Is the ocean broken?

[SamSam]

Melting ice is a gift to the fossil fuel tankers navigating the Arctic
By Maria Gallucci on Aug 17, 2020 at 3:59 am

Melting ice is a gift to the fossil fuel tankers navigating the Arctic https://grist.org/energy/climate-change-is-a-gift-to-the-fossil-fuel-tankers-navigating-the-arctic/

This is great! Destroying the Earth quicker in an environmentally sensitive fashion!

 

[ImaginaryNumber]

A rush is on to mine the deep seabed, with effects on ocean life that aren’t well understood

Countries regulate seabed mining within their marine territories. Farther out, in areas beyond national jurisdiction, they cooperate through the Law of the Sea Convention, which has been ratified by 167 countries and the European Union, but not the U.S.....

Widespread growth of battery-driven technologies such as smartphones, computers, wind turbines and solar panels is changing this calculation as the world runs low on land-based deposits of copper, nickel, aluminum, manganese, zinc, lithium and cobalt....

Two entities hold the most exploration contracts (three each): the government of Korea and the China Ocean Mineral Resources R&D Association, a state-owned company. Since the U.S. is not a member of the Law of the Sea treaty, it cannot apply for contracts. But U.S. companies are investing in others’ projects. For example, the American defense company Lockheed Martin owns UK Seabed Resources, which holds two exploration contracts.....

Deep-sea mining technology is still in development but will probably include vacuuming nodules from the seafloor. Scraping and vacuuming the seafloor can destroy habitats and release plumes of sediment that blanket or choke filter-feeding species on the seafloor and fish swimming in the water column. Mining also introduces noise, vibration and light pollution in a zone that normally is silent, still and dark. And depending on the type of mining taking place, it could lead to chemical leaks and spills......

We also believe that the U.S. should ratify the Law of the Sea treaty so that it can help to lead on this issue. The oceans provide humans with food and oxygen and regulate Earth’s climate. Choices being made now could affect them far into the future in ways that aren’t yet understood.

 

[hoytedow]

Signing the Law of the Sea treaty would be the end of us.
Bolsheviks would love to see us throw away our freedom in this manner. I urge all signatories to rescind this agreement for the sakes of their own futures.

 

[SamSam]

Treaties are only paper, mere formalities that we, as Americans, can honor as we see fit. Try and keep up, we've only been making and breaking them for hundreds of years. Having no treaties is limiting, having treaties gives options, it's like having your cake and eating it too.

 

[SamSam]

A rush is on to mine the deep seabed, with effects on ocean life that aren’t well understood

Countries regulate seabed mining within their marine territories. Farther out, in areas beyond national jurisdiction, they cooperate through the Law of the Sea Convention, which has been ratified by 167 countries and the European Union, but not the U.S.....

Widespread growth of battery-driven technologies such as smartphones, computers, wind turbines and solar panels is changing this calculation as the world runs low on land-based deposits of copper, nickel, aluminum, manganese, zinc, lithium and cobalt....

Two entities hold the most exploration contracts (three each): the government of Korea and the China Ocean Mineral Resources R&D Association, a state-owned company. Since the U.S. is not a member of the Law of the Sea treaty, it cannot apply for contracts. But U.S. companies are investing in others’ projects. For example, the American defense company Lockheed Martin owns UK Seabed Resources, which holds two exploration contracts.....

Deep-sea mining technology is still in development but will probably include vacuuming nodules from the seafloor. Scraping and vacuuming the seafloor can destroy habitats and release plumes of sediment that blanket or choke filter-feeding species on the seafloor and fish swimming in the water column. Mining also introduces noise, vibration and light pollution in a zone that normally is silent, still and dark. And depending on the type of mining taking place, it could lead to chemical leaks and spills......

We also believe that the U.S. should ratify the Law of the Sea treaty so that it can help to lead on this issue. The oceans provide humans with food and oxygen and regulate Earth’s climate. Choices being made now could affect them far into the future in ways that aren’t yet understood.

I was about to post this last night but thought I'd done enough....

Aboard the Giant Sand-Sucking Ships That China Uses to Reshape the World
Massive ships, mind-boggling amounts of sand, and an appetite for expansionism in the South China Sea: the recipe for a land grab like no other.

