Creeping Coastal Dead Zones

by moonwolf | June 6, 2008 at 09:46 am | 399 views | 8 comments

As we continue to focus myopically on the chimera of climate change, a far more sinister ecological monster is rearing its ugly head and demanding our immediate attention. The global oceans have been our toilet and industrial sewage disposal system for the last 150 years of swelling populations and explosive industrial growth. The oceans, unlike the atmosphere have a much slower rate of change but a far larger and longer momentum, and they produce much of our oxygen and food. If we continue down the path we are on, we will destroy the oceans ability to recover from the damage in a timely manner. It may already be too late!

Scientists have issued a blunt warning about the fate of coastal ecosystems around the world, saying many have been so degraded by humans they will collapse if governments don’t change the way they’re managed.

In a dire report released Wednesday, a team of international researchers said coastal waterways are growing more sick and less able to recover from a host of human activities that could eventually destroy their productivity.

Pollution, overfishing, intensified agriculture and poorly planned tourist operations have already created marine "dead zones" that have been depleted of oxygen and contaminated by chemicals.

"The management failure is serious — it really is a crisis — but the failure is not so bad that we should throw up our hands and start praying," Peter Sale said before presenting the report at a seminar at UN headquarters in New York.

"We need a revision of attitudes and, if the change in attitude doesn’t occur, we’ve got a very grim future ahead of us."

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Barbara McPherson

at 13:07 on June 6th, 2008

good stuff:

moonwolf, I like this story. It's good stuff. The question is -- is anyone listening who has the power to change things? This story is like the one posted a few months ago about the great garbage gyre in the Pacific. The new mantra is "Think globally, act locally", but I think some global action is necessary here.

moonwolf

at 15:06 on June 6th, 2008

Thanks Barbara I agree global action is critical. I also think stories about the mid-Pacific garbage dump did nothing to spur action because humans basically live in out-of-sight, out-of-mind denial; hard-wired I think.

These complex indicators of the unhealthy condition of our oceans is showing up right at the beach, the marina, during the sports fishing trip, snorkeling, on our dinner tables, in restaurants and will soon be so in-our-face it will demand action. I hope!!

René

at 23:07 on June 8th, 2008

For videos of one man's view of the oceanic garbage patches, see , Maybe if we can view them, it will make a bigger impact.

dunkelberg

at 15:43 on June 6th, 2008

good stuff:

moonwolf, this is a big problem, and there may be hope.

These dead zones are not good for tourism and seafood. Sad, but true, the innkeeper on the coast may not give a hoot about the farmer upriver until a red tide bloom kills the tourist season.

It is not the good of the future that moves mountains but the future of goods.

moonwolf

at 20:58 on June 6th, 2008

Thanks all!

Barry Artiste

at 23:01 on June 6th, 2008

good stuff:

moonwolf, I like this story. It's good stuff. Though any organic material that enters the waterway, say sediment from the Missisp, hits the bottom decomposes and takes away oxygen, thus kills the fish who live at that particular depth , outright pollution of our shores is a serious issue that with technology available today, there is no excuse.

Great story moon

djermano

at 05:18 on June 7th, 2008

Can you imagine all the toxic chemical drums that have and are still being dumped into the ocean by the US military complex. Not only that think about the number of atomic explosions done underwater. Think of the radiation and the radioactive fish we eat, and how that radiation poisoning eventually sweeps up onto beaches, and into our waterways. The problem is ever on going to include the massive push for ethanol fuels, which requires pesticides, and fertilizers that wash from the farm lands into our water system.

I think we need to stop thinking and growing ethanol, and make a massive change toward Geothermal Development, where cars and trucks are electric power from the geothermal plants that power an electric strip roadway.

If we don't we are going to be having worse than Katrina, worse pollution than we see now, and more and more health related problems.

In the US Hillary keeps wanting to push Health Care for all Americans, yet if we solved problems that causes our getting bad health in the first place the health care needs would not be as high. We are prisoners to the the Oil Lobby, who controls the military, who tells every American what they can and can not do. They refuse to give money and change for saving America from Pollution and Ruin. They consider their hold on power more important than the good if they gave up their ill conceived plans. America is not free. It is in bondage to an out of control MIC, with a dictatorial Congress and Senate. If you don't do as they say, you are out of the game.