Scientists Calling For World Government Action In Ocean Crisis

On the long list of environmental issues our planet is facing, the oceans are at the top. Our oceans control more than just the fish and the plants; they also controls part of the world’s food supply, the weather, and ecological and economic devastation due to overcrowding of some species, and extinction of others. ?The acidity in our oceans has risen to a point that is dangerous: levels like those discovered recently have not been seen any time in the last 300 million years.

Scientists from the International Programme on the State of the Ocean?(IPSO) have recently released startling results from their survey of oceans in the State of the Oceans report. ?These scientists are reporting that, due to climate change, the oceans are receiving the brunt of the C02 levels entering our atmosphere, ultimately protecting us from damaging after-effects. The problem with this is that these levels are heating the oceans to record temperatures and causing our coral reefs to deteriorate. These coral’s lay home to dozens of species of fish and shell fish, that without the coral cannot reproduce, and some risk starving to death. ?Scientists stated in the report that:

The scale and rate of this change is unprecedented in Earth’s known history and is exposing organisms to intolerable and unpredictable evolutionary pressure.

The oxygen levels are another risk factor in the acidity problem with the oceans. We are reaching a point where the amount of ?dead zones?, areas where no animal life can prevail, has been doubling every year since the sixties. The west coast has seen a rash of krill deaths recently, which besides being a danger to the krill population, is causing massive overpopulation in jellyfish.

Just last week the largest nuclear plant in Sweden, the Oskarshamn plant, had to shut down in an emergency scramble due to a massive jellyfish clog in their pipes. Though not yet directly linked to climate change, some scientists believe that overfishing in the area, another danger to our oceans, is causing massive waves of these jellyfish.

Scientists from the IPSO are calling out to governments all over the world to make a change and put CO2 emission goals into place to save our oceans.?scientists from IPSO warned in their recently released study:

Coral reefs are extremely vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. It is imperative and urgent that emissions targets below 450 ppm CO2e be agreed and implemented, combined with coordinated programs at local and regional levels to reduce other stress factors and boost resilience; otherwise it is predicted that most reefs will be lost as effective, productive systems within a few decades.

Currently there is no word as to when and if worldwide governments will take action to keep the devastation of our oceans and wildlife from receding to nothing more than a body of water, lifeless, and empty.

Edited/Published by: SB

I am a 30 something writer passionate about politics, the environment, human rights and pretty much everything that effects our everyday life. To stay on top of the topics I discuss, like and follow me at https://www.facebook.com/keeponwriting and https://facebook.com/progressivenomad .