Giant, Mucus-Like Sea Blobs on the Rise, Pose Danger

Giant, Mucus-Like Sea Blobs on the Rise, Pose Danger
Christine Dell'Amore
National Geographic News
October 8, 2009

Beware of the blob—this time, it's for real.

Please read this article:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/10/091008-giant-sea-mucus-blobs.html

Hawaii: Isles of Extinction

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Seafood Guide/Chart

Seafood guide Chart by Neil Banas. Here’s a PDF version.
http://neilbanas.com/seafood-guide-2009.pdf

Pharmaceuticals found in fish across U.S.

Pharmaceuticals found in fish across U.S.
Residue of allergy, cholesterol, other meds were in fish near 5 major cities
The Associated Press
Wed., March. 25, 2009

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29877241/from/ET/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29877241/from/ET/print/1/displaymode/1098/

Fish caught near wastewater treatment plants serving five major U.S. cities had residues of pharmaceuticals in them, including medicines used to treat high cholesterol, allergies, high blood pressure, bipolar disorder and depression, researchers reported Wednesday.

Findings from this first nationwide study of human drugs in fish tissue have prompted the Environmental Protection Agency to significantly expand similar ongoing research to more than 150 different locations.

"The average person hopefully will see this type of a study and see the importance of us thinking about water that we use every day, where does it come from, where does it go to? We need to understand this is a limited resource and we need to learn a lot more about our impacts on it," said study co-author Bryan Brooks, a Baylor University researcher and professor who has published more than a dozen studies related to pharmaceuticals in the environment.

A person would have to eat hundreds of thousands of fish dinners to get even a single therapeutic dose, Brooks said. But researchers including Brooks have found that even extremely diluted concentrations of pharmaceutical residues can harm fish, frogs and other aquatic species because of their constant exposure to contaminated water.

Brooks and his colleague Kevin Chambliss tested fish caught in rivers where wastewater treatment plants release treated sewage in Chicago, Dallas, Phoenix, Philadelphia and Orlando, Fla. For comparison, they also tested fish from New Mexico's pristine Gila River Wilderness Area, an area isolated from human sources of pollution.

Earlier research has confirmed that fish absorb medicines because the rivers they live in are contaminated with traces of drugs that are not removed in sewage treatment plants. Much of the contamination comes from the unmetabolized residues of pharmaceuticals that people have taken and excreted; unused medications dumped down the drain also contribute to the problem.

The researchers, whose work was funded by a $150,000 EPA grant, tested fish for 24 different pharmaceuticals, as well as 12 chemicals found in personal care products.

Traces of meds found at all sites tested
They found trace concentrations of seven drugs and two soap scent chemicals in fish at all five of the urban river sites. The amounts varied, but some of the fish had combinations of many of the compounds in their livers.

The researchers didn't detect anything in the reference fish caught in rural New Mexico.

In an ongoing investigation, The Associated Press has reported trace concentrations of pharmaceuticals have been detected in drinking water provided to at least 46 million Americans.

The EPA has called for additional studies about the impact on humans of long-term consumption of minute amounts of medicines in their drinking water, especially in unknown combinations. Limited laboratory studies have shown that human cells failed to grow or took unusual shapes when exposed to combinations of some pharmaceuticals found in drinking water.

"This pilot study is one important way that EPA is increasing its scientific knowledge about the occurrence of pharmaceuticals and personal care products in the environment," said EPA spokeswoman Suzanne Rudzinski. She said the completed and expanded EPA sampling for pharmaceuticals and other compounds in fish and surface water is part of the agency's National Rivers and Stream Assessment.

Harvesting Black Sea Pollution To Produce Energy

Harvesting Black Sea Pollution to Produce Energy
16 Mar 2009

Deep beneath the surface of the world’s most isolated sea lies a layer of deadly poisonous gas. Now scientists hope to turn it into a source of renewable energy.

The problem with the idea of a hydrogen economy — migrating our energy infrastructure from fossil fuels to clean-burning hydrogen — has always been the expense of its production. While there’s no shortage of hydrogen on the planet, it requires energy to liberate the gas from its plentiful state in seawater. Finding an economical source of hydrogen would add an important tool to the new century’s CleanTech energy portfolio.

