Oceans Suffocating as Huge Dead Zones Quadruple Since 1950, Scientists Warn (theguardian.com)

Ocean dead zones with zero oxygen have quadrupled in size since 1950, scientists have warned, while the number of very low oxygen sites near coasts have multiplied tenfold. From a report: Most sea creatures cannot survive in these zones and current trends would lead to mass extinction in the long run, risking dire consequences for the hundreds of millions of people who depend on the sea. Climate change caused by fossil fuel burning is the cause of the large-scale deoxygenation, as warmer waters hold less oxygen. The coastal dead zones result from fertiliser and sewage running off the land and into the seas. The analysis, published in the journal Science, is the first comprehensive analysis of the areas and states: "Major extinction events in Earth's history have been associated with warm climates and oxygen-deficient oceans." Denise Breitburg, at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in the US and who led the analysis, said: "Under the current trajectory that is where we would be headed. But the consequences to humans of staying on that trajectory are so dire that it is hard to imagine we would go quite that far down that path." "This is a problem we can solve," Breitburg said. "Halting climate change requires a global effort, but even local actions can help with nutrient-driven oxygen decline." She pointed to recoveries in Chesapeake Bay in the US and the Thames river in the UK, where better farm and sewage practices led to dead zones disappearing.

Comments

Fertilizers are a major issue . . .

[Aurelfell]

. . . and one that we might be able to solve by better managing our watersheds. It would be expensive, but peanuts compared so some of the issues that get all the press, and would probably have more side benefits. Unfortunately, no one has found a way to use this issue to push their unrelated political agenda, so you don't hear much about it.

Re:Fertilizers are a major issue . . .

[bobbied]

Expensive = Starvation for the poor...

Nobody gives fuck number one about "the poor." We deliberately burn literal mountains of food because Al Gore. We apply huge multipliers to the cost of everything — housing, vehicles, energy and on and on — to assuage the endless anxieties of the comfortable. We don't hesitate to freeze our poor elderly to death on behalf of these anxieties. No one will be swayed by arguments with this basis.

Not sure I can argue with you... We literally burn millions of bushels of corn in our cars every year as "renewable" "Green" fuel as one example. Which is pretty darned stupid given the huge impact that farming all that corn has on the environment and the fuel needed to till, plant, harvest, transport, ferment and distill all that corn into motor fuel. We also pay billions of dollars in government subsidies and tax incentives to all the people involved to make it reasonably cost effective and pushing up the cost of corn.... All to the determent to the poor people who depend on cheap corn to stay alive...

Global security

[Ichijo]

Most sea creatures cannot survive in these zones and current trends would lead to mass extinction in the long run, risking dire consequences for the hundreds of millions of people who depend on the sea.

It seems the USA's silence on climate change risks backlash from countries like Japan and Korea who might decide that eating is more important than military protection. The USA would have fewer eyes on other countries in the region (mainly China and Russia) but at least the Tweeter in Chief could take credit for reducing the military budget!

Re:Straight from Joseph Goebbels's desk

[MightyYar]

Maybe that's an exaggeration, but note that nowhere in the article do they state the actual number of square km affected, only saying that it has increased by millions of sq km. That sounds like a lot, but the earth has 360 million sq km of ocean. "Millions" could be less than 1% of the total ocean by surface area. The piece does indeed read like propaganda, and I think I would count myself as a supporter of efforts to minimize greenhouse gas emissions.

So...

[argStyopa]

..." She pointed to recoveries in Chesapeake Bay in the US and the Thames river in the UK, where better farm and sewage practices led to dead zones disappearing."

So not really CLIMATE related, is it?
Oh, there's a SUPPOSED climate connection, but that's guessing.
It's the same with the Great Barrier Reef - the cataclysmic, sky-is-falling whinging is about ocean warming and coral death (never mind that corals are one of the oldest life forms on the planet, having thrived in both warmer and cooler climes as well as faster-rate-of-change situations) when in fact local changes to farming practices in Australia had an IMMEDIATE impact on the improvement of the reef.

Re:Straight from Joseph Goebbels's desk

[allcoolnameswheretak]

1% of total area of the ocean by surface area would actually be A LOT.

Killing of 1% of humans would mean to kill 75 million people.

Get a sense of scale.

Re:Old news.

[Marxist Hacker 42]

But :" Climate change caused by fossil fuel burning is the cause of the large-scale deoxygenation", because CLIMATE CHANGE IS THE CAUSE OF EVERYTHING BAD!!! IT HAS TO EXIST!!!! GIVE ME GRANT MONEY!

Re:Combining two different things for

[Anonymous Coward]

So warm waters have nothing to do with the increased growth of the algae that is causing the condition? I am so happy that you figured out the temperature problem. You'll have cantaloupes in growing in alaska year round in no time at all.

But dumbasses....