Soil Degradation and e Production • Waste rowth • Water Pollution mination • Deforestation erfishing • Acid Rain • • Ocean Acidification ered Biodiversity • The ral Resource Depletion ar Ice Caps • Climate ssues • Rainforest Loss • • Waste from Renewable Mining • Nuclear Waste • ollution • Space Pollution
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EARTH 53 Article The article addresses thirteen environmental problems that we are currently dealing with, all of which contribute to the climate crisis. It emphasizes the importance of drawing attention to these issues, especially since their impact is occurring at a fast rate. Global Warming from Fossil Fuels, Poor Governance, Food Waste, Biodiversity Loss, Plastic Pollution, Deforestation, Air Pollution, Melting Ice Caps and Sea Level Rise, Ocean Acidification, Agriculture, Food and Water Insecurity, Fast Fashion and Textile Waste, Overfishing are among the environmental issues mentioned. The article also discusses various approaches to these issues on a personal, professional, and political level. Overview: 13 Biggest Environmental Problems Of 2022 Earth.org - Deena Robinson 03 September 2022
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EARTH 55 Original Article While the climate crisis has many factors that play a role in the exacerbation of the environment, there are some that warrant more attention than others. Here are some of the biggest environmental problems of our lifetime, from deforestation and biodiversity loss to food waste and fast fashion. 1. Global Warming from Fossil Fuels At time of publication, CO2 PPM (parts per million) is at 418 and the global temperature rise is 1.1 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels. The last time carbon dioxide levels on our planet were as high as today was more than 4 million years ago. Increased emissions of greenhouse gases have led to a rapid and steady increase in global temperatures, which in turn is causing catastrophic events all over the world – from Australia and the US experiencing some of the most devastating bushfire seasons ever recorded, locusts swarming across parts of Africa, the Middle East and Asia, decimating crops, and a heatwave in Antarctica that saw temperatures rise above 20 degrees for the first time. Scientists are constantly warning that the planet has crossed a series of tipping points that could have catastrophic consequences, such as advancing permafrost melt in Arctic regions, the Greenland ice sheet melting at an unprecedented rate, accelerating sixth mass extinction, and increasing deforestation in the Amazon rainforest, just to name a few.
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EARTH 57 The climate crisis is causing tropical storms and other weather events such as hurricanes, heatwaves and flooding to be more intense and frequent than seen before. However, even if all greenhouse gas emissions were halted immediately, global temperatures would continue to rise in the coming years. That is why it is absolutely imperative that we start now to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, invest in renewable energy sources, and phase our fossil fuels as fast as possible. 2. Poor Governance According to economists like Nicholas Stern, the climate crisis is a result of multiple market failures. Economists and environmentalists have urged policymakers for years to increase the price of activities that emit greenhouse gases (one of our biggest environmental problems), the lack of which constitutes the largest market failure, for example through carbon taxes, which will stimulate innovations in lowcarbon technologies. To cut emissions quickly and effectively enough, governments must not only massively increase funding for green innovation to bring down the costs of lowcarbon energy sources, but they also need to adopt a range of other policies that address each of the other market failures. A national carbon tax is currently implemented in 27 countries around the world, including various countries in the EU, Canada, Singapore, Japan, Ukraine and Argentina. However, according to the 2019 OECD Tax Energy Use report, current tax structures are not adequately aligned with the pollution profile of energy sources. For example, the OECD suggests that carbon taxes are not harsh enough on coal production, although it has proved to be effective for the electricity industry. A carbon tax has been effectively implemented in Sweden; the carbon tax is USD 127$ per tonne and has reduced emissions by 25% since 1995, while its economy has expanded 75% in the same time period. Further, organisations such as the United Nations are not fit to deal with the climate crisis: it was assembled to prevent another world war and is not fit for purpose. Anyway, members of the UN are not mandated to comply with any suggestions or recommendations made by the organisation. For example, the Paris Agreement, an agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, says that countries need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly so that global temperature rise is below 2 degrees Celsius by 2100, and ideally under 1.5 degrees. But signing on to it is voluntary, and there are no real repercussions for non-compliance. Further, the issue of equity remains a contentious issue whereby developing countries are allowed to emit more in order to develop to the point where they can develop technologies to emit less, and it allows some countries, such as China, to exploit this.
