Science a GoGo's Home Page Forums General Discussion Climate Change Forum Global Warming Is Reducing Ocean Life

Alarming new satellite data show that the warming of the world's oceans is reducing ocean life while contributing to increased global warming.

The ocean's food chain is based upon the growth of billions upon billions of microscopic plants. New satellite data show that ocean warming is reducing these plants ---- thus imperiling ocean fisheries and marine life, according to an article in the Nov. 7 issue of the scientific journal Nature.

The full story:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/12/061207084052.htm

I wonder if this is how Venus stated down the road to where it is today? <g>

For as far back as I can remember I have been saying that we will never see a Public Outcry regarding Global Warming (Actually we called it "The Greenhouse Effect" back then, Global Warming is a relativly new term) until people see dead penguins on the 6:00 News. That's right Dead Penguins, babies, their mothers, Skuas picking at the bodies strewn all over the ice with a vice over by Dan Rather. Well, Rather's gone and the penguins are still there. But, if the supply of krill, the bottom of the food chain, is dwindling, how long do the penguins have? My thinking was that the Antarctic would warm up, reducing the amount of plankton, the krill would die off leaving less food for the small fish that penguins feed on etc...
This season we had Humpback Whales calving here, in Samoa, rather than in Hawai'i for the first time in Human memory. The Experts believe that the pregnant females were too "slim" to complete the swim to Hawai'i. I haven't seen any, but fishing buddies have seen more Killer Whales around our islands this year than ever before too.

Wolfman, I really look forward to "a vice over by Dan Rather". What a spectacle! I presume it's a spilling mistuke.

We know things have been changing continually on earth. But even without considering if human activity is causing global warming we know humans are pouring a huge amount of s--t into the atmosphere and waterways. Therefore CO2 and global warming is really just part of the problem. No wonder the powers that be are content to confine the debate to just that subject though. (I've just read Noam Chomsky's "failed States").

What I find fascinating about those that say: Stuff's been happening on earth for a long time and this is natural variation.

Is that I don't see those very same people (can you say the word hypocrisy?) saying hurricanes, cyclones, earth quakes, tsunamis, and forest fires, have been happening on earth for a long time and are part of nature so just ignore them.

The fact that the planet was inhospitable for human civilization 100,000 years ago is not a glowing recommendation that we sit idly by and allow that to happen yet again.

We're seeing Freak-of-Nature weather events. What does it take for us to collectively sit up and take notice? A Tornado hitting the City of London?

Physics is really a rather simple science.

Things that happen require energy.
We are pumping energy into the environment.
Things are happening.

If something didn't happen ... now that would be newsworthy.

The argument that we are insignificant and therefore couldn't be causing whatever is a demonstration on convenient memory. We pumped CFCs into the environment and we observed a direct effect. We stopped pumping them in and the effect decreased. Well duh!