Oceans are Dying: Urgent Issue

This week I have enjoyed reading and viewing videos, graphs and images on the Los Angeles Times website about the state of the world's oceans, a five part series called Altered Oceans.  The journalism and the extent of sound research and work that went into this project was amazing.  I found it heartening that there are still journalists and publications out there using their power to inform and educate the public on important and underreported issues, such as this one.

What I did not find heartening was the findings of the reports.  They paint a grim picture indeed.

There is a crisis in the oceans.  A manmade one.  From overfishing, to using the oceans as a giant garbage dump, to the effects of global warming, carbon dioxide emissions, the ocean is changing, and not in a way any of us would like to see.

Part One

Runoff from modern life is feeding an explosion of primitive organisms. This 'rise of slime,' as one scientist calls it, is killing larger species and sickening people.

Part Two

Toxic algae that poison the brain have caused strandings and mass die-offs of marine mammals -- barometers of the sea's health.

Part Three

With sickening regularity, toxic algae blooms are invading coastal waters. They kill sea life and send poisons ashore on the breeze, forcing residents to flee.

Part Four

On Midway Atoll, 40% of albatross chicks die, their bellies full of trash. Swirling masses of drifting debris pollute remote beaches and snare wildlife.

Part Five

Growing seawater acidity threatens to wipe out coral, fish and other crucial species worldwide.

Please read these articles, view the videos, check out the links, become educated on the subject, and share with others.  Plan a beach clean up day.  Talk to people in your community, church or school.  Donate your time and/or money to environmental causes, such as the Ocean Conservancy.  Feeling helpless doesn't help.  Engage.  It is the right thing to do.  Find a way.    

Thanks to Kenneth R. Weiss, Usha Lee McFarling, and Rick Loomis for thier outstanding work.