The oceans are our salvation in the war against climate change
Environment — di Elisabetta Scuri
In the war against climate change, the oceans are sacrificing themselves for our salvation, yet we persist in treating them as enemies to be plundered.
The oceans are our salvation in the war against climate change
In the war against climate change, the oceans are sacrificing themselves for our salvation, yet we persist in treating them as enemies to be plundered.
The oceans are fighting a full-scale war: over the past 150 years they have accumulated, on average, an amount of energy equivalent to that of 1.5 atomic bombs per second. This is because they absorb more than 90 per cent of the excess heat on Earth.
Ocean temperatures
"Right now they are saving us from hell," explains Malin Pinsky, associate professor in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources at Rutgers University in New Jersey. The problem is that the waters are warming 40 per cent faster than the Ipcc (the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) predicted five years ago: this is revealed by a study published in the journal Science.
Temperatures break the previous record every year, as we understand from the words of Professor Zeke Hausfather, one of the study's authors. In 2019 we may even witness the return of the notorious El Niño, a periodic climate phenomenon that causes strong warming of the Pacific Ocean. How much longer can this go on?
We need real, substantive climate action to combat fast-warming oceans.
"It’s one thing to throw up a sun shade beside a pool; it’s another thing entirely to try to cool down the water in the pool itself.”
rollingstone.com/politics/polit…
"It’s one thing to throw up a sun shade beside a pool; it’s another thing entirely to try to cool down the water in the pool itself.”
rollingstone.com/politics/polit…
The effects of heat on marine biodiversity
Sea creatures are literally dying of heat: entire lifeless zones have formed. Along with heat, the water absorbs large quantities of carbon dioxide, which causes a decrease in ocean pH. This phenomenon, known as acidification, causes coral bleaching and weakens their skeletons, threatening their survival.
Some marine species are migrating towards cooler areas, while others are proliferating in warmer waters: jellyfish, for example, which due to the "tropicalisation of the Mediterranean" are extending their time at sea. Others, unfortunately, are disappearing: this is the case of the sunflower sea star (Pycnopodia helianthoides), whose population has declined by 80–100 per cent in the area between California and Canada.
Read also:
- Almost 90 per cent of the oceans is damaged by human activities
- 8 ways to save the oceans, according to those who dedicate their lives to protecting them
The rise of extreme weather events
On one hand, rising temperatures cause glacier melting and, consequently, rising sea levels that put coastal areas at risk; on the other, they cause water at the surface to evaporate more quickly, loading the air with moisture: this is why hurricanes will become increasingly frequent and destructive.
How the colour of the sea will change
If we fail to take action, according to researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, half of the entire ocean surface will change colour by the end of the twenty-first century: where ice melts, more light will filter through and phytoplankton will proliferate — that is, the community of photosynthesising organisms present in plankton whose presence gives the water a green colour. In regions where nutrients are scarce, there will instead be more shades of blue.
Water pollution
Despite the oceans risking their existence to save ours, we continue to take advantage of them.
Oil spills
On 12 March 2018 an oil well exploded in Colombia; less than a month later, oil leaking from a damaged pipe in Indonesia formed a slick of 120 square kilometres off the coast of Borneo. On 7 October two cargo ships collided in the Tyrrhenian Sea, causing the spillage of 600 cubic metres of fuel.
The contribution of homes, farms and industries
These are not simply accidents. "80 per cent of pollutants in the marine environment come from land. The sources are numerous, from septic tanks to livestock farms. Not to mention that millions of vehicles release small quantities of oil onto roads every day that, in most cases, manage to reach the sea," reads the website of the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa). From fields come pesticides, from chemical industries come acids. This summer, Florida's coastlines suffered an invasion of red algae, while in the St. Lucie River a cyanobacteria bloom occurred, caused by sewage from farms and residential complexes north of the state's largest water reservoir, Lake Okeechobee.
By 2050 there will be more plastic than fish
From land also comes one of the most dangerous threats to the oceans: plastic. In 2018 scientists found it even in the Mariana Trench, the deepest known oceanic depression in the world. In the area of the Pacific trash vortex, the great garbage patch in the Pacific, there is more waste than prey, to the point that the diet of sea turtles can consist of up to 74 per cent plastic.
Not even the Mariana Trench—which extends nearly 36,000 feet down in the Pacific Ocean—can escape the global onslaught of plastics pollution on.natgeo.com/2jRPJq4
The exploitation of fish stocks
This is a gap that is widening with overfishing: today the number of fishing vessels in the world is 2.5 times higher than what is considered sustainable and, according to the Fao, 58 per cent of fish stocks are being exploited at maximum levels. Bluefin tuna and swordfish risk extinction in the Mediterranean, and the extremely high demand for salmon is decimating Atlantic populations. There is no shortage of fishermen willing to adopt more sea-friendly practices, given that it is in their own interest to increase fish stocks: in Stromboli and Salina, gems of the Aeolian Islands, they have signed a voluntary code of conduct for responsible fishing, choosing, for example, to use smaller nets.
There is good news for the oceans
The creation of large marine protected areas
Just a few kilometres away, loggerhead turtles, bottlenose dolphins, fin whales and sea cucumbers are sleeping soundly, because since May the waters off Capo Milazzo in Sicily have been protected, just like the Capo Testa – Punta Falcone area in Sardinia. Further afield, Chile has safeguarded 6,400 kilometres of coastline, while Leonardo DiCaprio has contributed, through his foundation, to the creation of two marine protected areas around the Seychelles as large as Great Britain.
Japan's withdrawal from the IWC
Even the news that Japan has chosen to withdraw from the International Whaling Commission (IWC) has a positive side: "The commission will finally be able to approve the establishment of the South Atlantic Whale Sanctuary, and the entire southern hemisphere will be free from whale hunters for the first time in history," explains Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Then, in September 2018, the first of four rounds of negotiations took place that will lead — it is hoped — to the United Nations concluding in 2020 a binding agreement to protect marine biodiversity in international waters. This would be a historic measure, as it would make it possible to protect two thirds of the entire ocean surface.
Ocean Cleanup
It is encouraging to see that initiatives to improve the situation are coming from both the top down and the bottom up, starting with the youngest: nineteen-year-old Dutch inventor Boyan Slat has succeeded in developing a machine that collects waste from the water by harnessing ocean currents. In September he tested it near the Pacific trash vortex. Unfortunately, a section of the device — made up of a chain of floating barriers — broke off after a couple of months, making it impossible to continue collecting waste. Ocean Cleanup is currently in the port of Hilo, Hawaii, undergoing repairs, and it is certain that Slat will do everything in his power to achieve the goal of reducing the size of the plastic island by 50 per cent within five years.
LifeGate PlasticLess
If we throw our rubbish in a bin when we're on the street, why not do the same at sea? That is why eight Seabin units have been installed in Italian ports to swallow floating plastics and microplastics. This is also because plastic is a valuable waste material that should be recovered before it even reaches the sea. In Haiti, the Philippines and Brazil there is a chain of shops, called Plastic Bank, where it is possible to purchase essential goods and services using plastic itself as currency, which is then sorted and sold to companies that reuse it in their production chain.
The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea.Karen Blixen
The oceans are home to 94 per cent of all species on planet Earth: at present we know of 246,315, but according to scientists many more remain to be discovered. Algae provide us with 70 per cent of the oxygen we breathe. There are more archaeological finds underwater than in museums. The depth of the abyss cannot but inspire awe, yet the briny smell, the soothing sound of th