Tomorrow’s Oceans – The Effects of Climate Change Under the Sea

The effects of global warming and climate change on the ocean are still under much debate. Some see the onset of a damaging megadrought while others forecast water temperatures as high as 107ºF. Regardless of the causes or the results, we are seeing major changes in life beneath the sea. Some ocean species are migrating further north, causing shifts in food chains and the fishing industry, while other populations are decreasing at rapid rates.

In fact, the recent revision to the underestimated numbers released earlier now states that “more than 16,000 species (are) threatened with extinction.” According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), “One in three amphibians, one in four mammals, one in eight birds and 70% of plants so far assessed for its Red Lists of Threatened Species are believed to be at risk.”

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A Treasure Trove of Eco Data!

Every once in a while I find a website that is really exceptional and which has been made by an average Joe. That is to say, this isn’t some big, corporate owned website with lots of paid employees slaving away over it; and yet, it is really, really valuable.

Take, for example, DavidTryse.net. It appears to be sort of personal project by this globetrotting fellow named David Tryse on which he’s compiled different sets of environmental data and used the Google Earth application to map them out.

Disappearing Forests

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Update: New Floating Man-Made Island About to be Open to the Public

The original Spiral Island was the talk of the world: a man-made floating island constructed from 250,000 plastic bottles that could drift and relocate as needed until it was destroyed by disaster. Now the new Spiral Island is slated to open to the public within the next few months in Laguna Makax near Isla Mujeres. The new island has drawn in donations, volunteers and visitors from all parts of the world and walks of life – people inspired by what may be one of the most impressive do-it-yourself projects of modern times.

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Space Junk – The Strangest Trash (Not) on the Planet

space-junk.jpgWith all our problems down here on Earth most people don’t think about space junk very often, but there is more of it to think about than most people realize. An estimate 50,000 pieces exist that are large enough to do significant damage on collision with an operational space craft or satellite. Over 90% of the stuff we currently have in space is useless trash – with less than 10% being operational/useful.

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Is Extinction a Major Present-Day Problem?

Extinction is nothing new … mass extinctions are part of the life cycle of the planet. Still, if we are indeed in the 6th great mass extinction then perhaps we should be worried that at least one such mass extinction took the planet 30 million years to recover from! Some …

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Is Global Warming Fact or Fiction?

Is global warming a myth or a fact? Or is the entire term misleading and should climate change by the phrase of choice instead? The site 42Explore provides a great introduction to the issue of global warming, both an ‘easy’ and a ‘hard’ version, as well as numerous reputable resources …

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The World’s Biggest ‘Environment’: The Water

Worlds Ocdeans Impact

It is no surprise that as land-dwellers we don’t think about the oceans as much as we should given that they cover over 2/3 of the planet. The water bodies of the world may be the key to progress for our species in more ways than one (such as underwater living shown above) and the oceans hold many mysteries yet to be discovered. Still, we are having a profound effect on our waters and need to be mindful of just how powerful our impact can be.

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The Unsustainable Church of Scientology

scientologyMany would say that the Church of Scientology is unsustainable in more ways than one, but few have stopped to consider how that applies to the natural environment. While Scientologists overtly organize to protect nature and profess to protect the planet many of their practices seem to contradict their statements. The overall effect seems to be alarmism couple with inaction: all of the theoretical zest of GreenPeace with all of the inaction of President Bush. Here are some of the ways in which Scientology seems to skew environmental issues and play on public opinion without a correspondingly set of proactive strategies. This side of Scientology seems to have been lost in the scandalous shuffle of recent news but Scientology’s mixed messages and actions on the environment are also important.

Scientology E Meter

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