Extinctions feared as ocean dead zones grow

[GliderGuider]

Extinctions feared as ocean dead zones grow

Scientists fear the planet is on the brink of another mass extinction as ocean dead zones continue to grow in size and number.

More than 400 ocean dead zones — areas so low in oxygen that sea life cannot survive — have been reported by oceanographers around the world between 2000 and 2008. That is compared with 300 in the 1990s and 120 in the 1980s.

Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, a professor at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (CoECRS) and the University of Queensland in Australia, says there is growing evidence that declining oxygen levels in the ocean have played a major role in at least four of the planet's five mass extinctions.

"Just as we are seeing at a smaller scale today, huge parts of the ocean became anoxic at depth.

"The consequence of that is that you had increased amounts of rotten egg gas, hydrogen sulfide, going up into the atmosphere, and that is thought to be what may have caused some of these other extinction events."

Hoegh-Guldberg says up to 90 per cent of life has perished in previous mass extinctions and that a similar loss of life could occur in the next 100 years.

Dum dee dum dee dum...

[Deep13]

1. *sigh*

[GliderGuider]

2. I know it's not funny, but ROFL anyway. n/t

[joshcryer]

3. Win.

Hahaha, shit. :(

[Kennah]

4. The Sixth Extinction by Richard Leakey is on my to read list

[Nihil]

8. It's worth it IMHO. (n/t)

:hi:

[jimlup]

5. Oh Shit!

That is all... it's hard to get excited anymore but yeah, we're in major league bad territory and nobody (or at least very few) cares.

[pscot]

6. 100 years is even faster

than I expected.

[guardian]

7. On the brink? You mean underway

I thought the mass extinction has been underway for some time now??? I wish we could get this straight. This bouncing around between doom started 30 years ago or 150 years ago, then saying...no wait...doom is eminent...just 10 years away...20 years away... 100 years away. It is all so confusing.

Though I guess one can only fearmonger for so many years claiming mass extinction before people figure out they cannot notice any difference. All the species you saw as a child--are still around! So like 'global warming' became 'climate change', the doomers have to reframe the argument and say the doom is 10-20 years out. Close enough in to make people afraid and get more research funding. Far enough out that you'll be retired before your predictions are proven wrong.

DOOM's cold hand is on our collective shoulders. We're all going to die a sad and sorry death.



http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Largest_mass_extinction_in_65_million_years_underway,_scientists_say
Largest mass extinction in 65 million years underway, scientists say Unchecked
Wednesday, March 8, 2006
Environmental scientists say they have concrete evidence that the planet is undergoing the "largest mass extinction in 65 million years". Leading environmental scientist Professor Norman Myers says the Earth is experiencing its "Sixth Extinction."

http://www.deep-ecology-hub.com/mass-extinction.html
A Mass Extinction Is Underway
There is a mass extinction currently underway. As the human population expands it destroys the habitats of plant life and other animals. As we grow exponentially non-human living matter decreases at the same rate.

Mass extinctions underway but it's still possible to stop species loss
22 Mar 2006
Australia as a biodiversity heavy weight has a special role to play in halting the biggest mass extinction since the dinosaurs, says WWF, the conservation organisation.


Are we in the midst of the sixth mass extinction? A view from the world of amphibians
David B. Wake*† and Vance T. Vredenburg*‡
Many scientists argue that we are either entering or in the midst of the sixth great mass extinction. Intense human pressure, both direct and indirect, is having profound effects on natural environments.


Mass Extinction Underway, Majority of Biologists Say
Steve Wingate, 22 May 2001


American Museum of Natural History Official Statement on Mass Extinction
American Museum of Natural History Press Release on Mass Extinction
Fastest Mass Extinction in Earth's History (Worldwatch Report)
THE SIXTH EXTINCTION by Richard Leakey
The Sixth Extinction (National Geographic Magazine)
The Sixth Extinction (American Museum of Natural History)
GLOBAL EXTINCTION CRISIS CONFIRMED-- 2000 IUCN Red List Released
Mass Extinction Pace Quickening: Red List 2000 Released (N.Y. Times)
1998 Comprehensive Data on Plant Extinction Rate (N.Y. Times)
1996 Comprehensive Data on Animal Extinction Rate (IUCN)

[tom_paine]

10. As always, your reply indicates a staggering lack of understanding of science

In many ways it makes me laugh, just because it's the same old song and dance running over and over. The same old snake dressed in shiny new skin, depending on which historical era and nation it again rises in.

