As scientist Jim Lovelock observed, "Although the weight of the Oceans is 250 times that of the atmosphere, it is only one part in 4,000 of the weight of the Earth."
1/4000 = 0.00025
Therefore, only 0.025% of Earth's mass is Water. Yet we tend to think of our Oceans as vast and an endless resource, free to everyone.
Scientists also point out, "If the Earth were a globe 12 inches in diameter, the average depth of the ocean would be no more than the thickness of a piece of paper, and even the Deepest Ocean Trench would only be a tiny dent, one third of a millimeter deep. (0.3 mm = 0.01 in)
Since the Ocean's mass is 0.025% that of Earth's, our Oceans can more accurately be appreciated as the priceless reservoirs they are, the only living Oceans in the entire universe. Mars might have some frozen mud.
Knowing the Earth's "surface" is 70.8% water, often leads a popular conclusion... there might be more Ocean than Earth, so... "dilution is the solution" for pollution.
Unfortunately, this popular "solution" is LEGAL and leads to the global assumption... that pollution might be absorbed and simply rendered harmless... within the Ocean's vastness.
Millions of Tons of toxic chemicals are discarded into rivers worldwide, while the industry leaders "cross their fingers" in a futile false hope that the chemicals will quietly be absorbed by the living Oceans.
To compound the problem, millions of tons of plastic, also dumped 24/7, by the barge load, into our Oceans, does not "break down" for almost 1000 years, but it does break into tiny bits of plastic "dust" or "snow. Then the PCB's, that are now major contaminants in the Ocean, are attracted to the plastic bits like a magnetic sponge. Marine animals can't differentiate the plastic snow from plankton, so they eat the plastic bits, and become toxic with PCB's, causing immune system failure.
As the toxins slowly distribute worldwide by the Ocean's conveyer belt currents, the entire food chain is affected, from the tiny coral polyps that make world's largest reefs, to whales feeding on plankton and other particles suspended in the water column, including PCB laden plastic "snow".
An impairment to the immune systems of living creatures is being observed globally, from the tiny coral polyps, to the giant killer whales, and finally the humans themselves, seated at the top of the food chain, consuming industrial leftovers that will not bio-degrade in nature for thousands of years.
ATSDR points out that every child born from a mother who consumed Great Lakes fish during their pregnancies were three times (3X) more likely to have lower IQs and twice (2X) as likely to be TWO grade levels behind their peers in reading comprehension. Other studies have shown children who's mothers consumed PCB-contaminated fish had lower birth rates, reduced motor reflexes and neuromuscular function, poor short-term and long-term memory, weakened immune systems and greater susceptibility to infections, among other problems.
Now tons of the sludge from water treatment plants, also containing PCB's, are being dumped onto agricultural land. Scientists are scrambling just to name the new diseases as they discover them and counting the countless number of species that just became extinct, while the oil emperors fiddle in the stock market, making new world record profits.
I know this is hard to believe, it was for me too, so just Google it.
As a free nation... we the people... have spent more of our own tax dollars for exploring remote areas of outer space and the mud on Mars than protecting the only "Living Oceans" in the entire universe while the planet becomes less inhabitable for humans. Who is really steering this over-heating planet, big business persons? Is bowing to the $tock market index given a higher priority than the World's Ocean Health index in Washington?
As we awaken to the collapse of our Oceans, we begin to see the consequences of giving the "green light" to industry for dumping millions of tons of "known toxins" into the only known living Oceans in the entire universe.
At age thirteen, Jacques-Yves Cousteau's book, "The Silent World" was presented to me by my scuba instructor, when I was first certified as a scuba diver. I was thrilled with swimming and breathing underwater, enjoying a view of nature referred to as the "Silent World."
Today, Jacques-Yves Cousteau must be looking down on the Oceans, and the dying coral reefs, with salty tears in his eyes.
Scientists estimate 1,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises drown every day after becoming tangled in fishing nets and other fishing gear, however... in reality, the figures are probably at least 10 times that amount. MarineConnection.orgNASA.gov
An estimated 50,000 critically endangered sea turtles are caught each year as "by-catch". Panda.org article
Turtle Excluder Device's reduce the unwanted "by-catch", that is "normally", killed and tossed overboard, in quantities routinely estimated to be anywhere between 2 and 10 times greater than the "wanted catch". NOAA.GOV OceanConservancy.org
Turn the Tide, and make a positive impact on the environment. Aqua.org
Eutrophication PSA - is the term for the process whereby water bodies receive excess nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) that stimulate excessive plant growth and cause algal blooms.
Video provided by Karst Productions, Inc. and the St. Johns River Water Management Districts that describes this process.
Plastic, plastic, plastic...
Do you remember the reefs...
AL GORE: The Assault on Reason
CO2 is now absorbed into the Oceans, causing acidification and potentially toppling food chain domino #1, the plankton.
Ocean "acidification" occurs when chemical compounds such as carbon dioxide, sulfur, or nitrogen mix with seawater, a process which lowers the pH and reduces the storage of carbon.
Ocean acidification hampers the ability of marine organisms—such as sea urchins, corals, and certain types of plankton—to harness calcium carbonate for making hard outer shells or "exoskeletons." These organisms provide essential food and habitat to other species, so their demise could affect entire ocean ecosystems.
Earth's rivers polluted with cancinogenic chemicals
Wed Oct 10, 2007 3:11pm EDT
www.reuters.com
PARIS (Reuters) - Rivers in eastern and northern France found to be contaminated with chemicals that have been outlawed since 1987 and are proving very hard to eliminate, the government reported on Wednesday.
The River "Rhone" which runs through the southeastern corner of France (scientists said) contained dangerous levels of polychlorinated biphenyls ( PCB / PCBs ).
The latest report said additional rivers were in an even worse condition because of industrial dumping dating back decades, including the River Seine which runs through Paris.
"It's a huge clean-up job," Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, the secretary of state for ecology, told a news conference. Other big rivers in Europe are affected by the same problem, she said.
PCB's were used primarily as a cooling and insulating fluid for electricity transformers and capacitors. It has been banned in France since 1987 after research showed it could cause fertility, growth and cancer in humans.
Kosciusko-Morizet said PCB had been very heavily used in industry since the 1930s and France was suffering the consequences of long-standing pollution.
"Cleaning it up is far from easy. It's very complicated because there are huge amounts of sediment." She said it would be technically and economically impossible to clean up the whole Rhone River... (... what about the Ocean?)
Here is the PCB problem
.... connecting the dots .....
with plastic pollution....
=============-------..-------===============
( text_insert )
"Alguita, the oceanic research vessel from Algalita, just came back from one of its research expeditions in the Pacific Gyre, an area of the Pacific Ocean otherwise known as the Garbage Patch. They collected samples on the surface of the ocean and found evidence of record high concentrations of small plastic particles.
Birds and fish eat the plastic because it mimics the food they eat, zooplankton. Research data from the Algalita Foundation shows plastic particles outnumber zooplankton 6 to 1. Especially concerning is the fact that the plastic pieces can attract and hold hydrophobic elements like PCB and DDT at up to one million times background levels. As a result, this floating plastic is a "poison pill".
... so... the "easy" solution would simply be to get industry to stop
dumping millions of tons of toxins into the rivers/oceans....
( ... going back 50 years or so... )
... then just get the entire world to stop using plastic 'once',
and tossing it into the garbage/oceans....
... that will probably be about as easy as
oh... maybe stopping the use of fossil fuels...
then we can get back to work on that little global warming "issue".... :-)
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