Part of the answer may lie some 200 meters beneath the surface of the Black Sea. Scientists have long studied a deep layer of hydrogen sulfide below the nearly land-locked sea. Hydrogen sulfide is a poisonous gas with the small of rotten eggs. Its presence in such large quantities results from organic runoff being trapped between permanent layers of salty water from the Mediterranean and inflowing river water — a situation that may represent a long-term hazard to the millions who live in the region.
Pollution as a resource

But now Turkish researchers are eyeing this pollution as a possible energy resource. Scientists at the TUBITAK Marmara Research Center in Gebze-Kocaeli are investigating ways to process the hydrogen sulfide, splitting it into pure hydrogen and marketable sulphur resides.

It’s comparatively easier to break apart hydrogen sulfide than water. A forthcoming whitepaper in the International Journal of Nuclear Hydrogen Production and Applications suggests that it may be possible to produce up to 500 tons of fuel hydrogen from the over 10 thousand tons of hydrogen sulphide entering the Black Sea each day. To further green the deal, solar power would be used to power the process.

If commercially viable, the solution would provide a double benefit: reducing the risk of catastrophe from upwelling hydrogen sulfide gas while tapping a large scale, fully renewable energy source.

Shell and High Water - Acid Oceans Transform Marine Life

Shell and High Water
Climate change: Acid oceans transform marine life, says study
09 Mar 2009

http://www.grist.org/cgi-bin/printthis.pl?uri=/news/2009/03/09/oceans/index.html
http://www.grist.org/news/2009/03/09/oceans/index.html?source=daily

PARIS -- Ocean acidification driven by climate change is stripping away the protective shell of tiny yet vital organisms that absorb huge amounts of carbon pollution from the atmosphere, a new study has revealed.

Since the start of the Industrial Revolution, the calcium carapace of microscopic animals called foraminifera living in the Southern Ocean have fallen in weight by a third, the study found.

The amoeba-like organisms, about the size of a grain of sand, live in the surface waters of oceans around the world.

They are an important part of the ecological chain and also provide a bulwark against global warming. They transform carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air into calcium-based shells.

When they die, their carbon-rich shells sink to the ocean floor, effectively storing the atmospheric CO2 forever.

Previous studies have shown that other marine animals, notably corals, are losing their ability to form exoskeletons from calcium.

However, the potential causes for this are tangled, and include rising temperatures and nutrient runoff from coastal agriculture as well as acidification.

This is the first study to look specifically at acidification and pin it to greenhouse-gas pollution, which is driven especially by the invisible product of burning oil, gas and coal.

"It is the invasion of anthropogenic (man-made) CO2 that is causing this particular source of acidification," said co-author William Howard of the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Center in Hobart, Tasmania.

Howard's team collected shells of one foraminifera species, Globigerina bulloides, as they drifted toward the sea floor, and compared them to older specimens that had sunk several hundred years earlier.

The newer shells had 30-to-35 percent less mass, they reported in the online edition of the journal Nature Geoscience.

"If forams and other shell makers are not making shells, that might change the transfer of carbon from the surface ocean into the deep ocean," said Howard.

"It changes the efficiency of the biological pump, and would tend to lessen the degree to which the ocean takes up carbon. That's a feedback that we have to be concerned about," he said in a phone interview.

Only in the last five years have scientists become aware of the extent of ocean acidification and its potential to disrupt Earth's carbon cycle, which balances the absorption and release of CO2 into the atmosphere.

"The problem with this impact is that it is so persistent and so long-lived, unlike other pollution carbons. We will have a harder time turning this impact around," Howard said.

The geo-chemical mechanisms that buffer acidification work very slowly, he explained.

"It is like taking an antacid tablet for an upset stomach and then having to wait hundreds -- or thousands -- of years for it to work."

If the loss of shell mass threatens the survival of the amoeba-like creatures, it could also disrupt a food chain reaching from the plankton they eat, all the way up to large sea mammal such as whales.

"We don't know yet what those impacts might be," Howard said.

Carbon Emissions Creating Acidic Oceans Not Seen Since Dinosaurs

Carbon emissions creating acidic oceans not seen since dinosaurs
Chemical change placing 'unprecedented' pressure on marine life and could cause widespread extinctions, warn scientists
by David Adam, environment correspondent
guardian.co.uk
Tuesday 10 March 2009

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/10/carbon-emissions-oceans-copenhagen/print
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/10/carbon-emissions-oceans-copenhagen

Human pollution is turning the seas into acid so quickly that the coming decades will recreate conditions not seen on Earth since the time of the dinosaurs, scientists will warn today.

