Our Oceans are Under Attack

Thats because you a tough guy.---like me!!!

Yes I like that earth song too, Im sad that Michael is dead I didnt care much for his monkey but his music was gifted.

Is that an odd comment too --? Im an odd comment kinda guy.

 

a while back we discussed plastics in the ocean, well we've got an ocean full of BPA as well

http://news.yahoo.com/soaring-bpa-levels-found-people-eat-canned-foods-221408095.html

 

Corral Can Sense What's Coming

Australian scientists have thrown new light on the mechanism behind the mass death of corals worldwide as the Earth’s climate warms.

Coral bleaching, one of the most devastating events affecting coral reefs around the planet, is triggered by rising water temperatures. It occurs when the corals and their symbiotic algae become heat-stressed, and the algae which feed the corals either die or are expelled by the coral.

...story with photos
http://www.sail-world.com/index.cfm?Nid=91002&refre=y&ntid=30&rid=4

 

North West Passage Alarm - totally ice free by 2015

It might be appealing to think of sailing through the dreaded North West Passage above Canada, but most cruising sailors would gladly give it a miss if it meant we could reduce the apparently irreversible (if you go by the feeble reactions of many nations) effects of the global warming which is producing it.

The International Energy Agency has just warned that climate change is irreversible by 2017. Arctic Sea ice is shrinking so rapidly that by the summer in as little as four years’ time it could vanish altogether at the top of the globe

'Polar bears depend completely on ice for hunting'

...story with photos
http://www.sail-world.com/cruising/index.cfm?nid=90925&rid=11

 

International Team to drill beneath glacier in Antarctica

NASA and the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded researchers will travel next month to one of Antarctica's most active, remote and harsh spots to determine how changes in the waters circulating under an active ice sheet are causing a glacier to accelerate and drain into the sea.

The international team undertaking this science expedition will be the most extensive ever deployed to Pine Island Glacier. It is the area of the ice-covered continent that concerns scientists most because of its potential to cause a rapid rise in sea level. Satellite measurements have shown this area is losing ice and surrounding glaciers are thinning, raising the possibility the ice could flow rapidly out to sea.

http://www.sail-world.com/index.cfm?Nid=90804&refre=y&ntid=30&rid=4

 

we're basically screwed Brian. No way around it. At this point we really need to start thinking of mitigation practices that might allow us to survive either a runaway greenhouse effect ( less likely but still worth planning for ) or a snowball earth event ( more likely to occur and less likely we can survive it )

Not sure what those preparations might be but given that we have exceeded worst case scenario's on GHG emissions it might be fair to say there's not much time left. I would have said something like 2040 but thats just my own rough estimate. I'm sure the energy commission's is far more accurate

 

PlasTiki, out to draw attention to ocean pollution and acidification

Sail-World Cruising followed Plastiki's crossing of the Pacific with six crew with regular updates. They weren't fast, in fact she sailed like a dog, but she was made of recycled material and owner David de Rothchild, sailor, explorer and global green leader was not out to go fast, he was out to make a point.

The point was to draw attention to the gross waste and pollution of the Western world, and in this he succeeded brilliantly - now there is the book.

In it he recounts the extraordinary Pacific-crossing voyage of the Plastiki, an innovative and mostly untested sixty-foot sailing catamaran that floats on 12,500 reclaimed plastic bottles.

....more here
Sail-World.com : Plastiki - the book of a very Green adventure

 

Jacques Cousteau remembered

The thought occurred to me that one thing we really need is another Jacques Cousteau, and those fabulous TV shows he brought to us. They made me want to become an oceanographer originally.

Jacques Cousteau - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jacques Cousteau - The Aqua Lung - Jacques Cousteau Videos - Biography.com

Jacques Cousteau Biography - Facts, Birthday, Life Story - Biography.com

Perhaps we should start a petition drive for a TV network to begin a 'rerun' of these fabulous shows.

 

Cousteau was just another malthusian planet worshiping people-hater....probably why he was made so popular.

Jacques-Yves Cousteau, environmentalist and documentary maker: "It’s terrible to have to say this. World population must be stabilized, and to do that we must eliminate 350,000 people per day. This is so horrible to contemplate that we shouldn’t even say it. But the general situation in which we are involved is lamentable."

The problem isn't overpopulation, it is greed and selfishness. Couple those with power and a cauterised conscience, and you've got genocide in the making.

I never hear the overpopulation whiners volunteer themselves for culling....it's always someone else that must die, so that the more deserving ones can live.

Sure, the planet is suffering. But murdering, robbing and enslaving folks isn't the way to fix it. Cousteau is in hell, but there's plenty more useful idiots standing waiting for their place in the sun trotting out propaganda and being paid well for it. Wake up!

 

Absurdity.

 

World's climate experts forecast apocalyptic weather
Intense aerial turbulence, ice storms and scorching heatwaves, huge ocean waves - the world's climate experts forecast apocalyptic weather over the coming decades at a conference in Montreal that ended this week.
The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) brought together 1,000 specialists to discuss the uncertain future of weather forecasting.
It's irreversible and the world's population continues to increase, so we must adapt," said Jennifer Vanos, a professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas Tech University
"Maritime shipping companies are already running into enormous waves," some as high as 40 metres, said Wang, adding that 20 metres high was considered exceptionally high until now.
"This is just the beginning of climate change, because the oceans will have an even greater impact releasing more heat and vapour," he warned.
Melting ice of Greenland could result in a six-metre rise in the world's oceans, though not likely until the next century, said Eric Brun of Meteo-France, citing a study he recently published on climate's impact on ocean levels.

 

Oceans Hid the Heat and Slowed Pace of Global Warming | SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN

 

Anoxic Events, Ocean Stagnation

I think this type of 'event' is a more likely scenario:

http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/all-things-boats-and-boating/our-oceans-under-attack-27446-6.html#post276484

 

Drilling Acident in the Artic

The other big concern of mine would be an oil drilling accident like that one we had in the Gulf of Mexico,....where the oil might continuously escape and be trapped under the ice cap.

Just think of how that night effect the ocean's supply of plankton, the great feed stock for many of the ocean inhabitants.

And they DO NOT have any way to clean up such a spill, nor the equipment anywhere close by that might be employed to try to do something.

 

The Gulf of Mexico dead zone is one of the largest in the world.
A few marine dead zones can be found in the Baltic Sea, Black Sea, off the coast of Oregon, and in the Chesapeake Bay.
Dead zones may also be found in lakes, such as Lake Erie.

The oceans are enormous but they are not infinite. In the past the oceans were treated as a giant disposal area for all types of refuse (including radio-active waste as recently as 1982) with the belief that the enormous size of the oceans would be enough to dilute and render harmless any materials we put into them.

Eutrophication is the process of chemical nutrients being absorbed into the oceans – usually from runoff and rivers washing excess fertilizers and farm waste from land.
This causes disruptions as algal blooms occur which rob areas of the ocean of oxygen and can result in great swathes of ocean becoming dead zones.

Industrial pollution leaks toxins and heavy metals into the marine environment often from factories and mining activities.

Sewage originating primarily from kitchen,bathroom, and laundry sources, waste from food preparation, dishwashing, garbage-grinding, toilets, baths, showers, and sinks.

Climate change is a major cause of marine pollution, as a result of the increased levels of C02 in the atmosphere our oceans are becoming more acidic.
The ocean’s naturally absorb a certain amount of C02 but are now absorbing more as the levels present in the atmosphere increase resulting in a more acidic ocean which in time alters the marine ecosystems completely.