Climate change coup d’grace to world’s oceans
April 10th, 2008 by Jim JustA new United Nations Environmental Programme report titled In Dead Water finds that marine ecosystems are under great stress – and that stress is increasing because of climate change caused by global warming.
The report finds growing and abundant evidence that the rate of environmental degradation in the oceans may have progressed further than anything yet seen on land.
Fishing grounds are increasingly damaged by over-harvesting, unsustainable bottom trawling and other fishing practices, pollution and dead zones, and a striking pattern of invasive species infestations in the same areas. These same areas may lose more than 80% of their tropical and cold water coral reefs due to rising sea temperatures and increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) leading to a decrease in seawater pH (acidification). Finally, these same areas are also facing rapidly growing pollution from coastal development, potential consequences of climate change such as possible slowing of ‘flushing’ mechanisms and increasing infestations of invasive species.
We are now observing what may become, in the absence of policy changes, a collapsing ecosystem with climate the final coup d’grace.