The oceans are losing oxygen, and climate change is the culprit.
Areas earliest hit are the western coasts of North America and Africa and the northeastern coast of South America.
The result will be major shifts in marine life, including the development of major dead zones.
And given that much of the world depend son ocean fish for protein, the changes could portend serious human and political crises.
From the American Geophysical Union:
A drop in the amount of oxygen dissolved in the oceans due to climate change is already discernible in some parts of the world and should be evident across large parts of the ocean between 2030 and 2040, according to a new study.
Scientists know that a warming climate can be expected to gradually sap oceans of oxygen, leaving fish, crabs, squid, sea stars, and other marine life struggling to breathe. But it’s been difficult to determine whether this anticipated oxygen drain is already having a noticeable impact.
“Loss of oxygen in the ocean is one of the serious side effects of a warming atmosphere, and a major threat to marine life,” said Matthew Long, a climate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and lead author of the study. “Since oxygen concentrations in the ocean naturally vary depending on variations in winds and temperature at the surface, it’s been challenging to attribute any deoxygenation to climate change. This new study tells us when we can expect the impact from climate change to overwhelm the natural variability.”
2 comments:
Endless growth model of economics, and currency, verses the finite limit of mother nature. Guess who is going to win?
Understand, the whole model of endless growth of economics and government primarily the republic with capitalism is NOT compatible for long term first world stability, living on a finite earth.
The whole government/economic system, needs to be reworked from the ground up in terms of design, but the elites will not pay for it. They will actually work to prevent it, so it will not happen. Their on the payroll intellectuals can't even imagine how to do so, honestly even it is possible, it is a very difficult problem to solve.
So the boom to bust is in the future , when the world's Eco system crashes and the earth is burning up can the human race survive? Will there be a civilization left or only a few cave men trying to survive in the coolest regions? Or no one at all?
Much is due to choices...
How to make a different social economic system? First to make a theory of how to go about doing so, I have done this work in the past and can recreate this work. Others can do this work in their style as well. Create think tanks for this aim, then computer simulation programs to try out new economic government systems in a humane way. Eventually try out the most promising designs for real in failed states, the number of failed states are endless today and into the future.
All to save the human race,,,, but there is no money in it... Too bad.
Chances of success? honestly it is low, but not zero.
Because the chance of success is not zero, we fight the building of new fossil fuel power plants every day.
My owrk involves trying to get public officials to acknowledge that we are already at the end of growth, but they are very reluctant even when I show them the numbers
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