The rapid acidification is caused by the massive amounts of carbon dioxide belched from chimneys and exhausts that dissolve in the ocean. The chemical change is placing "unprecedented" pressure on marine life such as shellfish and lobsters and could cause widespread extinctions, the experts say.

The study, by scientists at Bristol University, will be presented at a special three-day summit of climate scientists in Copenhagen, which opens today. The conference is intended to update the science of global warming and to shock politicians into taking action on carbon emissions.

The Bristol scientists cannot talk about their unpublished results until they are announced later today. But a summary of the findings seen by the Guardian predicts "dangerous" levels of ocean acidification and severe consequences for organisms called marine calcifiers, which form chalky shells.

It says: "We find the future rate of surface ocean acidification and environmental pressure on marine calcifiers very likely unprecedented in the past 65 million years." The scientists add that the situation in the deep sea is of even "greater concern".

The scientists compared the current acidification rate with a giant prehistoric release of greenhouse gas, which geologists know caused widespread extinction of deep water species.

The summary reads: "Because the rates of acidification between past and future are comparable, and [because] there was widespread extinction of benthic organisms [lowest living], one must conclude that a similar level of extinction is more likely than not in the future."

Concern about ocean acidification from carbon pollution has grown in recent years, but the issue receives much less attention than global warming — also caused by human carbon emissions.

The Bristol study is one of the first to predict the consequences of acid waters by looking at past events. It says future deep sea acidification must be limited to 0.2 pH units to avoid the worst effects. The pH of surface waters, where the CO2 is absorbed from the atmosphere, has fallen by about 0.1 units since the industrial revolution, though it will take longer for the acid to reach deeper water.

Ocean acidification is one of the key topics at the Copenhagen summit, with a series of presentations scheduled to examine the impacts.

Ken Caldeira, an expert on ocean acidification at the Carnegie Institution in California, will tell the conference that the next few decades could produce "profound" changes in the oceans. He will say: "The choice to continue emitting carbon dioxide means that we will be an agent of biological change of a force and magnitude exceeded only by the causes of the great mass extinction events. If we do not cut carbon dioxide emissions deeply and soon, the consequences of ocean acidification will stand out against the broad reaches of geologic time. Those consequences will remain embedded in the geologic record as testimony from a civilisation that had the wisdom to develop high technology, but did not develop the wisdom to use it wisely."

Other experts will report that acidification is already affecting marine life in the Arctic and Antarctic. They will also discuss a bizarre finding that acid waters carry sound more efficiently, so the ocean will be a much noisier place in future.

The conference comes ahead of a year of high-level political discussions on climate change, which culminate in international negotiations in Copenhagen in December, where officials will try to hammer out a successor to the Kyoto protocol.

Katherine Richardson, a marine biologist at the University of Copenhagen, who organised this week's event, has described it as "a deliberate attempt to influence policy". She said many scientists were concerned that politicians have not grasped the seriousness of the situation, despite increasingly gloomy predictions.

This week's meeting will publish an update to the 2007 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). A number of studies published since the IPCC report was prepared show that carbon emissions are rising faster than expected and that existing greenhouse gas targets may not be enough to prevent catastrophic temperature rise.

It will also assess whether projected sea level rises have been underestimated, and if there is still a realistic chance that average global temperature rise can be limited to 2C.

Out of Sight, Out of Mine: Ocean Dumping of Mine Wastes

Out of Sight, Out of Mine: Ocean Dumping of Mine Wastes
by Robert Moran, Amanda Reichelt-Brushett, and Roy Young

