Community | June 21, 2011 | 38 comments

Oceans on brink of catastrophe

source: http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/oceans-on-brink-of-catastrophe-2300272.html

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Vierotchka
Marine life facing mass extinction 'within one human generation' / State of seas 'much worse than we thought', says global panel of scientists

The world's oceans are faced with an unprecedented loss of species comparable to the great mass extinctions of prehistory, a major report suggests today. The seas are degenerating far faster than anyone has predicted, the report says, because of the cumulative impact of a number of severe individual stresses, ranging from climate warming and sea-water acidification, to widespread chemical pollution and gross overfishing.

The coming together of these factors is now threatening the marine environment with a catastrophe "unprecedented in human history", according to the report, from a panel of leading marine scientists brought together in Oxford earlier this year by the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO) and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The stark suggestion made by the panel is that the potential extinction of species, from large fish at one end of the scale to tiny corals at the other, is directly comparable to the five great mass extinctions in the geological record, during each of which much of the world's life died out. They range from the Ordovician-Silurian "event" of 450 million years ago, to the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction of 65 million years ago, which is believed to have wiped out the dinosaurs. The worst of them, the event at the end of the Permian period, 251 million years ago, is thought to have eliminated 70 per cent of species on land and 96 per cent of all species in the sea.

The panel of 27 scientists, who considered the latest research from all areas of marine science, concluded that a "combination of stressors is creating the conditions associated with every previous major extinction of species in Earth's history". They also concluded:

* The speed and rate of degeneration of the oceans is far faster than anyone has predicted;

* Many of the negative impacts identified are greater than the worst predictions;

* The first steps to globally significant extinction may have already begun.

(read all about it at link)
  1. groups:
    Community,   Green,   Earth and Science,   World News,   7 more
  2. tags:
    Environment,  Climate Change,  Global Warming,  Pollution,  4 more
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38 comments // Oceans on brink of catastrophe

  • damush
  • EmileZ
  • Steamed_N_More
  • JanforGore
  • EmileZ
  • Emucratic
  • coolplanet
  • IceKat
    • -3
      IceKat  

    • IPSO?
      Alex Rogers is IPSO’s scientific director. Impartial? Hardly. Rogers has worked for WWF and Greenpeace, don't tell me there's no agenda there.
      In fact Greenpeace are heavily involved in this document.
      This is nothing more than recycled propaganda, produced from a three day chat between inter-dependent self-serving groups with absolutely no grasp of reality.

    • 11 months ago
  • Wetdog
  • keithponder
    • +3
      keithponder  

    • You've changed your tune. A few months ago, l distinctly remember you saying this this really wasn't a big deal, according to the first hand knowledge that you were getting from your friends in the field of science. You said that this had happened several times before in history. You said that people like me needed to stop spreading all of these conspiracy theories.

      Now you're back-peddling and conceding to the possibility of doom for the entire planet. I say that because the planet Earth is made up of 75% water and we cannot nor will not survive with our oceans being crippled from man's pollutions.

      Retort please. I don't even know why I'm asking because I already know that you're not going to admit the possibility of you being wrong Lady V.

    • 11 months ago
  • Vierotchka
    • -1
      Vierotchka  
    • keithponder:

      I never said anything of the sort, never - you must have me confused with someone else. This article has strictly nothing to do with conspiracy theories, either. I have never changed my tune on the subject of the environment, on pollution, on what is happening in the oceans. Why do you lie?

    • 11 months ago
  • JPSayles
    • 0
      JPSayles  

    • In 1976, Jacques Cousteau predicted that if we continued on our current path of behavior towards our oceans, that by 2020 they would turn into giant cesspools, which would extinct mankind. This report is huge.

    • 11 months ago
  • s_peak
  • EmileZ
  • JPSayles
  • EmileZ
  • JPSayles
    • +1
      JPSayles  
    • Image
    • EmileZ:

      sorry, don't, hardest lesson I ever learned is that you can say or do something with one intention in mind, then it could be interpreted 10 different ways, by ten different people, from different places, and they could all be right, based form their perspective. Whenever you throw stuff out there, you take the chance. Actually, I am working on a campaign to remove corp money from politics, so trying to make a name, so I use my name and real pic... you might like politicalfinancereform.org

    • 11 months ago
  • EmileZ
  • JPSayles
  • Gravity_Man
  • coolplanet
    • +3
      coolplanet  

    • The frogs in my pond have all vanished.
      I haven't seen one honey bee, bumble bee or mason bee in my garden this year.
      Our bat "Bertrum III" has not returned to the porch ceiling for the first time in 35 years.

      "We have poisoned everything
      And oblivious to it all
      The cell phone zombies babble
      Through the shopping malls"
      ~Joni

    • 11 months ago
  • iowawashington
    • +1
      iowawashington  
    • coolplanet:

      If I thought it was legal, I'd gladly mail you a replacement bat. We have plenty. However, our resident hive of wild honeybee's did not survive the winter, and our fruit trees have visibly suffered for their loss.

    • 11 months ago
  • onemalefla
  • coolplanet
    • -2
      coolplanet  
    • onemalefla:

      Bertrum III followed Bertrum Jr. who followed Bertrum Sr.
      I will never forget when Bertrum Sr. died in 1994 from the strongest wind/rain storm I have ever witnessed. A wall of water slammed into the house and splashed up 15 feet to kill him under a cathedral ceiling on our back porch. When my partner, June, found him dead on the floor she wept for at least an hour and made me bury him in a box in the back yard.
      He was such a sweet bat! We'd make kissing sounds to him up in the rafters and he'd kiss back at us. He was so fat from eating mosquitos from our ponds that he could no longer hide.
      His offspring were not as friendly but they provided plenty of guano for my plants.
      With the bats and the frogs gone we are being devoured by mosquitos.
      On a positive note I finally saw three honey bees in the clover today.

    • 11 months ago
  • coolplanet
  • uptop
    • 0
      uptop  

    • C'mon time travel! So many industrial tycoons I have to go back and kill! Andrew Mellon and his Dupont cronies are first! Goddamn plastic.

    • 11 months ago
  • coolplanet
  • coolplanet
  • mii
  • artemis6
  • percipi224
    • +3
      percipi224  

    • Merry Solstice. We need pagans to come out in the large numbers they are and start fighting for the earth the same way the big three fight for their gods supremacy.

    • 11 months ago
  • artemis6
  • Gravity_Man
  • coolplanet
  • artemis6
    • +3
      artemis6  

    • The signs have been there for a long time . Where i live , Cascadia , it is the sea that nourishes the land , via the salmon and other marine life . This was easy to see coming . I am so very sad .

    • 11 months ago
  • KB723
  • Vierotchka
    • 0
      Vierotchka  

    • They were warning about overfishing and pollution of the sea decades ago - that is why I have boycotted all seafood for decades and only eat fish from sustainable fresh-water fishing.

    • 11 months ago
  • EmileZ
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