My obligatory Kony2012 post.

There’s been a ridiculous amount of buzz lately about this whole Kony 2012 thing, so i decided today that’d i’d finally sit down and watch it today. While i am absolutely blown away and disgusted that what is happening in uganda (or was happening in uganda and now elsewhere according to some sources) is happening, i just can’t help wishing that people always acted like this when it comes to matters like these.

Without sounding all too “environmental warrior”, i just can’t help but to feel sad that with all the amazing documentaries that are out there about the environment, and with all the data that there is to show how utterly we are abusing our earth, why aren’t we making the same effort? After all, that truly affects every single one of us. 

We are all really, in one way our another, environmental Joseph Konys. And it needs to stop. So stop it.

Sorry about the long text post, hope someone took some time to read this.

5 things you may not have known about the ocean. 1. While its commonly known that the ocean covers something like 71% of our planets surface, it contains within it 99% of the habitable space on earth. Within this 99% as much as 95% of the life on earth is found.   2. 90% of the ocean is considered “deep” (over 2000 meters) and the average depth of the ocean is around 3795 meters. The deepest point (the Challenger Deep) is 10,916 meters. That’s as much as 1.23 Mount Everests. The pressure of the water on top of you at this point is equivalent to supporting 50 Jumbo Jets by yourself.   3. Only 10% of the sea has been explored by humans. In this 10%, around 200000 species have been described: it is estimated that as much as 30 million species may remain undiscovered.   4. The largest animal ever to live on this earth is the Blue Whale, measuring in at 30 meters long and weighing 180 tonnes (although the Bootlace Worm can grow longer than a blue whale, with some being measured at 50 meters long and 10 cm wide). It is also one of the fastest aquatic animals, reaching speeds of 50 km/h (the fastest are Sailfish, clocking in at 110 km/h)   5. The ocean is being destroyed at an alarming rate: More oil reaches the oceans as a result of leaking cars every year than the BP spill, and as much trash is dumped in the oceans each year as fish are taken out. Around 100 million sharks are killed yearly, 30% of these for their fins and the rest as by-catch.

5 things you may not have known about the ocean.

1.

While its commonly known that the ocean covers something like 71% of our planets surface, it contains within it 99% of the habitable space on earth. Within this 99% as much as 95% of the life on earth is found.

 

2.

90% of the ocean is considered “deep” (over 2000 meters) and the average depth of the ocean is around 3795 meters. The deepest point (the Challenger Deep) is 10,916 meters. That’s as much as 1.23 Mount Everests. The pressure of the water on top of you at this point is equivalent to supporting 50 Jumbo Jets by yourself.

 

3.

Only 10% of the sea has been explored by humans. In this 10%, around 200000 species have been described: it is estimated that as much as 30 million species may remain undiscovered.

 

4.

The largest animal ever to live on this earth is the Blue Whale, measuring in at 30 meters long and weighing 180 tonnes (although the Bootlace Worm can grow longer than a blue whale, with some being measured at 50 meters long and 10 cm wide). It is also one of the fastest aquatic animals, reaching speeds of 50 km/h (the fastest are Sailfish, clocking in at 110 km/h)

 

5.

The ocean is being destroyed at an alarming rate: More oil reaches the oceans as a result of leaking cars every year than the BP spill, and as much trash is dumped in the oceans each year as fish are taken out. Around 100 million sharks are killed yearly, 30% of these for their fins and the rest as by-catch.

Sharks populations are declining worldwide. This is (somewhat) common knowledge. What i think escapes most people is how important sharks are to the marine ecosystem.

In all marine food chains where there are sharks, they are at the top. Now, you remove the shark, you’re cutting of the head. There would be nothing to regulate (except human overfishing, but that’s another matter for another post) fish which feed on phytoplankton down at the bottom off the food chain. This phytoplankton creates something like 70% of atmospheric oxygen through photosynthesis. 

It’s amazing how sharks, who managed to survive all 5 major extinction events in this planets history are now finally disappearing. Who needs asteroids and massive volcanic eruptions when we have ourselves? 

One of the more interesting ideas for an artificial reef…

One of the more interesting ideas for an artificial reef…

So the Gulf Stream has stopped - what could happen?

The Gulf Stream is a powerful ocean current that pretty much circulates all the water in the north atlantic - see the diagrams above. Splitting off into the north atlantic current, It transports warm water at a rate of around 30 million m^3 a second (putting that in perspective, all the river outflow into the atlantic combined is only 0.6 million m^3/s) up to England and norway and then cold water down past Canada. 

