Second: Right now, a major new report on the oceans has come out; oceans are already at a critical crossroads and if we don't do something big and soon to prevent pollution/sewage/oxygen depletion, they are without more time for the world. Oxygen is depleting to a level that is making them less and less able to absorb pollutants, and the greatest amount of ocean rising is being caused by their warming and thus expanding. This has nothing to do with glaciers melting. It is in addition to that side of the problem.
Read the Independent news piece and weep. Fish farms must come out of the ocean, and their problems taken care of on land, for example, their sewage used to grow vegetables in coupled aquaponics sheds of tiered vegetables.
Here is the story on the report, in the Independent. Do go and read it. Here is the title:
‘Dead zones’ expanding rapidly in oceans as climate emergency causes unprecedented oxygen loss.
Largest ever study into issue potentially impacting ‘hundreds of millions of people’ a ‘wake-up call’ for world leaders at COP25.
And this is the link: https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change-oceans-oxygen-loss-dead-zones-cop25-madrid-iucn-a9237116.html?fbclid=IwAR2-ElAIi_7MNc-1HJF7FHua4MA74BbVj8Ls88WrJGEOc_TKUbtyCd2M4ng.
The lead paragraph says it all:
"“Dead zones” are rapidly appearing in the world’s oceans as they lose oxygen at an unprecedented rate due to climate change,
sewage pollution and farming practices, presenting an existential
threat to marine life and ecosystems, according to a vast new study."The overall level of oxygen in the oceans has dropped by roughly 2 per cent, while the number of known hypoxic “dead zones” – where oxygen levels are dangerously low – has skyrocketed from 45 known sites in the 1960s to at least 700 areas now dangerously devoid of the life-giving compound [O2], some encompassing thousands of square miles."
And it goes on:
“This is perhaps the ultimate wake-up call from the uncontrolled experiment humanity is unleashing on the world’s oceans as carbon emissions continue to increase,” said Dan Laffoley, co-editor of the report.
"The International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) study is the largest ever analysis of the causes and impacts of ocean deoxygenation, which the organisation describes as “one of the most pernicious, yet under-reported side-effects of human-induced climate change”."
The rest of the article is every bit as bleak as this quote. It is a huge problem and we are at the brink of not being able to stop it.
The amount of energy absorbed by the ocean is five atom bombs landing per second. The COP25 conference just ended was hailed as humanity's last chance to stop the problem by not polluting the ocean any more. Oxygen levels dropping are creating huge dead zones. And the oceans are absorbing 90% of the atmospheric green house gas emissions heat, and they are losing the battle.
If the oceans had not absorbed the green house gas emissions since 1955, the surface of the earth would be 36 degrees celsius warmer than it is now, and we would all be dead. This is not a joke. It is very serious and fish farms, along with other things need to come out of the ocean.
Third: I spent considerable time figuring out how to quantify the cost of fish farm sewage released into the ocean. The following post shows how to calculate the cost in any ocean in the world: https://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2017/02/fish-farm-sewage-huge-cost-to-bc.html.
Skim the voluminous references at the bottom, which shows that I did the work required to do the calculation. Note in particular the Op Ed in the Times Colonist by Ken Ashley, Director of Rivers Institute, which is item 17. The title, as I recall, was: Dilution is not the Solution. He said that today any engineering student would laugh at the suggestion that you can release sewage into the ocean and expect that the problem just disappears.
And the sewage cost is astronomical. The $10.4B that I calculated for fish farms in BC, is the low end of conservative, while the other end of conservative is $31.2B.
Fourth: The Bengal Bay sewage, etc. is one huge example of the crisis now affecting far reaches of our oceans. The link is in this post: http://fishfarmnews.blogspot.com/2017/02/killing-our-oceans-with-fish.html.
The point is clear: fish farms need to be on land. Humanity can no longer allow the Killing of the Oceans.We need to stop releasing human sewage as well. And so on. The clock is ticking.
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And, another link: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ocean-acidification-threatens-the-u-s-economy/?utm_source=Watershed+Watch+Email+List&utm_campaign=548e020e4b-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_01_16_12_13&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_405944b1b5-548e020e4b-166907249&mc_cid=548e020e4b&mc_eid=5777c92bcd.
The article is about acidification of the world's oceans: "Ocean acidification threatens to cause billions of dollars in damage to the U.S. economy, harming everything from crabs in Alaska to coral reefs in Florida and the Caribbean, NOAA researchers said in a new report.
"Carbon dioxide emissions and ocean acidification are occurring at an "unprecedented" rate, deteriorating valuable fisheries and tourist destinations across the United States and its territories, NOAA said in a draft research plan for ocean acidification."This article is based on a report that you can read on their site.
And another link: https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/earth-s-oceans-are-hotter-ever-getting-warmer-faster-n1114811?utm_source=Watershed+Watch+Email+List&utm_campaign=548e020e4b-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_01_16_12_13&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_405944b1b5-548e020e4b-166907249&mc_cid=548e020e4b&mc_eid=5777c92bcd. It is on the report cited above in the main article.
""The amount of heat we have put in the world's oceans in the past 25 years equals to 3.6 billion Hiroshima atom bomb explosions," Cheng said in a statement."