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EARTH 59 3. Food Waste A third of the food intended for human consumption – around 1.3 billion tons – is wasted or lost. This is enough to feed 3 billion people. Food waste and loss account for a third of greenhouse gas emissions annually; if it was a country, food waste would be the third highest emitter of greenhouse gases, behind China and the US. Food waste and loss occurs at different stages in developing and developed countries; in developing countries, 40% of food waste occurs at the postharvest and processing levels, while in developed countries, 40 % of food waste occurs at the retail and consumer levels. At the retail level, a shocking amount of food is wasted because of aesthetic reasons; in fact, in the US, more than 50% of all produce thrown away in the US is done so because it is deemed to be “too ugly” to be sold to consumers - this amounts to about 60 million tons of fruits and vegetables. This leads to food insecurity, another one of the biggest environmental problems on the list. 4. Biodiversity Loss The past 50 years have seen a rapid growth of human consumption, population, global trade and urbanisation, resulting in humanity using more of the Earth’s resources than it can replenish naturally. A recent WWF report found that the population sizes of mammals, fish, birds, reptiles and amphibians have experienced a decline of an average of 68 % between 1970 and 2016. The report attributes this biodiversity loss to a variety of factors, but mainly land-use change, particularly the conversion of habitats, like forests, grasslands and mangroves, into agricultural systems. Animals such as pangolins, sharks and seahorses are significantly affected by the illegal wildlife trade, and pangolins are critically endangered because of it. More broadly, a recent analysis has found that the sixth mass extinction of wildlife on Earth is accelerating. More than 500 species of land animals are on the brink of extinction and are likely to be lost within 20 years; the same number were lost over the whole of the last century. The scientists say that without the human destruction of nature, this rate of loss would have taken thousands of years. 5. Plastic Pollution In 1950, the world produced more than 2 million tons of plastic per year. By 2015, this annual production swelled to 419 million tons and exacerbating plastic waste in the environment. A report by science journal, Nature, determined that currently, roughly 14 million tons of plastic make their way into the oceans every year, harming wildlife habitats and the animals that live in them. The research found that if no action is taken, the plastic crisis will grow to 29 million metric tons per year by 2040. If we include microplastics into this, the cumulative amount of plastic in the ocean could reach 600 million tons by 2040.
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EARTH 61 Shockingly, National Geographic found that 91 % of all plastic that has ever been made is not recycled, representing not only one of the biggest environmental problems of our lifetime, but another massive market failure. Considering that plastic takes 400 years to decompose, it will be many generations until it ceases to exist. There’s no telling what the irreversible effects of plastic pollution will have on the environment in the long run. 6. Deforestation: Every hour, forests the size of 300 football fields are cut down. By the year 2030, the planet might have only 10 % of its forests; if deforestation isn’t stopped, they could all be gone in less than 100 years. Agriculture is the leading cause of deforestation, another one of the biggest environmental problems appearing on this list. Land is cleared to raise livestock or to plant other crops that are sold, such as sugar cane and palm oil. Besides for carbon sequestration, forests help to prevent soil erosion, because the tree roots bind the soil and prevent it from washing away, which also prevents landslides. The three countries experiencing the highest levels of deforestation are Brazil, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia, however Indonesia is tackling deforestation, now seeing the lowest rates since the beginning of the century. 7. Air Pollution One of the biggest environmental problems today is outdoor air pollution. Research from the World Health Organization (WHO) shows that an estimated 4.2 to 7 million people die from air pollution worldwide every year and that nine out of 10 people breathe air that contains high levels of pollutants. In Africa, 258,000 people died as a result of outdoor air pollution in 2017, up from 164,000 in 1990, according to UNICEF. Causes of air pollution mostly comes from industrial sources and motor vehicles, as well as emissions from burning biomass and poor air quality due to dust storms. In Europe, a recent report from the EU’s environment agency showed that air pollution contributed to 400 000 annual deaths in the EU in 2012 (the last year for which data was available). In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, attention has been put on the role that air pollution gases has in transporting the virus molecules. Preliminary studies have identified a positive correlation between COVID-19 related mortalities and air pollution and there is also a plausible association of airborne particles assisting the viral spread. This could have contributed to the high death toll in China, where air quality is notoriously poor, although more definitive studies must be conducted before such a conclusion can be drawn. 8. Melting Ice Caps and Sea Level Rise The climate crisis is warming the Arctic more than twice as fast as anywhere else on the planet. Today, sea levels are rising more