You think maybe the Sixth Mass Extinction might transpire over tens or even hundreds of years, given the history of the Earth is billions of years? Gosh, but such a simple common sense thought would render your entire post nonsensical and even ridiculous, wouldn't it? Mocking scientists for writing papers over the course of six years describing a process that may take tens or even hundreds to unfold?

By the way, do you agree the Earth is billions of years old, do you believe it's 6000 years old or how old do you think it is? What has your "research" (snicker) told you? Just curious.

Of course your post is deliberately misleading, begging the real question and naturally punctuated with "attack the messenger" in place of the defect that your reply is akin to answering a question, "Who was the first president of the US?" with "TWELVE!"

As I watch ignorance triumph at almost every level in the USA, I realize that ignorance itself doesn't destroy, it is a growing pride in ignorance that is the vehicle. Years ago, ignorance was shameful to most people. Now it is celebrated in almost every way, every day, in modern media and culture. I once in a moment of anger called you Nazi-like. I doubt you are like them in most ways. But you are identical to them, the KKK and most of Medieval Europe, to name a few, in ONE very specific way. Ignorance combined with a deep, shameless PRIDE in your ignorance. Serving the same forces of power and greed that use you like a condom.

You attack like a PR man, using so many logical fallacies, advanced PR/rhetorical obfuscation and misdirection that it's pointless to explain them to you. You didn't originate them, you just regurgitate them, so it's doubtful you understand them any better than you do scientific method.

Language as battlefield instead of communications device. Focus group tested sophistry using the finest scientific advances to figure our how to maximize obfuscation and take advantages of the weaknesses of the human mind, both individually and collectively. It is as successful now as when Bernays and Goebbels where beginning and defining the science of lying/PR back in the 20s. More successful, even. Orders of magnitude more powerful, certainly.

I wish I wasn't a scientist with the hobby of reading history. I wish I could simply translate a fifth-graders' disdain for the smart kids into a high schoolers' sneer about "doomers", combined with regurgitating anti-intellectual, logically fallacious anti-scientific propaganda in place of years of research in what is still a relatively young science.

Be happy. Greed-harnessed Ignorance is winning. YOU are winning. Ignorance almost never loses. In the absence of cheap, abundant energy, pre-1776, it won virtually every time. Think about that. For thousands of years ignorance and greed won virtually every single time. Most people lived like shit. A tiny few lived very well. And they could and did always hire one half of the poor to kill the other half. Ignorance and greed, the primary driver of human history, after sex and denial.

Be of good cheer. You are winning. You have won. The temporary losses endured by the Nobility during the 1945-1980 period are now nearly eradicated. Ignorance and greed are holding High Carnival, with fear and want not far behind. America is more unequal that Communist China, Pinochet's Chile or Soviet Russia. The nobility will ride the crashing surf of the human species right into the beach.

No matter that the wave was destroyed in the process, it's only purpose was to keep the surfer on top as long as possible.

[GliderGuider]

11. +1000. Well said. n/t

[guardian]

12. Excellent post! +1000000

You nearly got the sum of human history in that one! Nothing like a good, tight, message to drive home a point. Let's see we have

* song and dance
* snakes
* mass extinction
* age of the Earth
* decline of the USA
* linguistics
* elementary education
* propaganda
* scientific method
* greed
* ignorance
* sources of energy circa 1776
* public relations of the 1920s
* European nobility
* Communist China
* Pinochet's Chile
* Soviet Russia
* Of course, the obligatory reference to Nazi and KKK. Though "Medieval Europe" is a new one. I assume you mean the dark ages. Gold star for effort!!!


