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Papers
- "Climate Change Is All About the Oceans" (Time.com)
Tony Knap, director of the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS), states that "just as carbon levels have been rising in the atmosphere, thanks largely to man-made greenhouse-gas emissions, CO2 levels are on the rise in the ocean as it warms as well. Ocean data matters — the oceans hold far more energy than the atmosphere. 'This will tell us how the ocean is changing over time,' says Knap. 'Climate change is all about the oceans, not the atmosphere.' " Editor's Note: Also try Threatened Oceans. 07-11
- -Earth Is Eating Its Oceans (LiveScience.com)
"As Earth's tectonic plates dive beneath one another, they drag three times as much water into the planet's interior as previously thought." 02-19
- -Editorial: Our Threatened Oceans (Awesome Library)
"We have reason for great concern that our oceans are going through a rapid change that may create severe problems for ourselves and disaster for our children and grandchildren. Here are some of the problems...." 01-06
- -Oceans Losing Oxygen (Time.com)
"A new Nature study published this week found that oxygen levels in worldwide oceans have dipped by more than 2% in the last half-century. While the change may seem small, scientists say even subtle shifts in gas levels can alter entire ecosystems." 02-17
- An Action Plan to Save the Oceans (NationalGeographic.com)
"The immense problems facing the ocean often leave us feeling powerless. But what if there was a concrete, actionable strategy to nurse the ocean back to health? Dr. Sylvia Earle argues that there is. As a result, Mission Blue and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) are opening up nominations for ‘Hope Spots‘ – marine areas in a network targeted for enhanced protection that are critical to the health of the ocean." 09-16
- Food Chain in Oceans Threatened (Time.com)
"Rising carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is threatening to make oceans too corrosive for marine organisms to grow protective shells, according to researchers."
"If emissions continue unabated, the entire Southern Ocean, which stretches north from the Antarctic coastline, and subarctic regions of the Pacific Ocean will soon become so acidic that the shells of marine creatures will soften and dissolve making them easy targets for predators. Others will not be able to grow sufficient shells to survive."
"The loss of shelled creatures at the lower end of the food chain could have disastrous consequences for larger marine animals." 9-05
- Mysterious Deaths in the Pacific Ocean (ActivistPost.com)
"Why is there so much death and disease among sea life living near the west coast of North America right now? Could the hundreds of tons of highly radioactive water that are being released into the Pacific Ocean from Fukushima every single day have anything to do with it?" 11-13
- Oceans Threatened by Mass Extinction (University of Oxford)
"An international panel of marine scientists has warned that the world’s oceans are at risk of entering a phase of extinction of marine species unprecedented in human history." 11-13
- Protecting the Oceans: Oceana (Oceana.org)
"Oceana is the largest international organization working solely to protect the world’s oceans. Oceana wins policy victories for the oceans using science-based campaigns. Since 2001, we have protected over 1.2 million square miles of ocean and innumerable sea turtles, sharks, dolphins and other sea creatures. More than 500,000 supporters have already joined Oceana. Global in scope, Oceana has offices in North, South and Central America and Europe."
Editor's Note: Also try Threatened Oceans. 12-11
- Protecting the Oceans: The Problem (Oceana.org)
"The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization says that at least 75 percent of seafood species are overexploited, fully exploited or recovering from depletion and need more effective and precautionary management."
"Destructive fishing practices that include driftnets, longlines and bottom trawls are ruining ocean ecosystems by indiscriminately killing fish and other wildlife, including seabirds and marine mammals. Each year, more than 16 billion pounds of bycatch are thrown overboard thanks to wasteful fishing techniques."
"Bottom trawls drag heavily weighted nets along the ocean floor in search of fish or crustaceans in a practice akin to clearcutting a forest in order to catch a rabbit. Centuries-old habitats such as coral gardens are destroyed in an instant by bottom trawls, pulverized into barren plains. Endangered sea turtles drown on longline hooks while sharks have their fins sliced from their bodies, which are then tossed overboard."
Editor's Note: Also try Threatened Oceans. 12-11
- The Reason We Can't Find a Downed Jet (Time.com)
"We can see countless millions of miles into the blackness of space, but a three-mile depth in the ocean is testing the very limits of our technology. Never mind finding a missing jet, we're incapable of establishing even the most basic facts about the ocean floor."
"The other issue affecting visibility is the sheer volume of junk in the ocean. Around 5.25 trillion particles of plastic trash presently billow around the planet, say experts, weighing half a million tons. There are five huge garbage patches in the world’s seas, where the swirling of currents makes the mostly plastic debris accumulate. The largest of these is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a gyre measuring an estimated 700,000 to 15 million sq km. This refuse gets ingested by plankton, fish, birds and larger marine mammals, imperiling our entire ecosystem."
- The World's Oceans Are in Trouble (Time.com)
" 'The world’s ocean and cryosphere have been taking the heat for climate change for decades,' says Ko Barrett, a vice chair of the IPCC. 'The consequences for nature and humanity are sweeping and severe.' " 09-19
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