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EARTH 63 than twice as quickly as they did for most of the 20th century as a result of increasing temperatures on Earth. Seas are now rising an average of 3.2 mm per year globally and they will continue to grow up to about 0.7 metres by the end of this century. In the Arctic, the Greenland Ice Sheet poses the greatest risk for sea levels because melting land ice is the main cause of rising sea levels. Representing arguably the biggest of the environmental problems, this is made all the more concerning considering that last year’s summer triggered the loss of 60 billion tons of ice from Greenland, enough to raise global sea levels by 2.2mm in just two months. According to satellite data, the Greenland ice sheet lost a record amount of ice in 2019: an average of a million tons per minute throughout the year, one of the biggest environmental problems that has cascading effects. If the entire Greenland ice sheet melts, sea level would rise by six metres. Meanwhile, the Antarctic continent contributes about 1 millimetre per year to sea level rise, which is a third of the annual global increase. Additionally, the last fully intact ice shelf in Canada in the Arctic recently collapsed, having lost about 80 square kilometres – or 40 % – of its area over a two-day period in late July, according to the Canadian Ice Service. The sea level rise will have a devastating impact on those living in coastal regions: according to research and advocacy group Climate Central, sea level rise this century could flood coastal areas that are now home to 340 million to 480 million people, forcing them to migrate to safer areas and contributing to overpopulation and strain of resources in the areas they migrate to. Take Shanghai’s megalopolis for example, which is built around the low-lying Yangtze river delta. As the fourth most populous city in the world, the flood risk in the area is high due to its geographical position. Any flooding caused by a higher rainfall can potentially be catastrophic in relation to evacuation, water management and property damage. 9. Ocean Acidification Global temperature rise has not only affected the surface, but it is the main cause of ocean acidification. Our oceans absorb about 30% of carbon dioxide that is released into the Earth’s atmosphere. As higher concentrations of carbon emissions are released thanks to human activities such as burning fossil fuels as well as effects of global climate change such as increased rates of wildfires, so do the amount of carbon dioxide that is absorbed back into the sea. The smallest change in the pH scale can have a significant impact on the acidity of the ocean. Ocean acidification can have a ripple effect across marine ecosystems and species, its food webs, and provoke irreversible changes in habitat quality. Once pH levels reach too low, marine organisms such as oysters, their shells and skeleton could even start to dissolve.
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EARTH 65 However, one of the biggest environmental problems from ocean acidification is coral bleaching and subsequent coral reef loss. This is a phenomenon that occurs when rising ocean temperatures disrupt the symbiotic relationship between the reefs and algae that lives within it, driving away the algae and causing coral reefs to lose their natural vibrant colours. Some scientists have estimated coral reefs are at risk of being completely wiped by 2050. Higher acidity in the ocean would obstruct coral reef systems’ ability to rebuild their exoskeletons and recover from these coral bleaching events. Some studies have also found that ocean acidification can be linked as one of the effects of plastic pollution in the ocean. The accumulating bacteria and microorganisms derived from plastic garbage dumped in the ocean to damage marine ecosystems and contribute towards coral bleaching. 10. Agriculture Studies have shown that the global food system is responsible for up to one third of all humancaused - greenhouse - gas emissions, of which 30 % comes from livestock and fisheries. Crop production releases greenhouse gases such as nitrous oxide through the use of fertilisers. 60 % of the world’s agricultural area is dedicated to cattle ranching, although it only makes up 24 % of global meat consumption. Agriculture not only covers a vast amount of land, but it also consumes a vast amount of freshwater, another one of the biggest environmental problems on this list. While arable lands and grazing pastures cover one-third of Earth’s land surfaces, they consume threequarters of the world’s limited freshwater resources. Scientists and environmentalists have continuously warned that we need to rethink our current food system; switching to a more plant-based diet would dramatically reduce the carbon footprint of the conventional agriculture industry. 11. Food and Water Insecurity Rising temperatures and unsustainable farming practices has resulted in the increasing threat of water and food insecurity and taking the mantle as one of the biggest environmental problems today. Globally, more than 68 billion tonnes of top-soil is eroded every year at a rate 100 times faster than it can naturally be replenished. Laden with biocides and fertiliser, the soil ends up in waterways where it contaminates drinking water and protected areas downstream. Furthermore, exposed and lifeless soil is more vulnerable to wind and water erosion due to lack of root and mycelium systems that hold it together. A key contributor to soil erosion is over-tilling: although it increases productivity in the short-term by mixing in surface nutrients (e.g. fertiliser), tilling is physically destructive to the soil’s structure and in the long-term leads to soil compaction, loss of fertility and surface crust formation that worsens topsoil erosion.