http://www.worldwatch.org/node/6011

Beginning in 1996 and continuing through at least mid-2004, the Newmont Minahasa Raya gold mine dumped 2,000 tons per day of wastes into the tropical, coral-rich waters of Buyat Bay, off the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia-waters that previously had been the main source of food and income for local families. Soon stories began circulating that the fish were disappearing and that those remaining had deformities. Villagers also complained of strange skin rashes, tumors, and other forms of disease, all of which they claimed started after the waste disposal began. An independent team of scientists was commissioned by the Indonesian government to review the information and concluded that contamination by the mine had occurred. Newmont Mining Corporation, the U.S.-based parent company, commissioned its own studies and continually claimed that the data showed no water contamination-although they neglected to mention that these very studies clearly revealed the
polluting of bay sediments by mercury, arsenic, antimony, and other metals and the likely uptake of these pollutants by bottom-dwelling organisms.
Buyat stories appeared everywhere in the media throughout the Pacific and quickly were investigated by the New York Times. Soon the Indonesian government arrested the head of Newmont Minahasa Raya and five other employees. A series of lawsuits followed. In 2007, an Indonesian court found both Newmont and its local director not guilty of the alleged crimes, but the state prosecutor subsequently appealed the ruling to the Indonesian Supreme Court. Some villagers were relocated in response to fears about the alleged contamination, but the claims and counterclaims have left the villagers confused and the issue hanging. Meanwhile, Newmont received permission from the Indonesian government to commence operating a copper-gold mine, Batu Hijau, which dumps up to 160,000 tons per day of wastes off the coast of another Indonesian island, Sumbawa-70 to 80 times the volume of waste disposed into Buyat Bay.

Man-made Noise in World's Seas Threatens Wildlife

Man-made noise in world's seas threatens wildlife
By Silvia Aloisi
Wed Dec 3, 2008

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE4B26P920081203

ROME (Reuters) - Man-made noise in the world's seas and oceans is becoming an increasing threat to whales, dolphins and turtles who use sound to communicate, forage for food and find mates, wildlife experts said on Wednesday.

Rumbling ship engines, seismic surveys by oil and gas companies, and intrusive military sonars are triggering an "acoustic fog and cacophony of sounds" underwater, scaring marine animals and affecting their behavior.

"There is now evidence linking loud underwater noises with some major strandings of marine mammals, especially deep diving beaked whales," Mark Simmonds, Science Director of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, told a news conference in Rome.

Simmonds, who was speaking on the sidelines of a December 1-5 United Nations Environment Program's Convention on Migratory Species conference, said there are also growing indications that certain tissue damage in cetaceans is linked to noise.

Experts suspect that startled animals may tend to dive erratically and suffer something similar to human divers getting the "bends" -- illness symptoms experienced when divers do not carry out proper decompression stops after a long or deep dive.

According to "Ocean Noise: Turn It Down," a new report by the International Fund for Animal Welfare, the distance over which blue whales can communicate has been cut by 90 percent as a result of higher noise levels.

Over the past 50 years, low frequency underwater noise has doubled every 10 years over the previous decade, while the number of ships has tripled, the report also said.

It added that sound produced by air guns used for seismic surveys in oil exploration can travel more than 3,000 km (1,864 miles) from their source.

The rising number of vessels, and their increasing speed, has led to more ships striking marine animals already threatened by hunting and climate change.

Experts say there are also concerns that rising levels of carbon dioxide are pushing water acidity levels up and contributing to noisier oceans, because when acidity rises, water absorbs less noise.

"If there is a lot of background noise, the animals can't hear the boat coming," said Simmonds. "It's the cocktail party effect."

Marine conservationists at the Rome conference are urging governments and industry to adopt quieter ship engines, tighter rules on seismic surveys and less disrupting sonar technologies by navies.

The European Union has submitted a draft resolution to the convention calling on members to consider a wide range of measures to reduce underwater noise.

But Simmonds said conservationists were concerned that pressures from the military and energy industry as well as the need for more research into marine noise pollution may lead to the resolution being substantially weakened.

"We simply don't know at this stage how many animals are affected by noise pollution, but the lack of full scientific evidence should not be a reason to delay action, said Simmonds."

Marine Life Faces "Acid Threat"

Marine life faces 'acid threat'
By Julian Siddle
Science Reporter, BBC News

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7745714.stm

Man-made pollution is raising ocean acidity at least 10 times faster than previously thought, a study says.

Researchers say carbon dioxide levels are having a marked effect on the health of shellfish such as mussels.

They sampled coastal waters off the north-west Pacific coast of the US every half-hour for eight years.

The results, published in the journal PNAS, suggest that earlier climate change models may have underestimated the rate of ocean acidification.

Ocean pH

Professor Timothy Wootton from the department of ecology and evolution, University of Chicago, in Illinois, says such dramatic results were unexpected as it was thought that the huge ocean systems had the ability to absorb large quantities of CO2.

