Slashdot Mirror
Man-Made "Dead Zone" In Gulf of Mexico the Size of Connecticut
Taco Cowboy writes Somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico there is a man-made "Dead Zone" the size of the State of Connecticut. Inside that "Dead Zone" the water contains no oxygen, or too little to support normal marine life, especially the bottom dwelling fish and shrimps. The "Dead Zone" measures about 5,000 square miles (13,000 square kilometers) [and] is caused by excess nutrient runoff from farms along the Mississippi River, which empties into the Gulf. The excess nutrients feed algae growth, which consumes oxygen when it works its way to the Gulf bottom. The Gulf dead zone, which fluctuates in size but measured 5,052 square miles this summer, is exceeded only by a similar zone in the Baltic Sea around Finland. The number of dead zones worldwide currently totals more than 550 and has been increasing for decades.
It is a life opportunity area. Give it a chance.
This has been going on for a long time. It's due to drainage of basically the Great Plains out into the Gulf. Lots of fixed nitrogen from fertilizers in that these days. That nitrogen stimulates a variety of organisms that also use oxygen. Which there really isn't all that much of in water.
The only way you are going to stop it is to find a different method of raising food for the world. Hint: current organic methods doesn't do it - too labor intensive and yields suffer.
Or you could have less people.
We have gone forth and multiplied,
to the great detriment of our bluegreen, slightly elliptical, biosphere.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
To put this in perspective, 5,000 sq. mi. is a square about 71 miles on a side. Compare this to the total area of the Gulf (615,000 sq. mi) and you'll see this "dead zone" occupies just 0.8% of the Gulf. Is this something that needs addressing? Absolutely. But it's not some horrific cauldron of death like the headline tries to make it out to be.
In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Damn you, Finns.
Everything is bigger in Texas.
Apparently near it, too.
Only the size of Connecticut? So, nothing to worry about?
What a coincidence; there's a brain-dead zone in Connecticut, the size of Connecticut.
Star Trek transporters are just 3d printers.
" Inside that "Dead Zone" the water contain no oxygen"
Step 1. Find Connecticut-sized container
Step 2. Something something
Step 3. Profit.
Pretending this is my office full of bitter coworkers..
We already know about it; it's called Congress.
Table-ized A.I.
Calm down. It's been worked out for your viewing pleasure.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Don't forget: We also hate the poor and minorities too. We want to see them all die so that there is nothing left in this universe but a few rich white men with no earth (because as you yourself state, we hate that too.)
(Disclaimer: I'm not a Republican, but I typically get lumped with them because most people can't see beyond simple left and right.)
All good point. But you know...doom and gloom gets funding
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
Well, theres only one way to be sure....send in the nukes
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
Yes, if this zone were far offshore, so that dying algae would sink to the deep bottom, rather than killing littoral fish and crustaceans. It's a good object of study though, to learn more about the effect of algal blooms on the ecosystem.
It has been known for a long time now that this has *nothing* to do with nitrogen. Nitrogen is never the limiting factor for algae growth. Neither is potassium. So, you have one major fertilizer to guess - yes, it is phosphorus.
Phosphorus runoff is *the* reason for dead-zones and algae blooms. Stop phosphorus runoff, and you fix one of the major problems we have today that not only affects The Gulf, but many of the sweet water lakes too.
The only way you are going to stop it is to find a different method of raising food for the world. Hint: current organic methods doesn't do it - too labor intensive and yields suffer.
Wrong on both points.
1. You do not have to stop using fertilizer if you prevent runoff from getting into rivers and lakes in sufficient quantities to cause problems. This means less ditches, more wetlands, and stop of draining wetlands to get substandard farmland.
2. If people had nothing but organic farming, we would certainly not run out of food. Even if yields were 50% lower (and they would not be), there would still be plenty of plant food to eat. Maybe meat would be more expensive and people would start only eating meat once a week, like 100+ years ago, but there certainly would be enough food to go around.
Secondly, even 100% pure organic farming using natural fertilizer does not solve the problem of phosphorus runoff.
I wish people would quit quoting Mike Rowe. He's like a fortune cookie, only more ignorant.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
last week 400K Toledo OH. residents were not able to drink the water for 2 days (or more) due to toxin in the algae that turns the lake into green sludge. it's a freshwater problem as well.
Get up!
By your signature I'm guessing that you are at least somewhat familiar with psychology. That's good because it will save me some time.
The reason I quote Mike Rowe is because this one line says a lot. I find that a lot of people go around with this constant attitude that somebody is out to make their life shitty (whether that is the big corporations, the government, the communists, rich people, aliens from outer space, etc.) This is the reason why a lot of people are very unhappy. This is why I see people on slashdot that seem to always be unhappy (they're always complaining about this or that.)
