I am in the middle of a four-day course scuba certification course, so I thought this would be a good time to post a video of famed marine biologist Dr. Sylvia Earle. Called “Her Deepness” by the New Yorker and the New York Times, a “Living Legend” by the Library of Congress, and Time Magazine’s first “Hero for the Planet,” Sylvia Earle is an oceanographer, explorer, author, lecturer, Explorer in Residence of the National Geographic Society, Leader of the Sustainable Seas Expeditions, Council Chair for the Harte Research Institute at Texas A & M, Corpus Christi, Founder and Chairman of Mission Blue, and formerly the Chief Scientist of NOAA.
In other words, this woman knows a bit about the ocean, and scuba diving! In fact, she lead the first expedition of women who lived underwater in a submersible for several weeks, back in the late 1970s.
I recently heard United Church of Canada Moderator Mardi Tindal say that we can’t speak about climate change without also speaking about the acidification of the ocean that is happening because of the large amount of carbon dioxide that it is absorbing from the atmosphere. It has been buffering us, on land, from the worst effects of global warming because of this. But the ocean, too, is approaching its tipping point. Soon, it will become so acidic that the shells of shellfish won’t be able to form properly, and the conditions for most marine life to survive will be altered to the point they will die out. The mess in the Gulf right now from the eruption of the BP oil volcano is a very visible demonstration of the disaster we humans have been inflicting on the “Blue Planet’s” oceans. Although this video is nearly 30 minutes long, I would encourage you to take the time to watch it. Dr. Earle has important things to say that the rest of us, who can still affect change before it’s too late, need to hear.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuHnSdLnW0o]
Dr. Earle was also featured on Episode 2 of David Suzuki’s CBC Radio show, The Bottom Line. To go to the show’s home page and listen to it, click here.
If you are on Facebook, you can go to the Friends of Dr. Sylvia Earle page to get updates from her.
Thank you for posting Sylvia’s messages and for suggesting that people check the Friends of Dr. Sylvia Earle page. That is where we try to have information about all the many things that are being done in the ocean, particularly stories about what the community of ocean advocates are doing.
Happy to help spread Dr. Earle’s important message, Charlotte. What an amazing, inspiring woman!
..:: Increased CO2 is causing Ocean Acidification and reduced O2 levels…
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Since the early 1980s, the production of phytoplankton, a crucial creature at the lower end of the food chain, has declined 6 percent, with 70 percent of the decline found in the northern parts of the oceans. Scientists also have found that phytoplankton are becoming smaller.
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“Many of these changes are already occurring within the world’s oceans with serious consequences likely over the coming years.” http://www.physorg.com/news197521399.html
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Charlie Vernon – former Chief Scientist of the Australian Institute of Marine Science :: Will human CO2 emissions cause another mass extinction event? http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100416145721AAcB7yv
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While increased industrial PCB/PBDE levels are causing impairments in marine life immune system responses… resulting in mass die offs… like we have been seeing worldwide from the coral reefs all the way up to the dolphins and whales… PCBs have bio-magnified to toxic levels in humans and with a suppressed immune system… more infections and cancers: http://EcoDelMar.org/pcb
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Malignant neoplasm in free-ranging Steller Sea Lion :: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15003477
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http://EcoDelMar.org/ocean_awareness
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Thanks for the additional links, Larry. This is certainly an issue that we all need to sit up and take notice of – and demand swift action on! As the oceans go, so goes humanity.