Walk This Way: MicroActivist Leads Kids on California Beach Cleanups
One kid decided that he would become an activist to save the oceans. He’s enlisted other kids to clean California’s beaches as a way to make a difference.
oceans
How Bringing Back The Great Whale Can Limit Climate Change (VIDEO)
The oceans are huge carbon sinks for the world. Fish and whales comprise only a tiny part of their overall biomass. Nevertheless, studies have shown that fishing and whaling by humans have altered the ocean’s carbon storage and sequestration capabilities by causing a change in the food chain, or a trophic cascade. As naturalist and
What Is Climate Change? (VIDEO)
Remember the difference between weather and climate? We know what happens when the weather changes—it’s obvious. Climate is another story. Read on. When it rains, you put on a raincoat or take your umbrella when you go out. It snows: time for high boots, a heavier coat, scarf, and warm gloves. And sunny days, well,
Sea Level Likely To Rise One Meter By 2100, Threatening Coastal Cities (Largest Ocean Science Survey Ever)
If greenhouse gas emissions remain at current levels, global sea-level rise will by 70 to 120 centimeters by 2100, according to the results of a new survey of 90 of the world’s most active ocean and climate scientists. The survey was conducted by researchers from the United States and Germany, and published in the recent Quaternary
Marine Species Used As Food Grown In Captivity For First Time
Eating sea anemones doesn’t sound that appealing, but the Snakelocks species (Anemonia sulcata) is regularly cooked and consumed in Spain near the Gulf of Cadiz. (Ortiguillas are marinated and deep-fried anemone.) Unfortunately, too many have been taken from the sea to be used as human food, so the Snakelocks species is in decline. Not only
Growing Concern for Health of Equatorial Coral
Just to add to the worries you’ll have for New Year 2013, scientists are growing ever-more concerned with the possibility that corals could retreat from equatorial seas and oceans due to the continual warming of our planet. An international team of marine researchers warned Tuesday that, based on the fossil coral record from the
New Report Card Shows Climate Change Affecting Australia's Oceans
Launched today by the CSIRO is the 2012 Marine Climate Change in Australia Report Card which demonstrates that climate change is having significant impacts on the marine ecosystems that border Australia. Aspects of the study include changes in sea temperature, sea level, the East Australian Current, the Leeuwin Current, and El Niño-Southern Oscillation, as well as marine
Planet Earth Still Absorbing Half of our Greenhouse Gases
Planet Earth’s oceans, forests, and other assorted ecosystems are continuing to soak up approximately half the carbon dioxide we humans pump into the atmosphere every day, even as those emissions continue to increase, once again belying the very little knowledge we currently have of our planet. “Globally, these carbon dioxide ‘sinks’ have roughly kept pace
Surfers Form Giant Floating Peace Sign To Raise Awareness
Take just a few moments to sign the NRDC petition asking President Obama to push for critical ocean protections during the Rio+20 summit. And the next time you get ready to toss a plastic bottle in the trash, or drive your car when it would be just as easy to walk or bike,…
NASA Visualises The Perpetual Ocean
NASA has released two videos depicting the ever constant motion of our planet’s oceans, capturing the movement of tens of thousands of ocean currents. The high-definition visualisation is available in 3-minute and 20-minute videos, and was developed by NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The visualization is based on a synthesis of a
The Nereus Project – Predicting the Future of the World's Oceans [VIDEO]
Many environmental and sustainability advocates are deeply concerned about the current state of the world’s oceans; many are even looking at present trends to anticipate oceanic changes in the near future. But when it comes to the long-term future of our blue planet’s marine environments, few are looking further into the future than the international
Ocean Hotspots and Strengthening Winds Driving Ocean Currents Poleward
Oceanographers from across the world have identified a series of ocean hotspots that have been generated by strengthening wind systems across the planet that are successfully pushing oceanic current polewards, well beyond their known boundaries. The hotspots – locations where the temperature has increased outside of expected norms – have formed alongside ocean currents that
Ocean Acidification Threatens Fish More Than Previously Thought
We’ve known for awhile that ocean acidification (which results from the burning of fossil fuels, just like global warming) is a huge concern for the oceans and many of the living creatures that rely on it (yeah,.. that’s a lot of the Earth’s living creatures). But what we knew was that it was a threat
Tuna to Greenpeace: Help!!!
