Oceans in Distress Foreshadow Mass Extinction

[marmar]

Published on Monday, June 20, 2011 by Agence France-Presse
Oceans in Distress Foreshadow Mass Extinction

by Marlowe Hood


PARIS – Pollution and global warming are pushing the world's oceans to the brink of a mass extinction of marine life unseen for tens of millions of years, a consortium of scientists warned Monday.

Dying coral reefs, biodiversity ravaged by invasive species, expanding open-water "dead zones," toxic algae blooms, the massive depletion of big fish stocks -- all are accelerating, they said in a report compiled during an April meeting in Oxford of 27 of the world's top ocean experts.

Sponsored by the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO), the review of recent science found that ocean health has declined further and faster than dire forecasts only a few years ago.

These symptoms, moreover, could be the harbinger of wider disruptions in the interlocking web of biological and chemical interactions that scientists now call the Earth system. .............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/06/20-8

[villager]

1. Who needs the bottom of the food chain when you have American Idol and two-party "choice?"

n/t

[xchrom]

2. Recommend

[kestrel91316]

3. Hey, they can grow plenty of algae in the oceans even if everything else dies,

and that algae can feed humans. So nothing to worry about. Carry on.

[txlibdem]

4. Oceans in distress foreshadow OUR extinction

[Zoeisright]

5. And that will lead to many other mass extinctions.

Including human beings. Wonder if repukes will be whining about taxes then?

[cutlassmama]

6. Between the radiation and corexit this is not surprising at all. What is surprising

is how long it took for anyone to write this.