Scientists Report That the Oceans Are Dying: List of Things We Can Do Now To Help Find a Cure
By chimaybliss, 1st Jul 2012 | Follow this author
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Posted in WikinutNewsEnvironment
This a list of things we can do now to save our oceans from the downhill spiral it is currently going through. If we don't take heed now and try to fix these problems then we will have destroyed our means of survival for future generations. Not a pretty picture!
Help Save The Earth's Oceans Now!
Let's face it, our oceans are dying. Each year we add more and more pollution to our oceans, tremendously over fish them, and as we continue to add huge amounts of CO2 to our atmosphere, the oceans are heating up rapidly. This is causing our marine relatives to have to adapt to warmer ocean temperatures and if they can't then we could see many species going extinct around the globe. Perhaps the most troubling aspect of what is occurring in our oceans today with the rising water temperatures is the high acidification. This is killing off the life blood of the oceans with plankton not being able to reproduce in the numbers needed to sustain the marine life that feed off of them. This is the start of the food chain and if the top of the chain dies then we all will suffer the same fate eventually so this is a very alarming signal that we need to make changes immediately.
So, what can we do right now to help our oceans? Below, I have listed things that we can implement immediately to begin to save our waters.
1.) More than 1 Billion people rely on fish for protein in their diet everyday. This has led to severe over fishing with some populations of fish being reduced by more than 75% from a century ago. Aquaculture can help alleviate this problem along with more fish hatcheries in the open oceans. Another huge problem with the over fishing of our oceans are the unwanted fish catches (by-catch) from large nets. There are numerous devices that have been developed to help curb this problem and they range in things from acoustic pingers, bigger openings on nets designed to catch large fish so smaller fish can escape, use of rare elements to repel sharks, skates and rays when fishing for tuna and using thin hooks that break or bend under the weight of heavier fish.
2.) We need to get off of fossil fuels asap. Developments in solar and wind energy need to be heavily invested in right now. Plans are under way for a very large construction of wind turbines along the Eastern Coast of the United States which is a good start but more plans like this need to be initiated. Electric companies need to continue to offer incentives to both industry and residential users who install solar panels at their buildings.
3.) Start taxing companies for their carbon emissions. Set a tax for every ton of carbon dioxide that a company ends up putting in the atmosphere. According to most estimates, this could reduce carbon emissions by 30%.
4.) Stop filling the oceans with poisons from synthetic fertilizers draining from farmlands. There are now more than 400 patches of ocean worldwide that are basically lifeless due to the runoff of these poisons. Basically what happens is that both the fertilizer and sewage combine to generate the growth of algae which when it dies off, it suffocates the surrounding marine life.
So can we save our oceans from a certain death? The answer is a definite yes as long as we use common sense in our everyday lives. One thing that every person can do to start on an individual level is to limit their use of plastics especially single use water or beverage bottles. Try to re-use these bottles or at the very least recycle them and if you see one lying on the ground or even worse floating in the ocean then do the right thing and pick it up. Now is the time for us to save our oceans not only for our future but also our kid's futures. I, for one, do not want to have to explain to my children that my generation was responsible for killing them.
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