Article Contributed on: 12/10/2008 3:38:26 PM
Title: Human interference in the Sea
There are skeptics out there that believe that we are changing the world for the worse. That everything we do has a negative side effect. In some occasions we do, but we continue to make these changes to the world in the belief that it is making our lives easier. Not until we stun ourselves with the fact that our life has endured a more complex change then we can cope with.
Global warming is a big deal for most people. The atmosphere is filling up with carbon dioxide. For most people, when they think of global warming they think of the the air that we breathe. One of the biggest things that is happening is, when we put carbon dioxide in the air, it is then being soaked up by the ocean. A third of all the carbon dioxide that we put in the air is soaked up by the ocean.
The ocean is 70 percent of the surface area on the earth. Also has the more forms of life than even the Amazon. We are not only hurting ourselves by putting greenhouse gases in the air, we are also disrupting the ocean. This is causing warming all over the world, and this includes the ocean. We are warming up the ocean and we have seen temperatures rise everywhere which is making it harder for animals to live in the ocean. JPL's Charles Miller explains "The growing amount of carbon dioxide in the ocean could have a bigger effect on life on Earth than carbon dioxide in the atmosphere" (Sullivant). A third of the carbon dioxide that we put in the air is absorbed by the ocean. The other two thirds in absorbed by the soil, vegetation and air.
The carbon dioxide that we pollute gets soaked up a little bit by the ocean. But how good can this be for our ocean? Not very. First of all, if its not suitable for us to breathe than why would it be good for the ocean creatures? This carbon dioxide is changing the pH of the ocean and we have already seen it change from 8.2 to 8.1. This isn't much, but it changed within 150 years. This is really fast compared to how the pH of the ocean has changed in the past and it might mean that some fish won't be able change fast enough to live in the different oceans. "The final outcome is lowering of the ocean's pH - meaning the ocean is more acidic, and, ironically, a reduction in a particular form of carbon - carbonate ion - that many marine organisms need to make shells and skeletal material" (Sullivant). If some of the microscopic organisms can't live in the ocean and defend themselves they won't be able to survive and part of the food chain will be tarnished and who knows what else will die off because of the lack of food.
Acidification will cause all the animals that rely on carbonate to have trouble to survive. With the loss of carbonate, we could also see the loss of mollusks like the clams, oysters, and reef-building corals. This could completely alter the ocean jungles as we know it. Leaving millions of fish with out a home. Coral bleaching is already a problem because of global warming. but if there isn't any carbonate those bleaching coral won't be able to recover. Marine life could be damaged so far that it can't recover. Some of the microscopic organisms that are effected by this, the coccolithophore, use carbonate to create its hard shell along with a lot of the other organisms listed in this paper. "On the other hand, acidification appears to benefit at least some coccolithophore species by increasing the quantity of other forms of carbon that the microscopic plant uses in photosynthiesis" (Sullivant). This will kill off some species and help others.
We don't really know what this will do to the species of the ocean as the ocean turns more acidic and becomes warmer. All we know is that things will change whether this will be for the betterment of the ocean or it will change for the worse. Humans will be affected by the climate change in the ocean. Food supplies will be lost and humans will either have to move to better locations for food or find another source of food.
Though we can look at this change in a negative way. Some people can't handle change, and are deeply moved by it. Other people grow and become stronger. So, just like Darwin believes in survival of the fittest, I believe that this process will never stop. If these organisms can't adapt fast enough, they aren't meant to be there in the first place.
Recently, NASA found an animal that can survive being in space. This organism will shut off most of its body functions until it is suitable to rebuild itself. Just like the cockroach, this animal can survive severe change in their environment. Maybe these changes in the environment will create super beings that will able to survive different planets. NASA also plans on sending organisms to mars to see if they can cultivate the planet. Whatever happens to the environment because of climate change will make the organisms that survive stronger.
We can hope that these organisms that survive this climate change won't become crippled by this change, but just like when there is a road block, they will find a way to get around it or perish.
NASA has begun studying the ocean pH levels. NASA plans a huge project that will shoot satellites in the sky to study the ocean pH levels on a massive scale. This might not help change the pH levels but it helps us understand what we are doing to the world we live in.
By looking into the pH levels of the ocean we will begin to understand how life coaps with change on this level.
We all know where this carbon dioxide is coming from; from our cars, from our industries, and the energy to keep our cell phones on. These are the things that we think we need as a society. I really do believe that we need these things. On one hand, these things make our lives easier, because it makes the questions we used to have answered. But now we have new questions. These questions were formed out of the questions we have answered. Will our climate change for the better or worse? Well, it depends on who's side your on. As for humans, it seems that our climate is changing for the better. Our lives our easier at the moment but we forget that we have lives to live. Our moment in time is brief and we don't want to waste it. We let our offspring fix our messes. If we were to make the changes now, we would be wasting our lives doing something that we will never enjoy. We know what has to be done but change is easier said than done.
We can continue to form an understanding of the things that we are doing to our environment, but it is just as easy to look at what other animals are doing to our planet. Cows are currently still around because they can feed us. Insects are bad, in our eyes because they are ruining our environment. Our environment is best when it is convenient. Those insects are only bad because it looks like they are bad, but in reality; they serve the purpose of disposing of our trash, or recycling our trash.
Currently, we haven't decided if this climate change is bad. People like Al Gore are trying to give us an understanding of what we are doing, because knowledge is power. But what have we learned? All we know is that change is happening.
This change could be beneficial to some species in the world and bad for others. As long as life is still growing on the planet, I don't believe that anything we can do is necessarily bad. All it is doing is raising new questions to be answered, which just complicates our world. In that sense, it is bad. We have created a life style that is so complex that sometimes a man wishes he could be a caveman in order to forget about his troubles or debt. A caveman wanted his life easier so he learned how to deal with fire. As this caveman grew older he learned more, but all he really learned was that he didn't know anything at all.
Back to the question at hand. Are we really affecting the planet to a point that life can't continue to live. I don't think so. We are pushing ourselves to the limit; until we find that limit, we will not do a thing to stop it. Once man has exhausted its resources on land, he will turn to the ocean for assistance and realize that he has already destroyed the ocean, and in turn, destroyed himself.