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EARTH 67 With the global population expected to reach 9 billion people by mid-century, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) projects that global food demand may increase by 70 % by 2050. Around the world, more than 820 million people do not get enough to eat. The UN secretary-general António Guterres says, “Unless immediate action is taken, it is increasingly clear that there is an impending global food security emergency that could have long term impacts on hundreds of millions of adults and children.” He urged for countries to rethink their food systems and encouraged more sustainable farming practices. In terms of water security, only 3 % of the world’s water is fresh water, and two-thirds of that is tucked away in frozen glaciers or otherwise unavailable for our use. As a result, some 1.1 billion people worldwide lack access to water, and a total of 2.7 billion find water scarce for at least one month of the year. By 2025, twothirds of the world’s population may face water shortages. 12. Fast Fashion and Textile Waste The global demand for fashion and clothing has risen at an unprecedented rate that the fashion industry now accounts for 10 % of global carbon emissions, becoming one of the biggest environmental problems of our time. Fashion alone produces more greenhouse gas emissions than both the aviation and shipping sectors combined, and nearly 20 % of global wastewater, or around 93 billion cubic metres from textile dyeing, according to the UN Environment Programme. What’s more, the world at least generated an estimated 92 million tonnes of textiles waste every year and that number is expected to soar up to 134 million tonnes a year by 2030. Discarded clothing and textile waste ends up in landfills, most of which is non-biodegradable, while microplastics from clothing materials such as polyester, nylon, polyamide, acrylic and other synthetic materials, is leeched into soil and nearby water sources. Monumental amounts of clothing textile are also dumped in less developed countries as seen with Chile’s Atacama, the driest desert in the world, where at least 39,000 tonnes of textile waste from other nations are left there to rot. This rapidly growing issue is only exacerbated by the everexpanding fast fashion business model, in which companies relies on cheap and speedy production of low quality clothing to meet the latest and newest trends. While the United Nations Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action sees signatory fashion and textile companies to commit to achieving net zero emission by 2050, a majority of businesses around the world have yet to address their roles in climate change. While these are some of the biggest environmental problems plaguing our planet, there are
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EARTH 69 many more that have not been mentioned, including overfishing, urban sprawl, toxic superfund sites and land use changes. While there are many facets that need to be considered in formulating a response to the crisis, they must be coordinated, practical and far-reaching enough to make enough of a difference. 13. Overfishing Over three billion people around the world rely on fish as their primary source of protein. About 12 % of the world relies upon fisheries in some form or another, with 90 % of these being smallscale fishermen – think a small crew in a boat, not a ship, using small nets or even rods and reels and lures not too different from the kind you probably use. Of the 18.9 million fishermen in the world, 90 % of them fall under the latter category. Most people consume approximately twice as much food as they did 50 years ago and there are four times as many people on earth as there were at the close of the 1960s. This is one driver of the 30 % of commercially fished waters being classified as being ‘overfished’. This means that the stock of available fishing waters is being depleted faster than it can be replaced. Overfishing comes with detrimental effects on the environment, including increased algae in the water, destruction of fishing communities, ocean littering as well as extremely high rates of biodiversity loss. As part of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 14), the UN and FAO are working towards maintaining the proportion of fish stocks within biologically sustainable levels. This, however, requires much stricter regulations of the world’s oceans than the ones already in place. In July 2022, the WTO banned fishing subsidies to reduce global overfishing in a historic deal. Indeed, subsidies for fuel, fishing gear, and building new vessels, only incentivise overfishing and represent thus a huge problem. What Can I Do? 1. On A Personal Level Ways to approach climate action within our personal lives (hint – it evolves personal action but is not focused on small behavioural changes, which whilst worthwhile will not get us there): • Joining a community can be one of the best ways to increase your impact. • First, it can enable you to make hundreds of connections in one go. • Second, a group of people working together can have more impact than individuals. If you are not already, take action by becoming an EO Member to support our mission to encourage a billion climate activists. • If you’re a younger read ask your parents to take action by bringing your whole family on board as a Family Member. • Reflect on the concept of Effective Altruism, a project that aims to find the best ways to help others, and put them into practice.