Aboard the Giant Sand-Sucking Ships That China Uses to Reshape the World https://getpocket.com/explore/item/aboard-the-giant-sand-sucking-ships-that-china-uses-to-reshape-the-world

Like the vast fleets of trawlers I posted about, roaming the remote parts of the ocean, scraping them clean of livestock, China is also amassing a fleet of dredges to manufacture land where they need it. The South China sea everyone knows about ("It may be too late for other nations to do much about China’s artificial-land grab. Admiral Philip S. Davidson, head of the US Indo-Pacific Command, told Congress in April (shortly before assuming his command) that “China is now capable of controlling the South China Sea in all scenarios short of war with the United States.”)(Haha, like we'd ever go after something like China. We deal with places like Grenada) is only a small part of what they are doing. ("CCCC Dredging has begun taking on projects overseas, and it now operates in dozens of countries. It has a particular focus on places targeted for Chinese-led port development as part of Xi’s Belt and Road Initiative.") That's why I posted here (no, my bad, it was on Reddit) that watch China move into the void of Beirut, Lebanon and take over that port.

Years ago I did post here on the move to undersea mining. Since China has locked down precious metal mines around the world, sending "free" infrastructure to despots and impoverished nations in exchange for their natural resources while providing work for 100s of thousands of Chinese workers and companies, the rest of the world started looking to the seabed for mining precious metals. Watch the Arctic and Antarctic become industrialized, notwithstanding any treaties or agreements that may exist, because we don't need no steenking treaties.

Undersea mining will go directly to the hydrothermal vents located at the edges of tectonic plates. These same hydrothermal vents are believed by some to be the Real Garden of Eden, in that life may have arisen from them, where the cross from abiotic to bionic may have happend. As it is, the vents are the oasis-es of life in the desert the open ocean actually is. Scraping and vacuuming the sea floor is not quite the scenario, first off they will grind up the seabed and sea mounts and hydrothermal vent formations into rubble that they can then scrape and vacuum to the surface. Of course, in the remote, uninspected undersea regions of the Earth, these massive industrial mining operations will be careful to follow all environmental rules and regulations because these companies have a commitment to the environment, a reputation they do not want to besmirch, and will as always hold monetary profit as secondary to being good stewards of the Earth and responsible citizens of the planet.

Deep Sea Mining with machines such as these would destroy fluff up and rejuvenate large areas of the Ocean floor

GeoGarage blog: History’s largest mining operation is about to begin http://blog.geogarage.com/2019/12/historys-largest-mining-operation-is.html

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[ImaginaryNumber]

If you thought July was hot, you were right: It was one of Earth's hottest months ever recorded

July 2020 tied with July 2016 as the second-hottest month ever recorded for the planet Earth, according to a report released Thursday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Only July 2019 was hotter, and only by a fraction of a degree.

"The July 2020 global land and ocean surface temperature was 1.66 degrees above the 20th-century average of 60.4 degrees, tying with 2016 as the second-highest temperature in the 141-year record," NOAA said. "Last month was only 0.02 of a degree F shy of tying the record-hot July of 2019."

July 2020 also marked the 44th-consecutive July and the 427th-consecutive month with temperatures above the 20th-century average, according to NOAA.

 

[Will Gilmore]

Only July 2019 was hotter, and only by a fraction of a degree.

So what you're saying is, we are past the peak and now on a downward trend?


-Will (Dragonfly)

 

[ImaginaryNumber]

So what you're saying is, we are past the peak and now on a downward trend?


-Will (Dragonfly)

Hoyt keeps assuring us "it's going to be a cold winter." He's probably right, though not necessarily where he lives. <laugh>

 

[hoytedow]

So what you're saying is, we are past the peak and now on a downward trend?


-Will (Dragonfly)

We are going to need more icebreakers.

 

[ImaginaryNumber]

We are going to need more icebreakers.

Or not...

Canada's last intact Arctic ice shelf collapses, losing 40% of area in two days

The last fully intact ice shelf in the Canadian Arctic has collapsed, losing more than 40 percent of its area in just two days at the end of July, researchers said Thursday as data showed that last month was the world’s third-hottest July on record.

The Milne Ice Shelf is at the fringe of Ellesmere Island, in the sparsely populated northern Canadian territory of Nunavut.

Summer in the Canadian Arctic this year in particular has been 5 degrees Celsius above the 30-year average. That has threatened smaller ice caps, which can melt quickly because they do not have the bulk that larger glaciers have to stay cold. As a glacier disappears, more bedrock is exposed, which then heats up and accelerates the melting process.​

 

[hoytedow]

Winter brings new ice. Duh.

 

[A II]

Yes, we're gonna need a lot of giant ice breakers for a while, since the most northern sea route is coming into use, but is not fully open by itself yet.

— Transpolar Sea Route (TSR) —

 

[SamSam]

Planet Plastic https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/plastic-problem-recycling-myth-big-oil-950957/


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[hoytedow]

That's a terrible shame. I always cut those beverage harnesses up so they can't trap anything before disposal.

 

[A II]

Guy portraying the wind, but forgot the seas and ships . . .