More on unsustainable fishing practices and Tuna From Greenpeace: The Tuna Industry’s Got a Dirty Little Secret From PlanetSave: Annual Quota of Bluefin Tuna Caught in 1 Week GreenPeace again: The harsh reality of longline fishing From SeafoodWatch: Seafood Watch Pocket Guide Joe’s cartoon archive, twitter ramblings and StumbleUpon page…
Join the 'Climate Hot Map Scavenger Hunt' & Win a Trip to Brazil
The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) has unveiled its latest salvo in the fight to curtail human-caused global warming: an interactive ‘Climate Hot Map Scavenger Hunt’. The Climate Hot Map educate sand entertains as it stimulates the user’s curiosity to sift clues and scavenge for answers. What’s more, completing the scavenger hunt qualifies you for a chance to win the fabulous Grand Prize: an Earthwatch Institute trip for two to assess climate impacts in Rio Cachoeira national Reserve in Brazil!
Victory at sea: Japan suspends antarctic whaling
Good news from the high seas: After repeated run-ins with the anti-whaling Sea Shepherd Society that have prevented its whaling fleet from a successful hunt, Japan’s government announced it is suspending whaling, possibly for the rest of the season. Whaling was banned under an international agreement in 1986, but Japan has exploited a loophole in the
Victory at sea: Japan suspends antarctic whaling
Good news from the high seas: After repeated run-ins with the anti-whaling Sea Shepherd Society that have prevented its whaling fleet from a successful hunt, Japan’s government announced it is suspending whaling, possibly for the rest of the season. Whaling was banned under an international agreement in 1986, but Japan has exploited a loophole in the
Global Warming Politics, Environment, and Animal Stories of the Day
Some top global warming and environmental news from the last day or so: Global Warming & Environmental Politics Time to Put People Ahead of Polluters Over on ecopolitology, Sierra Club’s Michael Brune had a good piece on why it’s time to put people ahead of polluters. Senate 2012 Race & Tea Partiers The conservative right
Environmental, Global Warming, and Animal News
Some of the top climate change and environmental stories of the last day or so: Climate Science Graph of the Day: Greenland Ice Sheet Mass Changes Good info and graphs on the page above, but thought I’d share the 3 videos from the post here for you to check out just in case you don’t feel
Trade Winds in Tropical Atlantic Have Weakened
With 70% of our planet covered with water, understanding the effect it has on our lives and the world around us is important, but sadly, the necessity for understanding it is also a hindrance in doing so; with so much water, it is difficult to acquire accurate and reliable measurements. Scientists have long attempted to
Video: What will climate change do to the oceans?
Via SkepticalScience (“Getting skeptical about global warming skepticism”), we were pointed to this excellent talk on the impact climate change will have on the oceans. (SkepticalScience is a great resource for debunking climate denier arguments.) John Bruno, one of the participants, posted the discussion by his friend and colleague Dr. Ove Hoegh-Guldberg from a session the two of them
Biggest Extinction Event Caused by Volcanoes
The Permian-Triassic extinction event – also known as the Great Dying – is recorded as the most significant extinction event in Earth’s history, seeing a whopping 96% of marine species killed off, 70% of land-based animals, and is the only extinction event to have affected insects. Researchers at the University of Calgary believe that they
Coral Reefs See 2nd-Worst Year Ever in 2010
We’ve covered coral bleaching, the devastation of coral reefs and their relationship to global warming here on Planetsave numerous times over the past few years. For clear reasons: this is a true global environmental catastrophe with numerous harmful ramifications. Dr Jeff Masters of WunderBlog delves into the harsh coral reef collapse of 2010 and future
Lack of Oxygen Challenged Early Life on Earth
Earth’s oceans are teeming with life thanks to the oxygenated waters which allow that life to grow and thrive: just as animals on land need oxygen to survive, so too do the fish and mammals beneath the sea surface. However around 499 million years ago the oceans suffered an event which turned them into a
Ocean Currents Changing Due to Global Warming
New researched published in the most recent edition of the scientific journal PNAS has shown that there have been significant and drastic changes to oceanic currents in the western North Atlantic Ocean since the 1970s. The research found that the influence of the cold water Labrador Current has been decreasing continually since the 1970s, minimizing
Ocean Acidity Alert
Ocean acidity is an issue we’ve written about numerous times, but really, it is such a critical issue, sometimes I feel like we should write about it everyday. The NYTimes recently gave this issue good attention. Carbon dioxide emissions from man-made sources are causing the acidity level of the world’s oceans to rise at what
World’s Biggest Looming Problem a Food Crisis?
