Dead Seas

It's a report like this that make me worry for my children:

The preliminary report from the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO) is the result of the first-ever interdisciplinary international workshop examining the combined impact of all of the stressors currently affecting the oceans, including pollution, warming, acidification, overfishing and hypoxia.

“The findings are shocking," Dr. Alex Rogers, IPSO's scientific director, said in a statement released by the group. "This is a very serious situation demanding unequivocal action at every level. We are looking at consequences for humankind that will impact in our lifetime, and worse, our children's and generations beyond that."

The scientific panel concluded that degeneration in the oceans is happening much faster than has been predicted, and that the combination of factors currently distressing the marine environment is contributing to the precise conditions that have been associated with all major extinctions in the Earth's history.

According to the report, three major factors have been present in the handful of mass extinctions that have occurred in the past: an increase of both hypoxia (low oxygen) and anoxia (lack of oxygen that creates "dead zones") in the oceans, warming and acidification. The panel warns that the combination of these factors will inevitably cause a mass marine extinction if swift action isn't taken to improve conditions.

The report is the latest of several published in recent months examining the dire conditions of the oceans. A recent World Resources Institute report suggests that all coral reefs could be gone by 2050 if no action is taken to protect them, while a study published earlier this year in BioScience declares oysters as "functionally extinct", their populations decimated by over-harvesting and disease. Just last week scientists forecasted that this year's Gulf "dead zone" will be the largest in history due to increased runoff from the Mississippi River dragging in high levels of nitrates and phosphates from fertilizers.

A recent study in the journal Nature, meanwhile, suggests that not only will the next mass extinction be man-made, but that it could already be underway.

Makes me think that Cormac McCarthy's vision is the most prescient -- this is The Road that we've set our civilization and planet on:



Someday maybe it'll be like this:



Is Mars the oh-so-obvious warning next door?

Marsmorial Day

I'm aware that the NASA space exploration program is not without its political controversy, particularly among those who would prefer the money spent on our problems here on Earth. However, I'm a sucker for space travel because I believe we need frontiers and because I'd like to think there are things to learn out there which apply to us here.

For example, if Mars did indeed once sustain life, then in our perilous age of global warming, maybe there's a lesson up there.

So I'm happy that NASA won one this weekend with the successful landing of the Phoenix Mars Mission, closest to the still frozen northern pole of the Red Planet than ever before, hence maybe closer to more clues, maybe even life itself. An overview:



And if you want to see a bunch of brainy engineers get really, really happy:



And if you want to get in on the extraterrestrial theories now, there's this new "anomaly":



Alien conspiracy theorists, start your engines!