Well, as you might imagine, there’d be a few negative consequences of it stopping - Most of northern europe would expect temperatures to drop a couple of degrees, although there are studies that have shown that thermohaline circulation doesn’t play a massive role in the determination of climate, a temperature drop would still be expected. To add onto to that, the gulf stream supplies the incredibly productive waters of the north atlantic with fresh, nutrient rich water, and stopping this could have massive consequences on the marine life there.

On the other hand, consider this - It may plunge northern europe into a “mini ice-age”. Yes, we’d all freeze. However, the increased albedo (how much heat the earth can reflect) brought on by large snow and ice cover may offset any increase in temperature previously caused by human activity, and may actually help prevent global warming. Yes, we’d all freeze - but if it has gotten to the point where the gulf stream is stopping, believe me, there’d be worse things going on than freezing.

This is all part of a big discipline called geoengineering, wherein you purposefully change the earths climate to suit you (or to save your ass after having destroyed it). It’s all very interesting. More on it later perhaps.

So the polar ice sheets are melting: 3 reasons why you should care.

1.

There’s a lot of bad things that could happen if the polar ice sheets melt. I think one of the more frightening aspects is the evil cycle that ensues with melting ice in the polar oceans. Ice has a very high albedo (that is, the percentage of incoming radiation thats reflected back), and the snow covered ice of the poles can have an albedo of up to 85-90%. This is partly what keeps it so cold up there. the open ocean only has an albedo of around 7%. Which means that most of the solar heat is retained by the ocean. So the more ice that melts, the faster the poles heat, and the faster more ice will melt. Due to this, the antarctic has some of the fastest raising temperatures in the world, up to 4 degrees c in the last 100 years.

2.

As ice melts, new shipping routes and massive reserves of oil are uncovered that have been covered in ice for thousands of years. This means that ships will be going through areas that have been previously undisturbed, and drilling for can start in places that’s been previously left alone. This is a problem on the north pole mostly, and it could have a huge impact on the animal life and their habitats. On top of that, isn’t the idea that we’re supposed to cut down on fossil fuels? This will certainly not help.

3.

So far, a lot of sea based ice has been melting, while this has some environmental impact, it’s not as great as what happens when the freshwater land based ice starts to go. In the antarctic massive ice shelfs are breaking up (such as the Ellesmere and Larsen ice shelfs). This doesn’t affect sea level much as ice shelfs float on the sea. That’s not the problem: these ice shelfs are holding back massive glaciers from flowing out into the sea, Antarctic ice shelfs pretty much keep the Antarctic ice sheet in place. If they go, the glaciers tip into the water and the sea levels can raise dramatically. It’s estimated that if the antarctic ice sheet should completely melt, sea levels would raise around 60 meters. While this is unlikely, it’s still quite a scary thought, and a sea level rise of 4-6 meters could happen if this continues.

Pictured above is the Larsen ice shelf before and after the breakup, and a glacier in Greenland.

Purse fishing.

This is probably the most destructive method of fishing ever thought up. Basically, what happens is you get an absolutely massive boat, put out between 2000-3000 meters of net in a big circle around a FAD - a fish aggregating device. Now, these FADs are placed out in the open ocean, and attract small bait fish - herring, sardines, mackerel, all that. In turn, this attracts tuna. This, in turn obviously attracts al kinds of larger predatory aquatic animals - sailfish, dolphin, giant manta rays, sharks. As the net encircles the FAD it scoops up everything within it. Yes, even the dolphin, sharks, manta rays. Everything. 

Most of this is thrown back into the sea - dead. A lot of sharks often have their fins cut off before being thrown back. 

What can you do to prevent this? well first off, make sure you buy canned tuna that’s pole caught - in England, brands like Sainsbury’s and Marks & Spencer’s are very good. Brands like John West however still use destructive methods like this, so please try steer clear of them.

I would love to see the oceans outlive me.

The Louisiana Pancake Batfish, Halieutichthys intermedius.  As recently discovered as 2010, it is only found in the Gulf of Mexico. Obviously, when BP decided to spill oil all over the gulf, that wasn’t such a good thing for the Pancake Batfish. Just recently discovered and already threatened. Sad. Read more here if you’re at all interested: Louisiana Pancake Batfish

The Louisiana Pancake Batfish, Halieutichthys intermedius. 

As recently discovered as 2010, it is only found in the Gulf of Mexico. Obviously, when BP decided to spill oil all over the gulf, that wasn’t such a good thing for the Pancake Batfish.

Just recently discovered and already threatened. Sad.

Read more here if you’re at all interested:

Louisiana Pancake Batfish