Oceans choking on CO2, face deadly changes

By Michael Perry, ReutersJune 17, 2010 SYDNEY (Reuters) – The world’s oceans are virtually choking on rising greenhouse gases, destroying marine ecosystems and breaking down the food chain — irreversible changes that have not occurred for several million years, a new study says. The changes could have dire consequences for hundreds of millions of people […]

New vision required to stave off dramatic biodiversity loss, says UN report

Nairobi, 10 May 2010 – Natural systems that support economies, lives and livelihoods across the planet are at risk of rapid degradation and collapse unless there is swift, radical and creative action to conserve and sustainably use the variety of life on Earth. This is one principal conclusion of a major new assessment of the […]

Scientists link ocean acidification to prehistoric mass extinction

BY GWYNETH DICKEY New evidence gleaned by analyzing calcium embedded in Chinese limestone suggests that volcanoes, which spewed massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere for a million years, caused the biggest mass extinction on Earth. In a paper published April 26 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of […]

Video: Ocean acidification hits northwest oyster farms

Scientists say carbon dioxide in oceans could mean curtains for shellfish By DARCY BONFILSApril 22, 2010 Mark Wiegardt and Sue Cudd have each dedicated about 30 years of their lives to bringing oysters to our tables. Now the two have found themselves in the forefront of one of the newest, most pressing environmental issues of […]

Ocean chemistry changing at ‘unprecedented rate’

By Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent; editing by Sandra MalerWASHINGTONThu Apr 22, 2010 2:53pm EDT (Reuters) – Carbon dioxide emissions that contribute to global warming are also turning the oceans more acidic at the fastest pace in hundreds of thousands of years, the National Research Council reported Thursday. “The chemistry of the ocean is changing at […]

World failing on every environmental issue: an op-ed for Earth Day

By Jeremy Hance, www.mongabay.com April 22, 201 The biodiversity crisis, the climate crisis, the deforestation crisis: we are living in an age when environmental issues have moved from regional problems to global ones. A generation or two before ours and one might speak of saving the beauty of Northern California; conserving a single species—say the […]

One coral reef dies every other day – Ocean dead zones proliferate

  Posted: 12:13 am PDT April 19, 2010Updated: 12:18 am PDT April 19, 2010 OAKLAND, Calif. — Many of us see planet earth as durable and powerful, but human senses fail to recognize what a surge of new science now confirms: Rapid and serious damage from greenhouse gases, including vast dead zones, now appearing off […]

Ocean acidification threatens Alaska fisheries

KUCB News (2010-03-26) UNALASKA, AK (kucb) – The cold waters and currents of the North Pacific Ocean make the ecosystems around the Aleutians more susceptible to ocean acidification. Brad Warren with the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership spoke about the issue at the Western Alaska Interdisciplinary Science Conference Thursday. “It’s a cross cutting threat to food webs […]

Death of coral reefs could devastate nations, have ‘tremendous cascade effect for all life in the oceans’

By BRIAN SKOLOFF (AP) WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Coral reefs are dying, and scientists and governments around the world are contemplating what will happen if they disappear altogether. The idea positively scares them. Coral reefs are part of the foundation of the ocean food chain. Nearly half the fish the world eats make their […]

Six ways we’re already geo-engineering Earth

By Brandon Keim Email AuthorMarch 23, 2010 | 8:00 pm Scientists and policymakers are meeting this week to discuss whether geo-engineering to fight climate change can be safe in the future, but make no mistake about it: We’re already geo-engineering Earth on a massive scale. From diverting a third of Earth’s available fresh water to […]

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