Your post is soooooooooooo good I think it should be added to the dictionary:


Definition of RAMBLE

ram·ble verb \ˈram-bəl\ ram·bled ram·bling

intransitive verb
: to move aimlessly from place to place
: to explore idly
: to talk or write in a desultory or long-winded wandering fashion
: to grow or extend irregularly

Example of RAMBLE
****** THE MOST RECENT POST BY TOM_PAINE ON DU

[tom_paine]

14. I'd rather ramble than have nothing but nonsense and non sequitur to say like you

Poor thing. What DO you do for a living?

You've got nothing. You've had nothing. You say nothing. Nothing you thought up yourself at least.

I must admit, as putdowns go, yours wasn't bad. 8 of 10 and my God, you FINALLY gave us some original input you thought of yourself, instead of just repeating someone else.

It doesn't change that you have nothing to say but stale regurgitated nonsense about anything besides second-grade poopthrowing. Or that you likely couldn't pass a high school science exam in any discipline.

What do you do for a living? Why won't you 'fess up?

How old do you think the earth is?

Is evolution just a Liberal Plot, like Global Warming?

Just kidding. I know you don't answer questions.

'Bye now, bright boy.

[hatrack]

13. Whatever it was . . . . damn! Is it worth un-ignoring?

:toast:

[tom_paine]

15. If you are referring to unignoring guardian, I seriously doubt it's worth it to waste time unignorin

He says othing of substance. No debate. No points of interest. Just his usual childish hibbity-bibbity and sarcastic snark.

Not bad as snark goes, if that sort of thing interests you. But if you enjoyed the trial scene in the movie Idiocracy, you might enjoy his snark. He has a better command of rhetoric and vocabulary that the hypothetical Morons of the Future in that movie, though.

Short version: Complex topics involving interrelationships and long-term thinking make guardian's head hurt. I ramble. I should talk in no more than 1 minute easily digestible soundbytes that can be rapidly repeated and disseminated regardless of their factuality over the long-winded objections of the intellectuals.

See? I'm rambling again. :rofl:

[Judi Lynn]

9. Deep water corals in the Gulf of Mexico found fouled by oil

Deep water corals in the Gulf of Mexico found fouled by oil
Wed, 01 Dec 2010 10:00:00 GMT

Seven miles south west of the Deepwater Horizon wellhead a remotely controlled underwater vehicle called Jason discovered oil-fouled dead and damaged corals at 1400 metres deep.

One of 125 research cruises organised to understand what impact the massive 4 million barrel oil spill has had on Gulf of Mexico marine life, the Jason cruise was led by Professor Charles Fisher, a biology professor at Pennsylvania State University. 'We have been studying the deep water corals of the Gulf for over a decade and what we saw at one site near the Deepwater Horizon site was like nothing we had ever seen before,' said Fisher, a veteran of deep water exploration cruises in the Gulf since 1986. 'We discovered a community of coral that has been impacted fairly recently by something very toxic.'

Jason brought back images of fouled dying and recently dead deep water coral species Madrepora and of the brittlestars (a kind of starfish) that associates with them. 'Many of the colonies appeared recently dead, with no living coral tissue, still covered with decaying material, and also with a notable lack of colonisation by other marine life, as would be expected on coral skeletons that had been dead for long periods of time," Fisher said.

In a month's time laboratory analysis is expected to confirm the presence of toxic oil or dispersant residues from the sediments and/ or the coral tissues themselves. Fisher continued, "The proximity of the site to the disaster, the depth of the site, the clear evidence of recent impact, and the uniqueness of the observations all suggest that the impact we have found is linked to the exposure of this community to either oil, dispersant, extremely depleted oxygen, or some combination of these or other water-borne effects resulting from the spill," Fisher said.

More:
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/356035,deep-water-corals-in-the-gulf-of-mexico-found-fouled.html