A recent article in NZ Herald News discusses the looming food crisis and how it might become the world’s biggest problem in the decades to come. “If the world doesn’t act now, it faces a catastrophic global food shortage by mid-century,” Greg Ansley writes. Ansely cites numerous recent studies concerning the degradation of our oceans
Angela Kinsey and Rachael Harris Saving Sea Turtles, Acting Like Bond Girls [VIDEOS]
The second series of Oceana’s “Getting Sea Turtles Off the Hook” Public Service Announcement (PSA) ads have officially been announced. The PSAs star actresses and comedians Angela Kinsey (“The Office”) and Rachael Harris (“My Boys” and “The Hangover”). The main focus of the PSAs is getting people involved in Oceana’s campaign to help save endangered
Top 10 Climate Science News of 2010
Climate Progress recently put together a piece on the top 10 climate science news stories of 2010 (so far). A lot of news that doesn’t hit the mainstream media. Here’s are a few of the stories: 1. Nature: “Global warming blamed for 40% decline in the ocean’s phytoplankton”: “Microscopic life crucial to the marine food
Frankenfish Worried About the Future of GMOceans (cartoon)
Take action to keep GE salmon (“Frankenfish”) off your plate, because as Food and Water Watch state: Genetically engineered salmon are on a fast track to being the first GE Animal approved for human consumption. The FDA is trying to approve GE salmon as a new animal drug, but the truth is U.S. Food agencies
Storm Threshold and Sea Surface Temperature Linked
It is a long standing belief that hurricanes and tropical ocean thunderstorms occur when sea surface temperatures rise above a certain level. However, what happens when the ocean temperature rises? Does that storm level keep rising, or does it stay the same and allow an increase in the frequency with which storms appear. A new
Our Oceans are Seeing Red
Our oceans, or more accurately, the creatures in our oceans, are in big trouble. Here’s some depressing news from Blue Planet Society: Our marine ecosystem is under threat like never before in the history of humanity. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) 33% of cartilaginous fishes and 15% of bony fishes
Argentina Gets Big Award from WWF for Ocean Protection Efforts
At the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) last week, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) awarded Argentina’s National Park Administration President, Dr. Patricia Gandini, one of its highest awards — a Leaders for a Living Planet (LLP) award. Gandini and Argentina was given the award for her leadership efforts to protect the southwest Atlantic Ocean and
Coral Reefs Gone by 2100?
This post is part of our participation in Blog Action Day 2010, which is on the topic of Water. A recent report out by the Institute of Physics (IOP) finds that weak global climate change targets are likely to result in all coral reefs dying off by 2100. The great importance of this matter is,
Our Water Planet – How Much Do You Know?
