This report pushes the
global warming agenda on issues that while representing change also represent
nothing unseen before. All this is
something the ocean will handle and actual full recovery is ultimately
achievable with simple changes in humanities technologies that are surely
happening. In short, I am not alarmed so
much as annoyed when simple fixes are not attended to.
Our far more serious problem remains unmentioned and
that is ridiculous. The entire oceanic
biome is been assaulted by fine particulate of plastics that resist bio-degradation. Worse there is little
evidence that this material is settling out.
This is a true environmental disaster.
At least with radioactive salts, there is some future point in which the
salt is deposited. With plastic, we do
not know when that is and waiting for simple oxygenation to do it job is a long
time.
The solution is to demand conversion of all plastic
stocks to biodegradable systems.
Difficult but not impossible and ultimately a regulatory decision.
Human
Assault Pushes Ocean to Limit Unseen in 300 Million Years
'We are entering an unknown territory of marine
ecosystem change,' warns report. 'The next mass extinction may have already
begun.'
-
Jon Queally, staff writer
The news, the evidence that supports it, and
the warning that accompanies it could hardly be more dire.
The latest audit by an
international team of marine scientists at the International Programme on the
State of the Ocean (IPSO) found that the world's oceans and marine life are
facing an unprecedented threat by combination of industrial pollution,
human-driven global warming and climate change, and continued and rampant
overfishing.
According to the report, The State of the Ocean 2013: Perils, Prognoses
and Proposals, the degradation of the ocean ecosystem means
that its role as Earth’s ‘buffer’ is being seriously compromised. As a result,
the authors of the report call for "urgent remedies" because the
"rate, speed, and impacts of change in the global ocean are greater,
faster, and more imminent than previously thought."
"[Last week's] UN climate
report confirmed that the ocean is bearing the brunt of human-induced changes
to our planet. These findings give us more cause for alarm – but also a roadmap
for action. We must use it." -Prof. Dan Laffoley, IUCN
Driven by accumulations of carbon, the
scientists found, the rate of acidification in the oceans is the highest its
been in over 300 million years. Additionally, de-oxygenation--caused by both
warming and industrial runoff--is stripping the ocean of its ability to support
the plants and animals that live in it.
The combined stressors, according to the
report, are "unprecedented in the Earth's known history. We are entering
an unknown territory of marine ecosystem change, and exposing organisms to
intolerable evolutionary pressure. The next mass extinction may have already
begun."
Professor Alex Rogers of Somerville College,
Oxford, and Scientific Director of IPSO said: “The health of the ocean is
spiraling downwards far more rapidly than we had thought. We are seeing greater
change, happening faster, and the effects are more imminent than previously
anticipated. The situation should be of the gravest concern to everyone since
everyone will be affected by changes in the ability of the ocean to support
life on Earth.”
Among the report's comprehensive findings, the
panel identified the following areas as of greatest cause for concern:
• De-oxygenation: the evidence is accumulating that the
oxygen inventory of the ocean is progressively declining. Predictions for ocean
oxygen content suggest a decline of between 1% and 7% by 2100. This is
occurring in two ways: the broad trend of decreasing oxygen levels in tropical
oceans and areas of the North Pacific over the last 50 years; and the dramatic
increase in coastal hypoxia (low oxygen) associated with eutrophication. The
former is caused by global warming, the second by increased nutrient runoff
from agriculture and sewage.
• Acidification: If current levels of CO2 release
continue we can expect extremely serious consequences for ocean life, and in
turn food and coastal protection; at CO2 concentrations of 450-500 ppm
(projected in 2030-2050) erosion will exceed calcification in the coral reef
building process, resulting in the extinction of some species and decline in
biodiversity overall.
• Warming: As made clear by the IPCC, the ocean is taking
the brunt of warming in the climate system, with direct and well-documented
physical and biogeochemical consequences. The impacts which continued warming
is projected to have in the decades to 2050 include: reduced seasonal ice
zones, including the disappearance of Arctic summer sea ice by ca. 2037;
increasing stratification of ocean layers, leading to oxygen depletion;
increased venting of the GHG methane from the Arctic seabed (a factor not
considered by the IPCC); and increased incidence of anoxic and hypoxic (low
oxygen) events.
• The ‘deadly trio’ of the above three stressors -
acidification, warming and deoxygenation - is seriously effecting how
productive and efficient the ocean is, as temperatures, chemistry, surface stratification,
nutrient and oxygen supply are all implicated, meaning that many organisms will
find themselves in unsuitable environments. These impacts will have cascading
consequences for marine biology, including altered food web dynamics and the
expansion of pathogens.
• Continued overfishing is
serving to further undermine the resilience of ocean systems, and contrary to
some claims, despite some improvements largely in developed regions, fisheries
management is still failing to halt the decline of key species and damage to
the ecosystems on which marine life depends. In 2012 the UN FAO determined that
70% of world fish populations are unsustainably exploited, of which 30% have
biomass collapsed to less than 10% of unfished levels. A recent global assessment
of compliance with Article 7 (fishery management) of the 1995 FAO Code of
Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, awarded 60% of countries a “fail” grade, and
saw no country identified as being overall “good”.
Regarding the urgency of the crisis, the marine
scientists issued a stark warning to world governments, called on leaders to
take immediate action, and offered the following steps they said
"must" be taken:
• Reduce global C02 emissions to limit temperature rise to less than
2oC, or below 450 CO2e. Current targets for carbon emission
reductions are insufficient in terms of ensuring coral reef survival and other
biological effects of acidification, especially as there is a time lag of
several decades between atmospheric CO2 and CO2 dissolved in the ocean.
Potential knock-on effects of climate change in the ocean, such as methane
release from melting permafrost, and coral dieback, mean the consequences for
human and ocean life could be even worse than presently calculated.
• Ensure effective implementation of community- and ecosystem-based
management, favouring small-scale fisheries. Examples of broad-scale
measures include introducing true co-management with resource adjacent
communities, eliminating harmful subsidies that drive overcapacity, protection
of vulnerable marine ecosystems, banning the most destructive fishing gear, and
combating IUU fishing.
• Build a global infrastructure
for high seas governance that is fit-for-purpose. Most
importantly, secure a new implementing agreement for the conservation and
sustainable use of biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction under the
auspices of UNCLOS.
In response to the IPSO study that arrived
just one week after the IPCC report on climate change which also highlighted
the threat of global warming to the oceans, Professor Dan Laffoley, of the
International Union for Conservation of Nature, said: “What these latest
reports make absolutely clear is that deferring action will increase costs in
the future and lead to even greater, perhaps irreversible, losses. The UN
climate report confirmed that the ocean is bearing the brunt of human-induced
changes to our planet. These findings give us more cause for alarm – but also a
roadmap for action. We must use it."
IPSO was tweeted comments and coverage
regarding the report and its findings:
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