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EARTH 71 2. On A Professional Level Ways to approach climate action within the workplace: • Maintain your career path but consider donating a portion of your income to organisations that are focused on achieving meaningful & impactful goals and call out your boss if the company or organisation you work for does not have clear policies that will result in reduced harm to the environment and a pathway to Net Zero. • Ask your boss to support EO by bringing the whole team onboard with EO company membership – and take action together. • Reconsider your career path, with excellent advice here 3. On A Political Level Ways to approach climate action as a voter or political actor (even if you can’t vote): • Protest – make your feelings known – become a vocal and passionate advocate with friends and family (without being over pushy) of the need for climate action. We need a billion activists to turn this ship around. • Join organisations that are organising climate actions and protests locally, whether in your city, district, or even at school. • Vote (if you can) for politicians who will champion effective climate action by governments. • Vote for parties or organisations that espouse self-reform and the adoption of ‘Ministers of the Future’ into government.
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EARTH 73 Article The article discusses the inevitability of sea level rise caused by the melting of the Greenland ice cap. Scientists predict that continued melting will result in a 78cm rise in sea levels. The study, published in Nature Climate Change, used satellite measurements to calculate how far global warming has pushed the ice sheet out of equilibrium. The study provides an accurate estimate of the sea-level rise but does not provide a timeline. However, based on scientists› understanding of ice loss, most of the rise is expected to happen soon. In 2021, other researchers warned that a significant portion of the Greenland ice sheet was approaching a tipping point. The article also mentions the loss of ice from mountain glaciers in the Himalayas and the Alps, and the significant loss of ice from the west Antarctic. The warming of the oceans also contributes to rising sea levels. Overview: Major sea-level rise caused by melting of Greenland ice cap is ‘now inevitable’ Loss will contribute a minimum rise of 27cm regardless of what climate action is taken, scientists discover The Guardian, Damian Carrington 29 August 2022
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EARTH 75 Original Article Major sea-level rise from the melting of the Greenland ice cap is now inevitable, scientists have found, even if the fossil fuel burning that is driving the climate crisis were to end overnight. The research shows the global heating to date will cause an absolute minimum sea-level rise of 27cm (10.6in) from Greenland alone as 110tn tonnes of ice melt. With continued carbon emissions, the melting of other ice caps and thermal expansion of the ocean, a multi-metre sealevel rise appears likely. Billions of people live in coastal regions, making flooding due to rising sea levels one of the greatest long-term impacts of the climate crisis. If Greenland’s record melt year of 2012 becomes a routine occurrence later this century, as is possible, then the ice cap will deliver a “staggering” 78cm of sea-level rise, the scientists said. Previous studies have used computer models of ice cap behaviour to estimate future losses, but the physical processes are complex and this leads to significant uncertainties in the results. In contrast, the study published in the journal Nature Climate Change used satellite measurements of ice losses from Greenland and the shape of the ice cap from 19-2000. This data enabled the scientists to calculate how far global heating to date has pushed the ice sheet from an equilibrium where snowfall matches the ice lost. This allowed the calculation of how much more ice must be lost in order to regain stability.
