily.com/reports/A_History_Of_Climate_Change_999.html

Source: Terra Daily – by Staff Writers – Moffett Field CA (SPX) Jun 22, 2010

Photo Credit: Steele Hill, SOHO, NASA/ESA

Numerous studies are documenting the growing effects of climate change, carbon dioxide, pollution and other human-related phenomena on the world’s oceans. But most of those have studied single, isolated sources of pollution and other influences.

Dr Scott Doney, WHOI

Now, a marine geochemist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has published a report in the latest issue of the journal Science that evaluates the total impact of such factors on the ocean and considers what the future might hold.

“What we do on land — agriculture, fossil fuel combustion and pollution — can have a profound impact on the chemistry of the sea,” says Scott C. Doney, a senior scientist at WHOI and author of the Science report. “A whole range of these factors have been studied in isolation but have not been put in a single venue.”

He concludes that climate change, rising atmospheric carbon dioxide, excess nutrient inputs, and the many forms of pollution are “altering fundamentally the…ocean, often on a global scale and, in some cases, at rates greatly exceeding those in the historical and recent geological record.”

Scott Doney is calling for “a deeper understanding of human impacts on ocean biogeochemistry…”.

Please read a more detailed summary of this paper’s findings here: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100617185131.htm

Journal Reference:

1.Scott C. Doney. The Growing Human Footprint on Coastal and Open-Ocean Biogeochemistry. Science, 2010; 328 (5985): 1512-1516 DOI: 10.1126/science.1185198

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. “Comprehensive Look at Human Impacts on Ocean Chemistry.” ScienceDaily 21 June 2010. 21 June 2010 <http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2010/06/100617185131.htm>.

Credit: Photo by John Bullister, NOAA/PMEL)

Image of a dying ocean or image of a dying planet?

The first comprehensive synthesis on the effects of climate change on the world’s oceans has found they are now changing at a rate not seen for several million years.

In a report published June 18, 2010 in Science, scientists reveal that growing atmospheric concentrations of man-made greenhouse gases are driving irreversible and dramatic changes to the way the ocean functions, with potentially dire impacts for hundreds of millions of people across the planet. These findings have enormous implications for mankind, particularly if the trend continues.  The Earth’s ocean, which produces half of the oxygen we breathe and absorbs 30% of human-generated CO2, is equivalent to its heart and lungs.

Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, lead author of the report and Director of The University of Queensland’s Global Change Institute, says “We are entering a period in which the very ocean services upon which humanity depends are undergoing massive change and in some cases beginning to fail”. “Further degradation will continue to create enormous challenges and costs for societies worldwide.”

He warned that we may soon see “sudden, unexpected changes that have serious ramifications for the overall well-being of humans,” including the capacity of the planet to support people. “This is further evidence that we are well on the way to the next great extinction event.”

The authors conclude: “… Ignoring the science is not an option.”

Please continue to read and to pass along the complete article here: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100618103558.htm

Journal Reference:

1.Hoegh-Guldberg et al. The Impact of Climate Change on the World’s Marine Ecosystems. Science, 2010; 328 (5985): 1523 DOI: 10.1126/science.1189930

Global Change Institute. “Ocean Changes May Have Dire Impact on People.” ScienceDaily 19 June 2010. 21 June 2010 <http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2010/06/100618103558.htm>.

Photo Credit: Image courtesy of Global Change Institute