Expert Panel Again Warns Congress On Threats To World's Oceans

[hatrack]

WASHINGTON, DC, February 2, 2004 (ENS) - A panel of experts ascended Capitol Hill last week to sound another warning that the world's oceans face a crisis. Mounting pressures, including pollution, coastal development, and global warming, are damaging ocean ecosystems and threaten human health, the experts told members of the U.S. House and Senate.

"The ocean environment plays a crucial role in sustaining basic human needs," said Dr. Paul Epstein, associate director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School. "The changes we are seeing now are having profound impacts on our health and the livelihoods of many communities."

A white paper issued by the center finds no shortage of threats to the oceans. These include - fertilizer and sewage; toxic chemicals such as mercury, pesticides, dioxin and PCBs; a loss of coastal wetlands; warmer ocean temperatures, and intense storms.

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Changes in ocean salinities are now being observed that reflect shifts in our planet's hydrologic cycle, according to Dr. Ruth Curry, a research specialist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. "On a global scale the oceans are heating up, evaporation rates are increasing, and glaciers and sea ice are melting," Curry said. Curry explained that the tropical oceans have recently become markedly saltier as evaporation and precipitation patterns change in response to warming temperatures."

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http://forests.org/articles/reader.asp?linkid=28955

[NNadir]

1. I'm sure Congress has more important matters to address.

I heard Jacket Jackson exposed her pastied breast on national TV the other night. The oceans will have to wait.

[jpak]

2. I sailed the Pacific from the Arctic to the Antarctic last year

The North Pacific Ocean from the Aleutians to Hawaii is absolutely full of plastic debris.

You name it - it was there. Fishing gear and trash of every description.

Everyday at lunchtime I would bird watch from the bow and count the debris floating past.

I made the following observations...

Over a 24 and 27 minute interval (different days), I counted 22 and 31 pieces of plastic (respectively) floating within 10 meters of the ship.

The ship was traveling at ~10 knots. I haven't done the math but that's an astonishing amount of trash per square mile (or kilometer) of ocean surface.

What is the effect on seabirds and other critters???

Dunno...but it was shocking evidence of the impact of human activities on the world ocean.