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EARTH 77 “It is a very conservative rockbottom minimum,” said Prof Jason Box from the National Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (Geus), who led the research. “Realistically, we will see this figure more than double within this century.” The 27cm estimate is a minimum because it only accounts for global heating so far and because some ways in which glacier ice is lost at the margins of the ice sheet are not included. The advantage of this study is that it provides a solid estimate of inevitable sea-level rise but the method used does not give a timescale over which the ice will be lost. Nonetheless, based on scientists’ overall understanding of how sheets such as Greenland lose ice into the ocean, the researchers said most of the rise would occur relatively soon. In 2021, other scientists warned that a significant part of the Greenland ice sheet was on the brink of a tipping point. “The minimum of 27cm is the sea-level rise deficit that we have accrued to date and it’s going to get paid out, no matter what we do going forward,” said Dr William Colgan, also at Geus. “Whether it’s coming in 100 years or 150 years, it’s coming. And the sea-level rise we are committed to is growing at present, because of the climate trajectory we’re on.” Colgan said: “If [2012] becomes a normal year, then the committed loss grows to 78cm, which is staggering, and the fact that we’re already flickering into that range [of ice loss] is shocking. But the difference between 78cm and 27cm highlights the [difference] that can be made through implementing the Paris agreement. There is still a lot of room to minimise the damage.” Mountain glaciers in the Himalayas and the Alps are already on course to lose a third and half of their ice respectively, while the west Antarctic ice sheet is also thought by some scientists to be past the point at which major losses are inevitable. Warming oceans also expand, adding to sea-level rise. “There is growing support in the scientific literature for multi-metre levels of rise within the next 100 to 200 years,” said Colgan. A collapse of the colossal east Antarctic ice sheet, which would lead to a -52metre rise in sea levels over millenia if it all melted, could be averted if rapid climate action is taken. Prof Gail Whiteman, at the University of Exeter, who was not part of the study team, said: “The results of this new study are hard to ignore for all business leaders and politicians concerned about the future of humanity. It is bad news for the nearly 600 million people that live in coastal zones [less than 10m above sea level] worldwide. As sea levels rise, they will be increasingly vulnerable, and it threatens approximately 1$tn of global wealth.” She said political leaders must rapidly scale up funding for climate adaptation and damage.
78 TERRAFORMS I Description: This mixed media collage was created by Reem Qushmaq to highlight the alarming impact of rising sea levels on our planet›s melting ice caps.
EARTH 79 Melting Ice Caps and Rising Sea Levels Mixed Media Collage
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EARTH 81 Article The climate emergency is worse than many realize because the Earth›s atmosphere has been overheated by greenhouse gas emissions, leading to an increase in ocean temperatures. As a result, sea levels are expected to rise by at least 20 to 30 feet, putting many coastal cities under water. This could happen within the next 100 to 200 years, and would have catastrophic effects on human societies. To prevent this, humans must stop emitting heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere and extract the ones that are already there. This will require a shift to renewable energy and the development of carbon negative technologies. Overview: Sea levels are going to rise by at least 20ft. We can do something about it To avoid the grimmest outlook posed by warming oceans, we need to extract heat-trapping gases from the atmosphere The Guardian, Harold R Wanless 13 April 2021
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EARTH 83 Original Article The climate emergency is bigger than many experts, elected officials, and activists realize. Humanity’s greenhouse gas emissions have overheated the Earth’s atmosphere, unleashing punishing heat waves, hurricanes, and other extreme weather – that much is widely understood. The larger problem is that the overheated atmosphere has in turn overheated the oceans, assuring a catastrophic amount of future sea level rise. As oceans heat up the water rises in part because warm water expands but also because the warmer waters have initiated major melt of polar ice sheets. As a result, average sea levels around the world are now all but certain to rise by at least 20 to 30 feet. That’s enough to put large parts of many coastal cities, home to hundreds of millions of people, under water. The key questions are how soon this sea level rise will happen and whether humans can cool the atmosphere and oceans quickly enough to prevent part of this. If seas rise 20 feet over the next 2,000 years, our children and their descendants may find ways to adapt. But if seas rise 20 feet or more over the next 100 to 200 years — which is our current trajectory – the outlook is grim. In that scenario, there could be two feet of sea level rise by 2040, three feet by 2050, and much more to come. Two to three feet of sea level rise may not sound like much, but it will transform human societies the world over. In south Florida, where I live, residents will lose access to fresh water. Sewage treatment plants will fail, large areas will persistently flood, and Miami Beach and other barrier islands will be largely abandoned. In China, India, Egypt and other countries with major river deltas, two to three feet of sea level rise will force the evacuation of tens of millions of people and the loss of vast agricultural lands. Attempting to limit sea level rise therefore must become an urgent priority, including for the world leaders Joe Biden is inviting to a climate summit on Earth Day, 22 April. We must
