The first ever international and interdisciplinary workshop concerning the cumulative stress on our oceans, which took place under the combined auspices of the International Program on the State of the Ocean and the International Union for Conservation of Nature, has added yet another scary chapter to the global warming literature. The workshop reports that ?we have underestimated the overall risks and that the whole of marine degradation is greater than the sum of its parts, and that degradation is now happening at a faster rate than predicted?. To put this warning in context, the report presented at UN headquarters this week finds that the rate of carbon absorption by oceans is already greater than it was at the time of the last globally significant extinction of marine species, which was around 55 million years ago. Actually, we are seeing all the symptoms that were common to the previous five mass extinctions on Earth: fundamental disturbances in the carbon cycle, acidification and carbon depletion across the oceans. Add on the fact that climate change in general has been moderated by the oceans absorbing 80% of the additional heat added to the system and 33% of the carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere, and you see why their declining health should be a cause of worry.
But can a world that can?t agree to extend the Kyoto Protocol let alone affirm a more ambitious alternative really deliver what IPSO and IUCN are asking for? Pressure upon the ocean ecosystems will abate only when the world agrees to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and this is proving to be a huge challenge. Even smaller challenges like lowering of fishing quotas are being resisted, by no less than the self-professed environmental leadership of Europe.