Life is only as crappy as you think it is. Doesn't matter if your rich or poor, disabled, etc. How you feel about how good or bad your life is, is entirely up to you. A lot of people get offended when they hear that, but even empirical science has proven it, and it's a fact whether it offends you or not.
The guy I replied to obviously thinks the Republicans are out to destroy the world. He probably drives himself crazy with rage every time he hears about X, Y, or Z that a Republican has done. Many Republicans do the same thing with Democrats. But really they're all just making themselves miserable.
So yes, I'll quote Mike Rowe on this, as I feel it is very appropriate to slashdot. Mike Rowe didn't even believe it himself at first, and I thought it was neat reading about how he came to realize it.
That makes our worse case 2500000 / 139000000 = 0.0179856115107914 or 0.17% of the worlds oceans. Is "killing" (more quotes) 0.17% of the ocean to feed the world with cheap and abundant food saving millions from starvation a good enough reason? I'm not one to judge! Who's to say what the value of 0.17% of the ocean in the middle of nowhere is worth!
What I think is a more pressing matter is the fact that the state of Connecticut has been used without going through the proper RFC process. How am I supposed to know how to accurately convert states of Connecticut to Pyramids of Giza or Olympic sized swimming pools. For that matter, I'm not even sure if I shouldn't' be comparing this to Libraries of Congress! It's 2014 people! We live in a society bound by laws! People have got to learn!
...not to the shrimpers and other commercial fishermen of the Gulf. Sad and alarming, and all, but not news.
From a European perspective it does not look like most Americans can see beyond Right and MAOR RIGHT. Any maybe FUCKING COMMIE BASTARD.
No, these days commies make all the stuff your favorite corporation sells you for a ridiculous profit margin. So s/COMMIE/SOCIALIST/ and pretend everything is as it aught to be.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
$13333 @ $79/hr is 168hrs 46mins 19.7 seconds. What kind of employer pays you in units of fractions of a second? Also, 168 hours a month is more than "a few hours". Hell, it's a 40 hour week.
I suspect your spam is dishonest and wish to speak to your supervisor.
Science is all about firing a drunk pig out of a cannon just to see what happens.
On the plus side, it's a very effective form of carbon sequestration. All that dead algae will sit on the ocean floor for millenia and eventually turn into oil.
Nuke them from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
Yes it's an anecdote! Were you expecting original research in a Slashdot comment?
It isn't a dead zone.
Because algae is 'life'. So is all the stuff that feeds off the algae.
There's just nothing we can fish in to extinction.
"Consensus" in science is _always_ a political construct.
produced oxygen. Doesn't it photosynthesize?
Certainly sounds like there is plenty of Algae there, which certainly isn't dead...
A more accurate description might be "Algae Zone" perhaps.
That's the staging point that the lizard people will use to invade the US.
It would be a little clearer if you could put that in a car analogy.
Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
Because a lot of our farm money goes directly to this.
Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
"This is the reason why a lot of people are very unhappy."
I thought it was the movement of little green pieces of paper. Which is strange because, on the whole, the little green pieces of paper are not unhappy.
Perhaps it was a bad idea to come down out of the trees after all.
Let's oxygenate the water by building floating roombas that circulate air into the water, like tiny fountains.
Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
Don't worry. Be Happy. --- Bobby McFerrin
buncha guys found out dead zone. who's gonna tell da Boss? we could both be sleepin wit da fishes...
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
You have it backwards. They pay people to take land out of production to reduce supply and drive prices up. It is usually reseeded with a mixture of different grasses and that helps build up the organic matter in the soil.
the good ground has been paved over by suicidal maniacs
I do not want the government to steal my money to give to some farmer so he can not grow shit.
Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
I have wondered if it could be profitable to run a barge and sein the top couple of feet of ocean water in the dead zones and recapture the plastic and other floating debris for recycling. Another thought: Even if we compressed it to a high degree and encase it in cement, then it could be made use of as artificial offshore reefs. Probably not practical, but if you have something that could make this stuff useful, you have enough material to do lots of stuff with! ... So what is YOUR idea of how to make it useful and get it out of the ocean ecosystem?
... "When you pry the source from my cold dead hands."
If you kill off... I mean, the poor and minorities die out or leave, who's gonna: -Mow your lawn -Clean your pool -Cook your food -Clean your house -Make your Big Macs (or Whopper, or whatever your fast-food kick is) -Wash your car -Make your coffee -Clean your car windows (at traffic lights) and all the other menial chores that are below your station? Gotta think about the possible future negative impacts and keep a few around, even though it's distasteful...