{"id":79130,"date":"2016-09-12T12:00:22","date_gmt":"2016-09-12T11:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=79130"},"modified":"2016-09-09T15:40:37","modified_gmt":"2016-09-09T14:40:37","slug":"the-sick-ocean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/09\/the-sick-ocean\/","title":{"rendered":"The Sick Ocean"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"sick-ocean-dead\"<\/a><\/p>\n

8 Sep 2016 – <\/em>A major new scientific report, \u201cExplaining Ocean Warming\u201d was released on September 5th. It is grim.\u00a0According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Conservation Congress in Hawaii, the findings are based upon peer-reviewed research compiled by 80 scientists from 12 countries. It is the most comprehensive study ever undertaken on the subject of warming of the ocean.<\/p>\n

Significantly, the ocean has absorbed more than 90% of \u201cenhanced heating from climate change since the 1970s.\u201d In other words, the ocean has been \u201cshielding us\u201d from the extensive affects of global warming. And, the consequences for the ocean are \u201cabsolutely massive.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201cseasons in the ocean\u201d are actually changing as a result.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe scale of ocean warming is truly staggering with the numbers so large that it is difficult for most people to comprehend,\u201d D. Laffoley, et al, ed. Explaining Ocean Warming, IUCN Global Marine and Polar Programme, Sept. 2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cA useful analysis undertaken by the Grantham Institute in 2015 concluded that if the same amount of heat that has gone into the top 2000m of the ocean between 1955-2010 had gone into the lower 10km of the atmosphere, then the Earth would have seen a warming of 36\u00b0C.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words, humanity would be toast.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s one of many dangerous \u201chooks\u201d mentioned in the report: \u201cCrucially, as evident in the past two years, the heat and CO2 accumulated in the ocean are not permanently locked away, but can be released back into the atmosphere when the ocean surface is anomalously warm, giving a positive rapid feed-back to global warming,\u201d which would entail a decidedly harsh blow to life on the planet.<\/p>\n

The 500-page report is all-inclusive with several subsections dealing with individual oceanic issues. Yet, a general overview of the \u201cchain of impacts\u201d is perhaps most relevant to an understanding of the dire consequences of failure to act by halting CO2 fossil fuel emissions as soon as possible.<\/p>\n

The \u201cchain of impacts\u201d clearly demonstrates the linear interrelated behavior of ocean warming, ocean acidification, and sea-level rise. Due to a domino effect of one problem cascading into others, key human sectors are now threatened, e.g. fisheries, aquaculture, coastal risks management, general health, and coast tourism.<\/p>\n

In point of fact, scientific studies show rapid deterioration throughout the \u201cchange of impacts\u201d statement such that an all-out alarm is necessitated. In short, the ole public clarion bells need to start ringing hard and loud because \u201cthe impacts on key marine and coastal organisms, ecosystems and ecosystem services are already detectable from high to low latitudes transcending the traditional North\/South divide.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words, the entire world oceanic ecosystem is already showing signs of severe stress or oceanic sickness.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, the latency affect of anthropogenic (human-caused) global warming means the impact of today\u2019s carbon emissions shows up years and years down the line such that, assuming carbon emissions drop to zero tomorrow, global warming continues cruising along for many years to come.<\/p>\n

All-important, the ocean is a \u201cclimate integrator\u201d that regulates the entire planetary biosphere by absorbing 26% of human-caused CO2 and 93% of additional planetary heat. \u201cWithout the ocean, present climate change would thus be far more intense and challenging for human life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the regulating function of the ocean comes with heavy costs, for example, ocean acidification and availability of carbonate ions are disrupted, which are building blocks for marine plants and animals to make skeletons, shells, etc.<\/p>\n

This acidification impact is already a factor at the base of the food chain, as tiny pea-sized pteropods, which serve as food stock for everything from krill to salmon to whales, show ultra-thinning of their protective shells necessary for both reproduction and maturation, a problem especially found in the Southern Ocean. This early stage risk to disruption of the food chain is caused by excessive carbon dioxide (CO2) absorbed into the ocean emitted by fossil fuels.<\/p>\n

Astonishingly, sea level rise, the most noticeable oceanic impact, has already dramatically increased its rate of increase over the 1901-2010 period as the rate of rise from 1993-2010 accelerated by an astounding 88%. This sea level rise is already felt in cities like Miami where streets are being raised and additional pumping systems installed (Miami Beach is Raising Streets by 2 Feet to Combat Rising Seas, miamibeachrealtor displays a photo of newly raised streets).<\/p>\n

Assuming business-as-usual anthropogenic climate change, sources of dietary protein and income for tens of millions of people will likely be severely impacted by mass mortalities. Wherefore, the ole clarion bell needs to ring even louder, waking up citizens to the threat of impending serious food shortages. Fisheries and aquaculture, which are both key for survival for millions, are already at high risk.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, and unfortunately, climate change contemporaneously continues to negatively affect land agriculture, which will likely exacerbate food shortages with the ocean simultaneously stressed. In all, ocean warming is synergistic with other human-induced stresses such as over-exploitation, like drift net fishing, and habitat destruction, e.g., bleached coral, and chemical pollution, for example, Ag runoff.<\/p>\n

The report has suggested solutions to ocean stress, as for example: (1) mitigating CO2 emissions by getting off fossil fuels is number no. 1 on the hit list, followed by (2) protecting marine and coastal ecosystems by governmental regulation of \u201cprotected areas\u201d and (3) repairing damaged ecosystems with, for example, coral farming, and (4) adapting economic diversification zones and activities.<\/p>\n

Importantly, the landmark study emphasizes the fact that \u201cunequivocal scientific evidence shows that impacts on key marine and coastal organisms, ecosystems, and services are already detectable and that high to very high risks of impact are to be expected,\u201d Ibid, page 53.<\/p>\n

That statement is as straightforward, pulling no punches, as scientific papers ever get. The evidence is crystal clear that climate change is disrupting the ocean, which is the only ocean we\u2019ve got.<\/p>\n

There are no backups.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s hoping Mr. Trump reassesses his \u201cglobal warming is a hoax\u201d statement. After all, he has a big audience.<\/p>\n

______________________________________<\/a><\/p>\n

Robert Hunziker <\/em>lives in\u00a0Los Angeles and can be reached at \u00a0roberthunziker@icloud.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 counterpunch.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

8 Sep 2016 – A major new scientific report, \u201cExplaining Ocean Warming\u201d was released on 5 Sep. It is grim. The findings are based upon peer-reviewed research compiled by 80 scientists from 12 countries. It is the most comprehensive study ever undertaken on the subject of warming of the ocean.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79130\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}