The Problem

Warming ocean waters off Alaska bring widespread ecological changes, with more expected

From Science journal, New research from Oregon State University presented at the Alaska Marine Science Symposium shows how higher water temperatures harm Arctic cod eggs and larvae and favor lower-latitude, lower-fat fish that have been moving north: Pacific cod and walleye pollock. Farther south, the Bering Sea has emerged as a hot spot for warming.

Decades of data on world's oceans reveal a troubling oxygen decline

Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology looked at a historic dataset of ocean information stretching back more than 50 years and searched for long term trends and patterns. They found that oxygen levels started dropping in the 1980s as ocean temperatures began to climb.

OCEAN WARMING IS BEGINNING TO TAKE A TOLL ON THE WORLD'S giant KELP FORESTS

The nearly 3 degrees F increase in ocean temperatures over the last few decades has put the world's unbelievably productive kelp forests at high risk.  On the east coast of Tasmania, 95% of them are already gone, and it is nearly as bad on the coast of Norway.

LONG-BURIED THAWING MOSSES IN THE CA ARcTIC TELL A DISTURBING TALE ABOUT CURRENT TEMPERATURES

Eastern Canadian Arctic mosses that are being exposed through snow melting after being boring for 45,000-110,000 years reveal that temperatures there are now warmer than at any time in the tens of thousands of years.  This is startlingly bad news.

Ocean oxygen decline greater than predicted

Georgia Tech researchers report in Geophysical Research Letters that they looked at data for the last 50 years and found that oxygen levels started dropping in the 1980s, as ocean temperatures began to climb – and are falling unexpectedly rapidly.

How global warming is driving mass coral bleaching

Perhaps the most significant, and likely most enduring, rapid changes that are taking place in many ecological systems as a result of global warming are those taking place in the Earth's oceans. Whilst many readers may have read or heard about Ocean Acidification, there are numerous other changes taking place in the oceans which should be equally as concerning. One such phenomena to appear in the last few decades is mass coral bleaching, a consequence of the continued warming and acidification of the oceans from carbon pollution.

Ocean Acidification

As the Smithsonian's Ocean Portal notes, ocean acidification is sometimes called “climate change’s equally evil twin,” and for good reason: it's a significant and harmful consequence of excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere that we don't see or feel because its effects are happening underwater.

Fossil fuel subsidies are a staggering $5 tRILLION per year

Fossil fuels are expensive. Much of their costs are hidden, however, as subsidies. If people knew how large their subsidies were, there would be a backlash against them.

UBC STUDY SHOWS global marine catches declining by around 1.2M tons/year

Working with University of Western Australia, UBC scientists in a new study show that the statistics showing steady or increasing catches worldwide are inaccurate.

The Hottest Year on Record for Oceans was 2017

The new study, published in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, showed that the increase in ocean heat for 2017 took place in most regions of the world, with the Atlantic and Southern oceans showing more warming than Pacific and Indian oceans.

Pacific Northwest salmon are in big genetic trouble

A new study published in Science magazine shows that King/Chinook salmon have lots 2/3 of their genetic diversity are much less able to withstand habitat, temperature and other stressors associated with carbon pollution and associated ocean and atmospheric warming.