Our Oceans are Under Attack

fake Whale

That was FUNNY. It played on the national news over here all over the country.

 

Plankton are the tiny enablers of life on Earth, but their fragile ecosystems are under attack from climate change. A three-year study is helping marine experts understand them for the first time

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jun/06/microscopic-magic-of-plankton

In the astonishing world of plankton, bright pink, micron-sized dinoflagellates looking like spaceships glide slowly over the surface of the sea; beautiful, flute-like tintinnids exchange genes temporarily with each other; and slender chaetognatha, or arrow worms, bristle with hairs and become cannibals as they gobble up their relatives.

These and a million other mostly microscopic planktonic species of viruses, microbes, larvae and eukaryotes are the largely invisible origins of life, the very bottom of the food chain and the enablers of all existence. Together, these tiny, single-cell life forms that drift on the upper layer of the oceans produce half our oxygen, act as carbon sinks, influence our weather and serve as the base of the ocean food web.
But while they may transform the ocean, the atmosphere and the terrestrial environment, they inhabit a world that is barely known and which has only recently been understood to be as complex and diverse as anything found in the rainforests.

Thanks to new photographic techniques derived from medical imagery and the ocean schooner Tara, which has spent years plying the oceans collecting plankton, we can now see the astonishing richness of what is known as the “drifting world”. It is, says Christian Sardet, co-founder of the Laboratory of Cell Biology at the marine station of Villefranche-sur-Mer, even more extraordinary because this world of plankton represents all branches of the tree of life.

Sardet’s book, called Plankton, merges science with art and illustrates what he calls “the irreplaceable beauty and diversity of planktonic life forms”, but it comes with a warning that the world’s oceans are being changed by climate change and acidification.

“Some data suggest phytoplankton have significantly declined in the world’s oceans over the past century,” he says. “On the other hand, some warm water predators such as jellyfish are thriving. Whether we are witnessing an actual global decline or massive changes in planktonic distribution will require more study. Certainly many species will be forced to adapt.

“We have modified the ecosystems by diminishing the big predators. No one knows if what man has done is reversible. We are closer to the start than to the end of what there is to know.”

 

Imagine an Oil spill under the Arctic Ice

There are very large concentrations of these plankton in our arctic seas (why the whales etc go to feed there).

Now can you imagine a large oil spill trapped under the arctic ice caps, (maybe even one like occurred in the Gulf of Mexico a few years ago). I'm afraid this is what may eventually happen with our current drive to go drilling up there. And how do you suppose that might try to clean up such a mess,...in a remote area and under the ice !!

 

There's no real need to worry about that. There won't be any arctic ice at all soon.

No, this is not a joke.

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-s...sing-climate-change-survey-finds-10303279.htm

While people in China and the rest of Asia want their governments to be ambitious in tackling environmental damage – many in the West want their representatives not to do anything at all.

They’re the two biggest emitters of greenhouses gases in the world — but the US and China have very different ideas about tackling the problem of climate change.

In a new survey taken months before officials meet for perhaps the most significant climate change talks ever held – YouGov found that people the US and UK lag far behind countries including China – in wanting those talks to produce a meaningful commitment to address climate change.

In December, international representatives will meet in Paris to discuss an international agreement that some think could be humanity’s last chance to limit the terrible effects climate change could have on the world and its population.

But much of the US and the UK don’t want their governments to do anything at all.

 

Myth busted: What climate change will really mean for coral

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/climate-change/news/article.cfm?c_id=26&objectid=11461814

Kiwi scientists have helped debunk a widely-held belief that climate change will see coral reefs expand into colder, temperate seas.

New research by ecologists from Massey University, the Australian Institute of Marine Science and the University of Queensland has challenged the general notion that ocean warming will push all coral towards the poles.

While some tropical species may be able to expand their range southward as Pacific Ocean temperatures increased over the next 50 years, movement would be restricted due to one of the three key ingredients coral need to grow.

The team found that although climate change could make southern areas more favourable for growth in terms of temperature and aragonite, it was unlikely there would be enough light during the winter months for coral reefs to become established.

To meet the light requirements, scientists predicted that corals would need to grow in increasingly shallower water relative to their distance from the equator - an estimated 60cm for every degree of latitude beyond the equator.

Growth in shallow waters made coral more prone to damage from waves and swells, extreme changes in salinity and competition with other organisms.