"It's been thought pH in the open oceans is well buffered, so it's surprising to see these fluctuations," he said.

The findings showed that CO2 had lowered the water pH over time, demonstrating a year-on-year increase in acidity.

The research involved taking daily measurements of water pH levels, salinity and temperature, off the coast of Tatoosh island, a small outcrop lying in the Pacific Ocean, just off the north-western tip of Washington state, US.

As well as measuring physical factors, the health of marine life present in the coastal ecosystem was also tracked.

Professor Wootton says biological factors were missing from previous models of ocean climate systems - and that life in the ocean, or in this case on the ocean edge, can also affect seawater pH.

"Over a short time, biology is affecting pH, through photosynthesis and respiration, but current models don't include biological activity as part of the story," he explained.

Calcium carbonate

Every summer, Professor Wootton returned to the same sites on Tatoosh island's windswept coasts, to look at the abundance and distribution of life at the water's edge. He was especially interested in barnacles, algae and the dominant species, the Californian mussel.

The mussel has a calcium carbonate -based shell, which can be weakened or even dissolved by exposure to acid. Professor Wootton says the increase in acidity may be responsible for the decline in mussels noted in the study.

"Patterns show the chances of mussels being replaced are higher than for species without calcified shells," he said.

Other species quickly move into the space previously occupied by the mussels - though one of these species, the barnacle, also has calcified shells.

To explain this apparent anomaly, Professor Wootton says the decline of the dominant species allows a window where another species may thrive - though he expects this to be temporary as the interloper too will eventually be affected by the increasing acidity.

"In the short term, the long term decline is offset by the release from competition," he explained.

It's going down 10 to 20 times faster than the previous models predicted

Professor Timothy Wootton, University of Chicago

Chemical oceanography

The researchers say they were surprised that the plants and animals in their study are so sensitive to CO2 changes. These organisms live in the harsh inter-tidal zones, they may be submerged under water, exposed to the sun, then lashed by waves and storms.

Professor Wootton says the most troubling finding is the speed of acidification, with the pH level dropping at a much greater rate than was previously thought.

"It's going down 10 to 20 times faster than the previous models predicted," he says.

The research team are now working together with chemical oceanographers to see how their coastal observations can be matched with large scale observations, to try to explain why the decline in pH levels seems to be happening so quickly.

"We actually know surprisingly little about how ocean acidity is changing over time, we need a broader network of measurements," said Professor Wootton.

Cost to tackle Ocean Acidification: just $237 billion

Cost of Tackling Ocean Acidification: Just $237 Billion
New Documentary Examines and Offers Solutions for the Sleeper Environmental Issue of Our Time
by Ned Sullivan
November 25, 2008

http://www.thedailygreen.com/print-this/living-green/blogs/easy-tips/ocean-acidification-55112503

The electrifying redemption of America’s revolutionary declaration that all human beings are born equal sets the stage for the renewal of United States leadership in a world that desperately needs to protect its primary endowment: the integrity and livability of the planet.
— Al Gore, The New York Times (Nov. 9, 2008)

The results of the recent election promise a sea change in how the U.S. confronts the most daunting challenge facing us — reducing greenhouse gas emissions. President-elect Obama has made it clear he intends for America to lead by example in efforts to halt climate change and its potentially disastrous consequences, including extreme coastal flooding, sweltering temperatures and cataclysmic storms. As he said during the campaign:

“The issue of climate change is one that we ignore at our own peril. There may still be disputes about exactly how much we’re contributing to the warming of the earth’s atmosphere and how much is naturally occurring, but what we can be scientifically certain of is that our continued use of fossil fuels is pushing us to a point of no return. And unless we free ourselves from a dependence on these fossil fuels and chart a new course on energy in this country, we are condemning future generations to global catastrophe.”

Part of this catastrophe — the acidification of our oceans — gets very little attention. That should change shortly. Hudson Valley filmmaker Barbara Ettinger and her husband, Sven Huseby, are putting the finishing touches on an eye-opening film (which I originally wrote about Sept. 18, 2007) showing how the huge amount of carbon absorbed by our seas is decimating fish, shellfish and coral reefs. Without immediate action, experts predict more than one million aquatic species will become extinct within the next century.

