Plastic pollution is now a major problem in the oceans. However, the sea surface temperatures that were once considered extreme are now normal.
These are the results of two separate studies, published in February ahead to the ongoing One Ocean Summit, a conference that was organized by French President Emmanuel Macron in order to protect marine life from climate change, overfishing, and pollution. These papers tell the story of a vital ecosystem that is being increasingly threatened.
The journal published the first study. Plos ClimateAccording to the researchers, heat that was once considered rare has become common in most of the world’s oceans. “Extreme climate changes are not a hypothetical future possibility,” researchers wrote. “But a past historical event which has already occurred in global ocean.”
Dead sea turtles were washed up on beaches laden with plastic bags, bottles caps, and other bits of plastic.
The second StudyThe study, which was commissioned by WWF and conducted in Germany by scientists at Germany’s Alfred Wegener Institute, looked at thousands of academic papers and found that regions like the Mediterranean or East China Sea had met critical pollution thresholds. It found that plastic had negative effects on 88% of 297 species.
Heike Vesper from WWF Germany’s Marine Program, stated that while the findings are shocking, they only cover a fraction of the threatened lifeforms. It’s like using a flashlight in the dark to turn on a pocket torch.
Hotter oceans
Two ecologists from Monterey Bay Aquarium (a US conservation group) saw a huge marine heat wave ravage giant kelp trees off the coast California. They decided that they would investigate the extent of it. They used 150 years of sea temperature measurements to establish a historical standard for extreme heat in oceans. The researchers discovered that such temperatures occurred in less than 2% of the sea’s surface area in the late 19th-century.
The Industrial Revolution was born.
People started to burn fossil fuels for heat and power, and they released gases that captured sunlight and warmed our planet. The greenhouse effect has led to global average temperatures of 1.2 degrees Celsius (2.2 degrees Fahrenheit) higher. It has also made heat waves much more likely.
The burning of fossil fuels like coal has led to an increase in global temperatures and the endangerment of marine life.
Researchers found that extreme heat was experienced by more than half of the oceans in 2014, according to the researchers. Each year, the area of ocean that experienced such extreme temperatures increased. It reached 57% in 2019, the highest percentage of ocean surface. The higher temperatures have caused fish to be forced from their natural habitats and have rocked entire ecosystems.
“We’re talking about more than sea turtles, whales, and tuna,” said Kyle Van Houtan (ex-chief scientist at Monterey Bay Aquarium) and co-author of this study. He added that ocean heating was also a matter of livelihoods, national security, and global security. “Three Billion people worldwide get their primary source for protein from the ocean every day.”
Fish is the main source of protein for nearly half the population on the planet.
Researchers described extreme heat in the new normal.
Other scientists have stated that, while the climate is not the same today as it was before the warming trend is underway, it is still hotter than it was. Because each additional ton of carbon pollution in Earth’s atmosphere heats the planet, temperatures that are normal today will be considered cool tomorrow.
“[Calling it a] ‘new normal’ makes it sound like we already passed through a change and now it’s done,” said Scott Denning, a climate scientist at Colorado State University. “But instead, we’re climbing a steep slope for whom there’s no end.”
Plastic pollution
A separate pollution crisis is also threatening aquatic plants and animals.
According to the WWF/Alfred Wegener study, plastic pollution is everywhere in the oceans. It is almost impossible for it to be removed once it has reached that point. Even if plastic pollution could be stopped immediately, the authors warned that the oceans will continue to accumulate more microplastic as the larger pieces are broken down.
“The most important discovery is that once plastic starts to decompose and becomes microplastic or nanoparticles it can no longer get removed from the systems,” Vesper of WWF Germany stated. “The ocean is the last sink for plastic waste on planet Earth.”
According to a study published by the journal, only 9% of plastic ever has been recycled. Science Advances2017 About 12% of plastic has been burned while the remainder has been thrown away in dumps, landfills, and nature. Although some landfills are well secured, plastic left around can eventually get into the waterways and be carried to the sea.
Plastic waste that has been left in unattended landfills often ends its life in waterways.
The study authors cautioned that the observed declines were difficult to trace back to any one factor as the oceans are so overwhelmed by threats, including pollution and overfishing. However, plastic pollution could pose a threat to species, according to the study.
According to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), coral reefs are so susceptible to warming that they would be effectively extinct if temperatures rose 2 C above their preindustrial levels. About three quarters of corals would die at 1.5 C, the temperature threshold that world leaders have set as a goal to limit global climate change.
Vesper said that plastic pollution, which blocks sunlight and damages corals through its abrasive edges, is another problem. “The combination of both is a disaster.”
Protecting oceans
WWF and other conservation groups have called for a legally binding international treaty on plastic waste that includes “specific, clear, universally applicable rules” throughout the life cycle of artificial products. Companies like Nestle, Coca Cola and Unilever, which sell products such as shampoo and soft drinks in single-use plastics, have echoed these calls ahead of the UN summit in February to combat plastic pollution.
Previous UN environmental treaties have been criticised for being ineffective in making reductions in pollution voluntary. The 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change doesn’t set any binding targets as to how much countries should reduce their carbon pollution each and every year.
At the One Ocean Summit in the French port of Brest, which ends Friday, world leaders have met to discuss topics like deep sea mining, greater protection for the high seas, and plans to safeguard 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030.
Edited By: Jennifer Collins