The researchers also suggested that activities such as algal blooms, agricultural runoff, urban development and dredging would further reduce light levels and further limit the possibility that corals will survive in temperate seas.

"Most of the energy these corals need to survive comes from sunlight and light is not predicted to respond to climate change the same way ocean temperature will."

His colleague and study co-author, Dr Paul Muir, of the Museum of Tropical Queensland in Townsville, told Australia's ABC Online there had been a popular idea that warming would "just shift everything southwards or northwards".

"Everything would be apples and you'd probably end up with corals growing in Sydney Harbour if we were lucky," he said."It doesn't look like it's going to be an option for this group of corals."

Today is World Oceans Day. For more information around this event, visit www.worldoceansday.org

 

The surprising links between faith and evolution and climate denial — charted | Washington Post

 

You can not heat pure air it must contain moisture,dust etc., to act as a conductor. Think Global warming.

Manufacturers keep on making false claims about their products.

www.zephyrair.co.nz

 

Rental properties will have to meet a set of minimum standards under rules to be unveiled by the Government next month.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/69212752/rental-properties-face-minimum-standards-rules

That is likely to include a requirement for insulation, although sources said there was still work to be done to set any standards at a practical level. It is due to be announced next month by Building and Housing Minister Nick Smith, along with an assessment of a warrant of fitness trial in state houses, and would apply to all rentals both private and public.

The signal comes in the wake of a coroner's finding last week that the death of Emma-Lita Bourne from a brain haemorrhage could partly be blamed on the poor condition of the state house she lived in. The family had been provided with a heater but could not afford to put it on.

However, a full warrant of fitness has been rejected by the Government as too difficult to police and requiring regular "rechecks" that would hike compliance costs.

Prime Minister John Key on Monday said some of the advice the Government had seen on a warrant of fitness suggested rents would rise and it was likely some landlords would pull out of the market.

Andrew King of the Property Investors' Federation said if insulation became mandatory there should be a carrot in the form of a tax deduction for installation.

"It's very expensive to put in."

He said it was not just an issue of insulation and some tenants did not put their heating on.

But Key rejected the idea of a one-off payment for heating, instead backing current provisions including emergency assistance for those who needed it.

The Government earlier this year rejected Labour's Healthy Homes Guarantee Bill which would have required every rental home meet minimum standards of heating and insulation to ensure they were warm and dry.

It would have taken effect in about five years, as tenancies rolled over.

However, sources said the Government considered that timeframe was too short for

 

I lived in Dongying in the Shandong Province for two years and the temperature in winter is - 8 degrees and very windy.

A large percentage of the locals have no hot water or heating let alone insulation in there shacks and have adjusted, the same as Ethiopia where they have no fertile land and constant droughts who also adjust.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth

 

I looked forward to the impact of sustainable engineering on sailing.
Lots of room for improvement.

 

our aceans are under attack

Only those species that are able to adapt with out relying on energy will survive..a little bit longer.
Some thermal insulation advocates are starting to realize and say that thermal insulation alone is no use to anyone, there is a lot more to it than just that.

We are told that the Earth is warming so keeping warm will not just be an issue for a while.
With a warming planet comes extreme temperature changes that create extreme cold and extreme storms and drought in some areas, which we already are starting to see in New Zealand.
When we start to have extreme cold for most of the year that is when I will be looking at increasing insulation but in the mean time I will use the free radiation from the sun.

Nuclear power will be the only alternative for a selected few even if the risks are not completely eliminated.

 

our aceans are under attack

Nothing is sustainable if there is always an increasing demand from growing populations.

 

Very true, and so that is part of the equation. As individuals we have choices, and I think sailing sustainably can be part of the sailing aesthetic. One of the things I love most about sailing is the autonomy, which I think means you have freedom act individually, with no one to blame but yourself. Sailing has be on the leading edge of engineering, and it can also be on the leading edge of sustainable engineering, reducing total life cycle costs and so forth, including long term social and environmental considerations as well as economic.

 

our aceans are under attack

That is a nice thought but.
I live in a supposedly democratic country but I am not allowed to do things the way I would choose.
I can not go sailing legally anywhere or build my own boat with out complying to set Rules laid down by the governing bodies of Transport Regulations and dozens of other regulators and insurance demands.
I can not build my own home legally the way I would like because of the Building Regulations, and insurance demands even if what I want is better than what the law stipulates.
The list is endless. I would love to just sail away too.