This post is part of our participation in Blog Action Day 2010, which is on the topic of Water. As R. Buckminster Fuller reminded us, we are all traveling aboard “spaceship Earth”…all 6+ billion of us. What makes our spaceship so unique (as far as we know), and vital, is the presence of a great deal
Sea Dragon Pictures (10 Friday Photos)
Sea dragons? Well, they may not be real “popular,” but they are such amazing animals and definitely deserve more attention. They are beautiful, colorful and look very magical. I think sea dragons could be a proper icon of all oceans, even though they mostly live near Australia. Check out these beautiful pics below. (Thanks to Taylen
Ghost Nets Further Stress Overfished Oceans
Oceans in the 21st century – overfished, mismanaged, played out The world fishing fleet is now two or three times what is needed to take the available ocean catch and sustainably manage global fisheries. More than 100 million tons of fish are caught in fisherman’s nets every year. Yet researchers say that in the North
Stop Offshore Drilling Petition and Action Opportunities from Oceana [Video]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seNnpJi_Bic Sign Oceana’s petition to stop offshore oil drilling and demand a clean energy future. In addition to the great Gulf of Mexico research expedition Oceana is setting out on, the world-leading organization also has a petition to put an end to offshore drilling that I thought was worth sharing.
World's Marine Plankton in Peril – 40% Decline Since 1950
Phytoplankton–tiny, marine plants that formthe basis of our oceans’ food chain–absorb and sequester large amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere and generate half of the world’s oxygen supply. Given such an important ecosystem service as this, one would hope that our oceans’ algae numbers stay high…but, the results of a three year data analysis are anything but encouraging.
Latest News on Environment, Climate Change, & Activism (Weekly Roundup)
10 of the latest green news stories from around the web (that we didn’t cover in more depth earlier in the week). Have more to add, stick them in the comments below!
TED Talk: Oil Spill's Unseen Culprits & Victims
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/7gouSXt2zE4&hl=en_US&fs=1] . Carl Safina, author of five books and over 100 scientific and popular publications on ecology and the oceans (including featured work in National Geographic and The New York Times), is about as expert as it gets when we talk about the oceans. In an excellent recent TED talk, Safina discusses the BP oil
Global Carbon Dioxide Emissions Fall in 2009 – Past Decade Still Sees Rapid Emissions Growth
The latest EPI release is on carbon emissions trends and the potential results. by Amy Heinzerling In 2009, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in China—the world’s leading emitter—grew by nearly 9 percent. At the same time, emissions in most industrial countries dropped, bringing global CO2 emissions from fossil fuel use down from a high of 8.5 billion
Green News Stories
Tons of big green news stories in one short article. There are tons of big green news stories out there every day. Although we can’t (and probably shouldn’t) cover all of them here on Planetsave, it drives me crazy not to cover everything I think is big news. Hopefully, a new idea I’ve had to
Greencast: National Security and Climate Change, Bicycling Politicians, New National Parks in Russia…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/fgT-QfcjXw4&hl=pl_PL&fs=1] Here is this week’s “greencast” or screencast of great green news from around the internet (that we didn’t already cover). Enjoy the video above via YouTube or in high definition on screenr. By the way, if you happen to notice the sound of pedestrians, cyclists or streetcars in the background, it is because I
Annual Quota of Bluefin Tuna Caught in 1 Week
Industrial fishing fleets can catch fish in numbers unimaginable to fishermen a few decades ago. The capabilities are more than unimaginable, though. They are also unsustainable. With bluefin tuna on the brink of extinction, fishing quotas are set for these giants of the sea in the European Union. But annual quotas can be caught in
Carbon Dioxide Plays Leading Role in Global Climate Patterns
Carbon dioxide has played a major part in dictating climate over the last 2.7 million years in the tropics and polar regions. [social_buttons]New research has established that the climate in the tropics has changed in lockstep with spread and retreat of ice sheets in the Northern Hemisphere over the last 2.7 million years. These findings
Hottest April & Hottest January-April on Record: NOAA Confirms NASA Findings
NASA and NOAA have both confirmed now that April 2010 is the hottest April on record and January-April 2010 is the hottest January-April on record. [social_buttons] NASA just reported that this April was the hottest April on record. This followed the hottest March on record and the hottest January-February-March on record. So, is the hottest
How We Wrecked the Ocean – Ecologist Jeremy Jackson Spells It Out [VIDEO]
In this talk, Jackson continuously returns to the three major factors that are dramatically altering our oceans: over-fishing, pollution, and climate change. These factors, he notes, do not arise and operate in isolation, but rather, they feedback into each other and “synergize” to make for a major, impending, ecological disaster.
