All these changes, whether we recognize it or not, are connected to us. Anything that happens to the ocean will affect our lives. Sea levels rising and creating dozens of underwater cities will undoubtedly affect us, of course, because a quarter of the world’s population will be driven inward. All major cities will be filled up to unimaginable congestion; food and water will become in very short supply, good relations will break down, housing will be unavailable, homelessness and poverty will overwhelm. This could happen in twenty years or less. However, we will feel the impact in other ways, as well.
As sea life dwindles in the oceans, it will mean fewer and fewer jobs for anyone dependent on resources from the sea. As well, public aquarium centers and personal saltwater aquariums will become cathedrals for marine life that no longer exists. As major parts of world economies break down, the last remaining marine species preserved by humankind within glass enclosures will come to haunt us, as these isolated, ephemeral, and fleeting creatures make for us memories of a planet once defined not by its land, but by its ocean. Already today, hundreds of years of overfishing have resulted in an empty ocean through which immense populations of wildlife once swam. There is now less of everything, and more of nothing.
Global warming will make memories out of many living things, and as we remember the bounty of life that this planet used to support, we will feel shame. Unless we do everything we can to slow climate change, protect what is left and restore part of what we have lost.
However, none of this has to come to pass. We can protect the future by realizing that no one is born a conservationist. A conservationist is shaped and inspired by world events: these events, this world. Human beings have always been at their best when things are at their worst. We can no longer wait for the worst to come before we reveal what is best within us. Now is the only time for that.
Human Impact on Climate Change
Whether or not the planet is warming at accelerated rates, likely caused by human activity, is no longer a topic of debate. The data can no longer be disputed.
The terms "global warming" and "climate change" are used interchangeably. However, "global warming" implies the warming of our planet due to a direct human influence while "climate change" is more accurately used to describe changes in climate due to natural fluctuations, such as the processes that produce the Ice Ages.
The scientific evidence in support of global warming continues to mount and the media is increasingly highlighting the topic to inform us of the very real dangers involved in global warming. Common media images include polar bears that are no longer able to find enough ice to survive and often drown in search of food. Glaciers in the Arctic and Greenland are breaking apart at unprecedented speed, causing sea levels to rise. The ocean's temperature is rising; as a result, we are witnessing marine species forced to migrate from habitats they have lived in for at least thousands of years in search of more hospitable areas.
Recently, some island nations and communities have actually begun evacuation procedures as rising seas flood their homes and land. Rising sea levels caused by the expansion of sea water as it warms and the melting of glaciers has caused a 1 mm increase in sea level, which translates to a shoreline retreat of about 1.5 meters. This has been seen in the U.S. along the Atlantic Coast where erosion has narrowed beaches and washed out houses. In other countries, such as the Tuvalu Islands in the Pacific, communities are planning their moves as their homelands are slowly submerged. Other currently threatened nations include the Cook and the Marshall Islands, where one island (Majuro) has lost up to 20% of its beachfront already.
Human Impact on Climate Change
Whether or not the planet is warming at accelerated rates, likely caused by human activity, is no longer a topic of debate. The data can no longThe terms "global warming" and "climate change" are used interchangeably. However, "global warming" implies the warming of our planet due to a direct human influence while "climate change" is more accurately used to describe changes in climate due to natural fluctuations, such as the processes that produce the Ice Ages.
The scientific evidence in support of global warming continues to mount and the media is increasingly highlighting the topic to inform us of the very real dangers involved in global warming. Common media images include polar bears that are no longer able to find enough ice to survive and often drown in search of food. Glaciers in the Arctic and Greenland are breaking apart at unprecedented speed, causing sea levels to rise. The ocean's temperature is rising; as a result, we are witnessing marine species forced to migrate from habitats they have lived in for at least thousands of years in search of more hospitable areas.
Recently, some island nations and communities have actually begun evacuation procedures as rising seas flood their homes and land. Rising sea levels caused by the expansion of sea water as it wa
Scientists have recently discovered that the basic chemistry of the ocean is being altered by excess carbon dioxide absorption, which threatens marine organisms by increasing acidification. Acidification is caused by a reaction between CO2 and H2O, which forms carbonic acid (H2CO3). Carbonic acid increases the acidity of ocean waters by lowering the pH which inhibits the reaction organisms (e.g., coccolithophores - one of the most abundant phytoplankton in the ocean, corals, foraminifera, echinoderms, crustaceans, and some mollusks, especially pteropods) use to secrete skeletal structures and shells made of calcium carbonate (CaCO3). With increasing acidity, every marine species that constructs skeletons and shells of CaCO3 will find it more difficult to survive in shell-producing marine organisms could be disastrous for nearly all ocean ecosystems. Increasing acidity will also undoubtedly effect numerous reproductive and/or physiological processes in other marine species with unknown consequences.
No comments:
Post a Comment