Rapid growth of "dead zones" in oceans threatens planet

[redqueen]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1530&e=2&u=/afp/20040329/wl_asia_afp/environment_un_skorea_040329050449

JEJU, South Korea, (AFP) - The spread of oxygen-starved "dead zones" in the oceans, a graveyard for fish and plant life, is emerging as a threat to the health of the planet, experts say.

(snip)

Some of the oxygen-deprived zones are relatively small, less than one square kilometre (0.4 square miles) in size. Others are vast, measuring more than 70,000 square kilometres.

Pollution, particularly the overuse of nitrogen in fertilizers, is responsible for the spread of dead zones, environment ministers and experts from more than 100 countries were told.

The number of known oxygen-starved areas has doubled since 1990 to nearly 150, according to the UN Environmental Program (UNEP), holding is annual conference here.

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What a headline to start the week with. :(

[Lorien]

1. Amazing that headlines like this one

makes no impact with DU readers. *sigh*

Make the environment a key campaign issue. It should be one of the greatest concerns of us all!

[Nihil]

2. Thoughtful

Headlines like these make me wonder what the fossil record of the
current epoch will look like. I suspect there will be the flurries
of activity after the most recent ice ages followed by a brief layer
of mixed skeletons then a very empty, bland layer corresponding to
the current extinction (before the subsequent recovery).

Wonder if anyone (anything) will recognise the significance of the
occasional human skeleton that might appear from time to time?

Bet they'll derive all manner of hypotheses about climate change,
volcanic activity and asteroid strikes without ever suggesting (in the
mainstream scientific bodies at least) that the naked ape was to blame.

Nihil

[govegan]

3. Better to starve the oceans than agribusiness, eh?

As was written "particularly the overuse of nitrogen in fertilizers."

Well, we can buy organic, and support the family farmer, protect the farm workers.

By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled,
Here once the embattled farmers stood
And fired the shot heard round the world.
— from "Concord Hymn,"
Ralph Waldo Emerson

How would those "embattled farmers" feel about the greed and deceptions of corporate US today?