Humans are harming the
oceans to a remarkable degree. Some
ocean species are certainly over-harvested, but even greater damage results from
large-scale habitat loss, which is likely to accelerate as technology advances
the human footprint. Ocean temperatures
are rising, and carbon emissions are altering the chemistry of seawater, making
it more acidic. Some fish are migrating
to cooler waters already. Black sea
bass, once most common off the coast of Virginia, have moved up to New
Jersey. Coral reefs have declined by 40%
worldwide, partly as a result of climate-change-driven warming.
New York Times,
Friday 16, 2015
...Glaciers are retreating almost everywhere around the world
(the Alps, the Himalayas, the Andes, the Rockies, in Alaska and in Africa) ....
“If things go business as usual, we will not live, we will
die. Our country will not exist,”
said one leader of a small island nation at the 2009 Copenhagen
Conference Hard Choice (p. 502)
What needs to be done?
It is crucial for the whole world to embrace this war
against global warming as a shared mission and responsibility. It requires bold leadership and international
cooperation.
Hard Choice (pp. 492-496)
More than 30% of global warming is attributed to “super
pollutants,” including methane, black carbon, and hydro-fluorocarbon (HFCs),
which are produced by animal waste, urban landfills, air conditioning units,
burning fields, cooking fires, and oil and gas products, among other
things. The pollutants are also highly
damaging to people’s respiratory health.
The good news is that these greenhouse gases disperse in the atmosphere
more quickly than carbon dioxide, so an aggressive effort to reduce them can
slow the rate of climate change more quickly.
According to one study, a sharp reduction in emission of shorter-lived pollutants
beginning in 2015 could offset warming temperatures by up to 50% by 2050.
Hard
Choice (pp. 500-501)
Limiting the industrialization of the oceans to some regions could allow threatened species to recover in other ones. These reserves had to be designed with climate change in mind, so that species escaping high temperatures or low pH would be able to find refuge.
[S]lowing extinctions in the oceans will mean cutting back
on carbon emissions, not just adapting to them.
New York Times,
Friday 16, 2015
“If by the end of the century, we’re not off the
business-as-usual-curve we are now, I honestly feel there’s not much hope for
normal ecosystem in the ocean. But in
the meantime, we do have a chance to do
what we can. We have a couple decades
more than we thought we had, so let’s please not waste it.” Dr. Stephen R. Palumbi, Stanford University
Research by Palumbi et al. (Science, Jan 15, 2015)
The Climate & Clean Air Coalition (February, 2012) has had 37 country partners and 44 non-state
partners (up to 2014).
Sources:
Hillary Clinton, Hard
Choice (2014)
Research by Dr. Stephen R. Palumbi et al. (Science, Jan 15 Issue, 2015)
New York Times
(Friday 16, 2015)