There is hope. A Stanford University scientist interviewed in the film says technology already exists to slay the two-headed monster of climate change and ocean acidification. The cost: $237 billion. That’s just a third of what Congress approved for the banking system’s bailout, or two-thirds of what Americans spend eating in restaurants each year. It goes without saying that the return on such an investment would be astronomical.

Climate change demands the same urgency that compelled our leaders in Washington and across the globe to work together to tackle the world economic crisis. Nothing our elected officials do — whether in the U.S. Capitol, our statehouses or our town and village halls—must be allowed to take precedence. It’s incumbent on us as citizens to hold them accountable until we achieve the sea change necessary to ensure all future generations can begin life on a healthy, welcoming planet.

Oceans Growing Acidic 10x faster than Expected - from Carbon Emissions

Oceans Growing Acidic 10 Times Faster Than Expected
Carbon Emissions Don't Just Cause Global Warming
by Dan Shapely
November 25, 2008

http://www.thedailygreen.com/print-this/environmental-news/latest/ocean-acidification-47112501

The rate of acidification of the oceans is 10 times faster than previously predicted according to a new study that adds to a growing list of dire assessments and predictions for the oceans.

The world's oceans are growing acidic at a rate 10 times as fast as predicted, according to a new University of Chicago study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The study also reinforced what we already knew: Ocean acidification results from the same thing that is driving global warming: carbon dioxide emissions. Oceans absorb the lion's share of our pollution, but not without consequence. As the carbon dioxide is absorbed, it forms carbonic acid, which at certain thresholds can prevent marine life from forming calcium carbonate shells. The most likely target will be Arctic plankton that form the basis for the entire food web, but ultimately coral and many other species will be affected, either directly or indirectly through the loss of food.

Further, as oceans become saturated, they may absorb less carbon dioxide, leaving more of it to fill up the atmosphere, where it helps trap the sun's heat near the Earth's surface, fueling global warming.

The new study is based on nearly 25,000 measurements taken over eight years, and amounts to one of the most thorough studies to account for rising acidity. It also documented, on Tatoosh Island in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Washington, the effects of acidification: The number of mussels and stalked barnacles dropped as acidity increased, while populations of other smaller-shelled and nonshelled creatures increased.

The study adds to a growing list of dire assessments and predictions for the oceans. A recent assessment by a Scripps Institution of Oceanography oceanographer, for instance, predicted that overfishing, acidification, habitat destruction, global warming and nutrient runoff from farming would conspire to drive oceans back toward a primordial state, dominated by the likes of algae and jellyfish.

CO2 Curbs May Be Too Late For Reefs

CO2 curbs may be too late for reefs, study warns
by David Adam, environment correspondent
The Guardian
Monday October 27 2008

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/oct/27/coral-reefs-co2-wildlife-conservation/print
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/oct/27/coral-reefs-co2-wildlife-conservation

A new global deal on climate change will come too late to save most of the world's coral reefs, according to a US study that suggests major ecological damage to the oceans is now inevitable.

Emissions of carbon dioxide are making seawater so acidic that reefs including the Great Barrier Reef off Australia could begin to break up within a few decades, research by the Carnegie Institution at Stanford University in California suggests. Even ambitious targets to stabilise greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere, as championed by Britain and Europe to stave off dangerous climate change, still place more than 90% of coral reefs in jeopardy.

Oceanographers Long Cao and Ken Caldeira looked at how carbon dioxide dissolves in the sea as human emissions increase. About a third of carbon pollution is soaked up in this way, where it reacts with seawater to form carbonic acid. Experts say human activity over the last two centuries has produced enough acid to lower the average pH of global ocean surface waters by about 0.1 units.

Such acidification spells problems for coral reefs, which rely on calcium minerals called aragonite to build and maintain their exoskeletons.

"We can't say for sure that [the reefs] will disappear but ... the likelihood they will be able to persist is pretty small," said Caldeira.

The new study was prompted by questions by a US congressional committee on how possible carbon stabilisation targets would affect coral loss.

Rich World Behind Much of Global Pollution

Rich world behind much of global pollution
By Timothy Gardner
Wed Oct 22, 2008

http://in.reuters.com/article/idINIndia-36084620081021
http://in.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=INIndia-36084620081021

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Rich countries are partly responsible for pollution from poor ones, including poisonous mining discharge, because they buy many of the raw materials and goods that produce the waste, environmental groups said.

