NS - Last Major Extinction Spasm: 2.2 Gt Carbon Released Yearly; Today's Release Rate - 25 Gt/Year

[hatrack]

EDIT

"We're seeing a combination of symptoms that have been associated with large, past extinctions," says Alex Rogers, the head of IPSO.

Rogers says the biggest problem is the rapid pace of climate change, which is "virtually unprecedented". The closest comparison is the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum of 55 million years ago, when 2.2 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide was released every year for millennia and many deep-sea species were wiped out. Today we release over 25 gigatonnes every year.

Many harmful factors combine to cause additional damage. For instance, the oceans are acidifying as a result of CO2 dissolving in the water, and this makes corals more susceptible to "bleaching".

Rogers recommends nothing less than slashing CO2 emissions, establishing Marine Protected Areas covering up to one-third of the ocean, and restoring marine ecosystems.

EDIT/END

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20595-earths-oceans-on-course-for-mass-extinction.html?DCMP=OTC-rss&nsref=online-news

[RandomThoughts]

1. Beer and travel money would have been easier.

As would more justice and compassion, when you see how far some things will go to avoid correcting the simplest of wrongs, you see what they really are.

They will try complex massive attempts to correct, without seeing the problem, and how easy it is to correct, becuase they want to maintain what is not sustainable.

And that is insane.