Re: Climate Change: A Sea of Troubles


"Harry Hope" <rivrvu@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:s0lum4d4ltla1vrtut9bja8adr86fls96m@xxxxxxxxxx

In the long run, the seas are the great sink for nearly all carbon.

They may be able to help avert some global warming-for instance, by
providing storage for CO2, by providing energy through wave or tidal
power, or by somehow taking carbon out of the atmosphere faster than
at present.

They will, however, continue to change and be changed as long as man
continues to put so much carbon into the atmosphere.

So far, the rising sea levels, dying corals and spreading algal blooms
are only minor distractions for most people.

A few more hurricanes like Katrina, a few dramatic floods in the
coastal cities of the rich world, perhaps even the shutting down of a
part of the world's great conveyor belt of ocean currents, especially
if it were the one that warms up western Europe: any of these would
catch the attention of policymakers.

The trouble is that by then it may be too late.



http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12853926&CFID

The oceans

A sea of troubles

From The Economist


NOT much is known about the sea, it is said; the surface of Mars is
better mapped.

But 2,000 holes have now been drilled in the bottom, 100,000
photographs have been taken, satellites monitor the five oceans and
everywhere floats fitted with instruments rise and fall like perpetual
yo-yos.

Quite a lot is known, and very little is reassuring.

The worries begin at the surface, where an atmosphere newly laden with
man-made carbon dioxide interacts with the briny.

The sea has thus become more acidic, making life difficult, if not
impossible, for marine organisms with calcium-carbonate shells or
skeletons.

These are not all as familiar as shrimps and lobsters, yet species
like krill, tiny shrimp-like creatures, play a crucial part in the
food chain: kill them off, and you may kill off their predators, whose
predators may be the ones you enjoy served fried, grilled or with
sauce tartare.

Worse, you may destabilise an entire ecosystem.

That is also what acidification does to coral reefs, especially if
they are already suffering from overfishing, overheating or pollution.
Many are, and most are therefore gravely damaged.

Some scientists believe that coral reefs, home to a quarter of all
marine species, may virtually disappear within a few decades.

That would be the end of the rainforests of the seas.

Carbon dioxide affects the sea in other ways, too, notably through
global warming.

The oceans expand as they warm up.

They are also swollen by melting glaciers, ice caps and ice sheets:
Greenland's ice is on track to melt completely, which will eventually
raise the sea level by about seven metres (23ft).

Even by the end of this century, the level may well have risen by
80cm, perhaps by much more.

For the 630 million people who live within 10km (six miles) of the
sea, this is serious.

Countries like Bangladesh, with 150 million inhabitants, will be
inundated.

Even people living far inland may be affected by the warming:

droughts in the western United States seem to be caused by changing
surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific.

And then there are the red tides of algal blooms, the plagues of
jellyfish and the dead zones where only simple organisms thrive.

All of these are increasing in intensity, frequency and extent.

__________________________________________

Harry


Republicans in general seem to be immune to learning about these changes. They point to the current thermometer, (which this morning reads minus 5 degrees as I type this) and conclude that global warming is some sort of liberal plot. I don't know why a situation that can affect all life on earth does not seem to be an issue worthy of their concern, or why they take so little interest in disappearing species, extinctions, and seem all for destroying every last bit of old growth forest, and leaving a scorched wasteland to our children.

They seem to imagine that anyone who is genuinely concerned about these issues is some sort of wussy who wants to spoil their pursuit of riches in protection of some creature or other. There are plenty of scientists the world over who see these changes and are predicting a dangerous scenario forming that may not be reversible. How can it be so easy to dismiss them all? Oceanographers and Zoologists and people who study these things are deeply concerned, how can it be so easy to dismiss their discoveries?

Yet the right wing radio idiots and Fox noise continue to ridicule the entire concept that the earth may be drowning in its own pollution past the point of recovery. They ignore the findings which show there are far less fish in the seas than ever before. Do they know that you can't buy certain kinds of Coral beads anymore? That only tiny diameter coral exists anymore. It's almost all gone! Do they know how few tigers there are left in the world and how their habitat is nearly gone? Have they closed their eyes to what an area looks like that has been strip mined and abandoned? Do they realize that we have toxic waste and landfills to overflowing?

This is not a partisan issue, but the right would seem to pretend that it is, and I really don't know why. After all, we all live here, and these problems are evident to anyone; the statistics are there for anyone who would search for them.

There are some things worth more than money, and the earth we inherited in our childhood is not going to be the earth we pass on to our grandchildren.

We should all work to preserve and enrich the natural legacy we pass on, not despoil it.

--
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Best Regards,
Evelyn

Rest in a sky-like mind.
Sit like a mountain floating on the earth.
Breathe like the wind circling the world

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