Human impacts on the ocean

1. Human impacts on the ocean • Pollution • Transportation of exotic/invasive species • Alteration of physical habitat • Fisheries/Aquaculture - covered • Global Warming

2. Pollution • Garbage • Sewage • Oil • Toxic chemicals • Radioactive wastes • Noise Ghost nets

3. Dirty dozen • Cigarette butts • Paper pieces • Plastic pieces • Styrofoam • Glass • Plastic food bags • Plastic caps and lids • Metal cans • Plastic straws • Glass bottles • Plastic bottles • Styrofoam cups Largest seabird, the albatross

4. How long does it take for stuff to biodegrade?

5. sewage “Dilution is the solution to pollution” -does it really stay at the bottom? -does it effect marine organisms? -dead zones Policy of “blending” -Panama Population - 3,039,150Navigable canals allowing billions in trade each year – 1 Waste sewage treatment plants – 0 -Cruise Ships -Dogs and leaking septic tanks in the sound

6. Oil In millions of gallons http://seawifs.gsfc.nasa.gov/OCEAN_PLANET/HTML/peril_oil_pollution.html

7. 11 million gallons

8. Chemicals

9. Minimata Disease

10. Minimata Disease

11. Hg PCB DDT TBT Radioactive wastes

12. Noise pollution?

13. Exotics/invasive Species 1) non-native (or alien) to the ecosystem and 2) whose introduction causes or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health. Invasive species can be plants, animals, and other organisms (e.g., microbes). Human actions are the primary means of invasive species introductions. http://www.invasivespecies.gov/

14. Larvae Toxic algae/dinoflagellates Disease such as Cholora/Vibrio

15. How to recognize a green crab

16. Alteration of Physical Habitat • Silt from dredging • Costal development • Thermal pollution • Decrease of freshwater input -damming - estuaries and near shore habitats - effect migrating fish

17. Global Warming and Climate Change The observation: A warming trend or natural fluctuations?

18. Climate change factors • External forces: natural and anthropogenic • Internal forces – interactions within earth’s climate system (volcanism, atmospheric and oceanic circulation, earth’s tilt relative to sun etc) Internal forces effect weather, but do they effect climate and cause change? Or are external forces to blame for warming trend and if yes, is it anthropogenic release of carbon dioxide?

19. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (commissioned by UN) "most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human activities". Blame is on CO2 emmsions

20. Greenhouse effect Heat trapped By greenhouse Gasses: water vapor CO2, methane, Nitrogen oxide, CFC, and aerosols. Clouds and Surface albedo

22. More observations • beginning of the 20th century, Earth's mean surface temperature has increased by about 1.1°F (0.6°C). • Over the last 40 years, which is the period with the most reliable data, the temperature increased by about 0.5°F (0.2-0.3°C). • Warming in the 20th century is greater than at any time during the past 400 to 600 years. • Seven of the 10 warmest years in the 20th century occurred in the 1990s. • the hottest year since reliable instrumental temperature measurements began was 1998, when global temperatures spiked due to one of the strongest El Niños on record.

23. Other observations: • Mountain glaciers are receding. • The Arctic ice pack has lost about 40 percent of its thickness over the past four decades. • Global sea level is rising about three times faster over the past 100 years compared with the previous 3,000 years. • A growing number of studies show plants and animals changing their range and behavior in response to shifts in climate. Himalaya 1928 1979 2000 Cascades

24. Opponents/supporters of other hypotheses/arguments • Correlation does not equal causality • Climate models are still in infancy and do not take into account newly discovered feedback models • Cloud modeling is poor and effects are not well understood yet. • Fluctuations in temperatures within normal parameters (e.g. medieval warming and mini-ice age) • Urban heat islands skew measurements • Global temperatures are directly related to sunspot activity • Other explanations: solarization, milankovich cycles • Global warming studies have errors or have not been reproduced. • Consensus evidence causes climatologists to fear speaking against their community • because carbon dioxide levels have no significant impact on global temperatures, support for the Kyoto Protocol is entirely misguided.

25. Support/Counter arguments • the historical temperature record shows a rise of 0.4-0.8 °C over the last 100 years. • the urban heat island effect makes no significant contribution. • the current warmth is unusual in the past 1000 years • the warming of the last 50 years is likely caused by human activity, using analysis based on climate modeling; and that external forcings ie natural variability or solar variation, cannot explain the recent change. • climate models can reproduce this trend, but only when using greenhouse gas forcing. • climate models predict more warming, and other climate effects (sea level rise, etc) in the future. • action should be taken now to prevent or mitigate warming. • the IPCC reports correctly summarize the state of climate science. • there is a scientific consensus behind all of the above. • humankind is performing a great geophysical experiment and if it turns out badly - however that is defined - we cannot undo it.

26. Predictions

27. lots of problems -loss of albedo -sea levels rise -earth’s conveyer belt

29. Slowing and potential loss of thermohaline circulation – impacts weather

32. What can be done? • Control your consumption • Think outside the box: study and invent new technologies! • Vote. (32.4% of 18-24 year olds voted in 2004 only 48% registered) • Write politicians. • Educate those around you for more info/science about climate change: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_change http://www.pewclimate.org/; http://unfccc.int/2860.php