The Guardian (January 11)
“If you want to know how fast climate change is happening, the answer is in the oceans.” Last year, they “absorbed heat equivalent to seven Hiroshima atomic bombs detonating each second, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.” Global ocean temperature data “paint a clear picture: the Earth is warming, humans are the culprit, and the warming will continue indefinitely until we collectively take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
Tags: Atomic bombs, Climate change, Culprit, Earth, Emissions, GHGs, Heat, Hiroshima, Humans, Oceans, Temperature data, Warming
Ethical Corporation (June Issue)
“The fate of our plastic-clogged oceans is no longer top of mind in the face of the more immediate threat of a killer disease, leading to mountains of waste from millions of discarded face masks and gloves and other personal protective equipment.” Coupled with plunging oil prices that dramatically lowers prices, “the battle against single-use plastic finds itself in the teeth of a perfect storm.”
Tags: Discarded, Disease, Face masks, Fate, Gloves, Immediate threat, Oceans, Oil prices, Plastic, PPE, Waste
Popular Mechanics (May 16)
“Scientists have confirmed that plastic bags litter the very depths of the Earth’s oceans inside the Mariana Trench. The findings highlight a polluted region of the ocean often ignored: the very bottom.” While disturbing, the knowledge could prove a source of hope. “The better understanding of the damage being down there, the better chance there is of correcting the damage.”
Tags: Correcting, Damage, Earth, Litter, Mariana Trench, Oceans, Plastic bags, Polluted, Scientists, Understanding
CNN (December 1)
“Nearly every piece of plastic ever made still exists today. More than five trillion pieces of plastic are already in the oceans, and by 2050 there will be more plastic in the sea than fish, by weight… Some 8 million tons of plastic trash leak into the ocean annually, and it’s getting worse every year. Americans are said to use 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour.” The potentially catastrophic impact largely lies beyond our gaze in remote places, like Midway Atoll, where birds are dying from plastic consumption. There is now also “growing evidence that fish may prefer eating plastic to food,” and that the nano-plastics and styrene that make their way into the food chain could have profoundly negative consequences for humankind.
Tags: Birds, Consequences, Consumption, Evidence, Fish, Food, Food chain, Midway Atoll, Nano-plastics, Oceans, Plastic, Remote, Styrene
New York Times (October 2)
Last week, President Obama “created the largest marine preserve in the world,” expanding it more than five-fold from 87,000 square miles to nearly half a million square miles. “At a time when the world’s oceans are threatened by rampant pollution, overfishing and climate change, the benefits of Mr. Obama’s decision will be profound, particularly if other countries now follow the United States’ excellent example.”
Tags: Climate change, Marine preserve, Obama, Oceans, Overfishing, Pollution, Threatened, U.S.
Washington Post (December 2)
“The world’s oceans are rising 60 percent faster than the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change anticipated five years ago…. A five-foot rise would produce Sandy-like floods in New York every 15 years, on average.” The entire east coast “will have to wrestle with the question of which coastal areas are worth protecting — by raising land, lengthening beaches, heightening homes or building sea walls to keep the water out — and which aren’t.”
Tags: East coast, IPCC, Oceans, Sandy, Seal walls, U.N.
