Wednesday, July 20, 2011

S.O.S. - Ocean's 11th Hour

Photobucket


The oceans of Planet Earth currently contain about a quarter million species of marine organisms, which together constitute the Marine Food Pyramid and the Marine Food Web. If we do not change our ways, radically and fundamentally, immediately or sooner, we stand to drive over 90% of them, or more than 225,000 species, to extinction, and that is from the oceans alone.

Photobucket

Worse if we look at the Marine Food Pyramid in terms of its 6 Trophic Levels (TLs), namely:

Photobucket

- TL1. Phytoplankton (otherwise known as "Producers", which convert solar energy and CO2 into organic matter and oxygen),
- TL2. Zooplankton (which feed on the Phytoplankton and other Zooplankton, e.g. krill),
- TL3. Primary Consumers (which feed on plankton e.g. carols, and feed on krill e.g. small fish and baleen whales),
- TL4. Secondary Consumers (which feed on the Primary Consumers, e.g. medium fish, cephalopods e.g. squid, etc.),
- TL5. Tertiary Consumers (which feed on the Secondary Consumers, e.g. large fish) and
- TL6. Quaternary Consumers (which feed on the Tertiary Consumers, e.g. Great White Shark, Giant Squid, all marine mammals, and humans).

Photobucket

Of this 250,000-species global treasure the Marine Food Pyramid/Web, all the fishes on all levels and pathways combined number only 15,000 species, and all the marine mammals (whales, dolphins, seals) total only about 120 species. And all of these advanced species will likely be among those that would go extinct, as will likely be most the corals and most arthropods (krill, crabs, lobsters).

Photobucket

The mechanism of marine ecological collapse is two-fold: ocean warming, which is unfavorable to plankton growth, and ocean acidification, which is detrimental to all organisms with skeletons composed of calcium carbonate, which means all species with skeletons, including most phytoplankton species, krill, the crustaceans, and all corals).

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

The pH of the oceans has dropped (acidified) from 8.2 to 8.1 since industrialization, and susceptible species have begun to die off. By pH 7.8, all plankton species will be impacted, and with their decline, or demise, so will the species on the higher trophic levels, all the way up to the top sharks, the seals, dolphins, whales, even the humans.

Photobucket

This is not all speculation and computer modeling. It has happened before, and can happen again. We are talking about Earth's Mass Extinction bouts, in #6 of which we are as we speak deeply entrenched. 50 years ago, the planet was losing about 20 known species a day; today, we are losing over 100 known species a day, meaning possibly ten times that many unknown species. And when it is all said and done, we will have lost over 1.5 million known species, and many times that many unknown species, land, air and sea.

Photobucket

When we talk about mass extinctions, the End-Cretaceous Extinction 64 million years ago, the one that wiped out all the dinosaurs - Mass Extinction #5 - comes to mind. But first, it is not the most severe among the Big 5, eliminating "only" about 50% of Earth's species (including all the dinosaurs), and second, it is not caused by global warming, but by an asteroid, and was therefore irrelevant to our current consideration.

Photobucket

The worst of them all was Mass Extinction #3, the End-Permian Mass Extinction 251 million years ago, which drove some 75% of all land species and 95% of all marine species, including all the corals, to extinction. And it was caused indeed by global warming resulting from geological activities associated with the break-up of the super-continent Pangaea, which raised global temperature by some 15 degrees Celsius.

Photobucket

The conditions are ripe for Mass Extinction #6 being a repeat of Mass Extinction #3, or even to out-do it in some of the worse-case scenarios.

Photobucket

This won't be immediate, at least not in the human time frame - perhaps a century or two, or three, but it will happen if we follow our current trajectory. The only difference is: Which of our future generation shall we devastate the most?

Photobucket

Meanwhile, as we do the Amazon rainforest on land, so we rape the oceans and the seas, directly, by highly effective machinery from chain saws to trawlers, to drain pipes of pulp mills, to floating islands plastic, as if there is no tomorrow. Many previously major species have been fished out of commercial existence, and poaching, such as shark-finning, kills off up to 90 million sharks a year, of which over 200 species are endangered. At the rate we're going, perhaps there will be no tomorrow after all.

Photobucket

Imagine an ocean without whales, dolphins, seals, sharks, cod, octopus, lobsters, crabs, nor a single coral reef. It will still look breath-taking from a beach at sunset, but our soul will be filled with that ocean's desolate emptiness.

Photobucket


Anthony Marr, Founder and President
Heal Our Planet Earth (HOPE)
Global Anti-Hunting Coalition (GAHC)
Anthony-Marr@HOPE-CARE.org
www.HOPE-CARE.org
www.facebook.com/Anthony.Marr.001
www.facebook.com/Global_Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.myspace.com/AnthonyMarr
www.youtube.com/AnthonyMarr
www.HomoSapiensSaveYourEarth.blogspot.com
www.DearHomoSapiens.blogspot.com (AM's 3rd-book-in-the-making)
www.myspace.com/Anti-Hunting_Coalition
www.ARConference.org

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Kim Madar
This is a Wonderful testimony on a Spell caster called DR OWOLABI that Just helped me and Brought My Ex Husband
back within 2Days with his Love spell. I am Kim Madar from United States, Life has being very Difficult for me
Since my Husband Left me and my Two Kids. My Kids and I and had being Missing My Husband and I cried almost
Everyday because of him, One Faithful Day, Someone Directed me to This man DR OWOLABI and I Contacted him VIA Email
and He Casted a Love spell for me and Told me that i will see the Results within 2DAYS, My Husband That Left me
For about 3years, Called me And Started opposing and he even sent me an apologizing Text. From that Moment,
I and My Family had being Living happily. Readers Out There, Who are in Pains and have Great Pleasure in Contacting
this Man should do that On this Email: DROWOLABISOLUTIONHOME@GMAIL.COM
You Can also Reach Him or Contact him On His NUMBER +16828086703or+2348124209863...