"In our part of the world, these problems have been fixed for the most part," said Richard Fuller, founder of the New York-based Blacksmith Institute, which has compiled a database of 600 of the world's worst polluted places.

"We have exported our industry overseas and yet there's no pollution controls in these places or the pollution controls are terribly inadequate."

Blacksmith and Green Cross Switzerland, which works to clean up contamination from industrial and military disasters, released a report on Tuesday called "The World's Worst Polluted Places" -- available at www.worstpolluted.org.

It found that artisanal gold mining, contaminated surface water, radioactive waste processing and uranium mining and the recycling of used lead acid batteries, most of which occur in poor countries from Africa to Asia, are some of the world's top 10 sources of pollution dangerous to human health.

Millions of people are poisoned or killed each year by industrial pollution and emissions, it said.

To be sure, the developing world is also rife with problems that are not caused by the processing or manufacture of goods used in rich countries.

Indoor air pollution from cooking fires, which occurs mostly in Africa, is one key example, the report said. And many of the products made or processed in rapidly developing countries, such as China and India, are used domestically.

Still, children in developing countries are hit by pollution from many of the industries that make or process things used mostly by rich countries, including metals smelting and processing, lead battery recycling and the industrial mining of both common and precious materials, it said.

Children are more vulnerable to disease from toxic pollution than adults.

Rich countries should help mop up pollution sources not only because they are the world's largest consumers but because some pollution can travel over oceans through the atmosphere, eventually reaching consumers throughout the world.

"Mercury from artisanal gold mining can end up in tuna that we end up eating, poisoning our own children," Fuller said.

Blacksmith and Green Cross Switzerland helped launch the Health and Pollution Fund last year with representatives from the United States, Germany, China, Russia and other countries.

The planned $400 million fund will be dedicated to cleaning up toxic hotspots in developing countries. Fuller said. Blacksmith is trying to work with the U.S. Department of Treasury to help with clean-ups.

How Organochlorine Pollutants End Up In Whales

Source: Natural News, How organochlorine pollutants end up in whales

(NaturalNews) Some chemicals, such as DDT, that were banned many years ago persist in the environment even in places where there are no human inhabitants or no known chemical use. They are contaminating what used to be considered pristine environments, and are being found in wildlife.

These chemicals are known as persistent organochlorine pollutants or POP. Along with DDT, they include industrial chemicals, PCB's and dioxins. Studies in the Antartic of humpback whales have found concentrations of POP in fat blubber. Likely explanations of this are to do with the food chain.

First, here's an explanation of just how POP could occur in the Antartic. POP's slowly evaporate into the atmosphere or the air. Then the air moves around and when the temperature changes, for example, from cold to hot, or hot to cold, the chemicals condense out of the air. The chemicals return to the environment and that's where they stay.

If the chemicals are absorbed by ice, then when the ice melts, the chemicals may go to the seabed or are absorbed in some way by the krill.

The humpback whales are most likely to have accumulated the chemicals by eating krill. Researcher Dr Nash (of The National Research Centre for Environmental Toxicology, The University of Queensland (1)) is responsible for the current study of contamination in humpback whales.

She found high concentrations of over hundred different types of POP in krill. Krill is at the base of the food chain in the Antartic. If you remove the krill, many species would not survive. Humpback whales eat two tonnes of krill a day.

In the breeding season, the humpbacks travel 10,000 kilometres from the Antartic to warmer waters relying only on body fat. It is logical to assume that the quality of the body fat or blubber will determine how well they make the return trip. Since the whale has to use the blubber as a food source, the chemicals within the fat are unlocked and carried around the bloodstream.

The concern is that the organochlorines, which are neurotoxins, will impact on the movement and reproductive systems, and that this could affect the breeding of whales.

While the study has yet to be completed, trials were carried out on the behaviour of krill in solutions containing algae contaminated with DDE (a break-down product of DDT). It was evident that the schooling behaviour of the krill was impacted and this could have consequences for the survival of the species and thus other species.

Source: www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/2389804.htm
(1) www.entox.uq.edu.au



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About the author
Lynn Berry is passionate about personal development, natural health care, justice and spirituality. She has a website at www.lynn-berry.com.