Okay, enough already with the good news. Via the Guardian, here’s some of the other kind:
Damage to the once pristine habitats of the deep oceans by pollution, litter and overfishing is running out of control, the United Nations warned yesterday. In a report that indicates that time is running out to save them, the U.N. said humankind’s exploitation of the the deep seas and oceans was “rapidly passing the point of no return.”
Last year some 85 million tonnes of wild fish were pulled from the global oceans, 100 million sharks and related species were butchered for their fins, some 250,000 turtles became tangled in fishing gear, and 300,000 seabirds, including 100,000 albatrosses, were killed by illegal longline fishing.
Into the water in their place went three billion individual pieces of litter – about eight million a day – joining the 46,000 pieces of discarded plastic that currently float on every square mile of ocean and kill another million seabirds each year. The water temperature rose and its alkalinity fell – both the result of climate change. Coral barriers off Australia and Belize are dying and newly discovered reefs in the Atlantic have already been destroyed by bottom trawling.
The piece has a U.N. official saying, “Humankind’s ability to exploit the deep oceans and high seas has accelerated rapidly over recent years. It is a pace of change that has outstripped our institutions and conservation efforts,” and notes by way of example that mining could soon spread to the sea floor for the first time, with a Canadian company planning to dig for deposits of gold and copper off Papua New Guinea.
For a full inventory of the woes afflicting the oceans see Julia Whitty’s excellent piece from the March/April Mother Jones. And if you want to do something about this mess–and you can–click here.