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EARTH 85 reframe how the climate emergency is understood and what it means to combat it. Certainly, it is essential to meet the Paris agreement goal of limiting temperature rise to 1.5 to 2C – but that will not be sufficient. The solution to rapidly rising sea levels is twofold: humans must stop putting more heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere, and we must extract much of what we’ve already put up there. Since the Industrial Revolution 250 years ago, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere has soared due to human activities, principally the burning of carbon-based fossil fuels. To minimize future sea level rise, we need to lower that amount from today’s 417 parts per million towards the 280 ppm that prevailed before industrialization. Halting heat-trapping emissions requires rapidly moving the economy off fossil fuels to renewable energy as well as ending deforestation, shifting to climate-friendly agriculture, planting soil-building forests, and more. But even if we succeed on this front — and so far, we are falling well short — only the atmosphere would stop getting hotter. Cooling the oceans will be harder. This requires pulling massive amounts of CO2 from both the atmosphere and the oceans and storing it where it cannot leak. There are prototypes of such “carbon negative” technologies. Methods like incorporating pulverized basaltic lava into fertilizers can lead to CO2 removal and other approaches must be aggressively developed. It is crucial that both strategies – halting further emissions of CO2 and extracting CO2 that’s already been emitted – be pursued. Doing one cannot be an excuse for not doing the other or we will fail. Our dilemma is rooted in basic physics. Once CO2 is emitted, it remains in the atmosphere for millennia, trapping heat and warming the planet like a blanket warms a human body. What’s insufficiently appreciated is that most of this warming – over %93 – has transferred to the oceans and significantly warmed the upper 2,000 feet. This is accelerating polar ice melt and global sea level rise and will continue to do so for centuries. And sea level rise is accelerating at a dangerous pace. In 1900, global sea levels were rising 0.6 millimeters a year. After 1930, as ocean warming and water expansion kicked in, the rate of sea level rise doubled and doubled again, reaching 3.1mm a year by 1990. Since then, as ever-warmer oceans have driven polar ice melt, the rate of sea level rise has quickened further. Today, oceans are rising 6 mm a year (over two inches a decade), and this pace will continue to dramatically accelerate. Two inches a decade may seem a trifle but remember: we are just at the beginning of this acceleration. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration projected in 2017 that global mean sea level could rise five to 8.2ft by 2100. Four years later, it’s clear that 8ft is in fact a moderate projection. And regional influences – subsidence, changing ocean currents, and redistribution of Earth’s mass as ice melts – will cause some local sea level rise to be %70-20 higher than global. Sea level rise of 8ft would be catastrophic. Absent extensive and very expensive adaptation measures, it would put much of New York and Washington DC, Shanghai and Bangkok, Lagos, Alexandria and countless other coastal cities underwater. It would submerge south Florida. And building sea walls won’t help in south Florida: the land rests on porous limestone, so rising seas will simply seep under. Even the levee-protected Netherlands and New Orleans will be in deep trouble. Worse, on current trends, we will be lucky for seas to rise “only” 8ft by 2100. The reason is that the computer models used by Noaa and others do not reflect what we know about how seas have risen in the past. These models assume that sea level rise
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EARTH 87 unfolds gradually, but the geological record shows that in fact it can occur in rapid pulses. Warmer temperatures following the previous ice age caused disintegration of one polar ice sector after another, causing seas to rise in pulses of three to 30ft per century. Today, accelerating ice melt in Greenland and Antarctica are almost certainly the beginning of a new pulse of rapid sea level rise. It is urgent that humanity transition to renewable energy, stop burning fossil fuels, and develop and deploy technologies to extract CO2 from the skies and seas. We must also get realistic about adapting to the sea level rise that can no longer be prevented. Rather than building more in low-lying regions and spending public money on coastal defenses that are bound to fail, we should prepare to assist the eventual relocation of people and infrastructure from the most threatened areas (and clean the land before inundation). Without such measures, there will come a point, sooner than many people realize, when civilization as we know it will greatly weaken or outright collapse. We can only prevent this scenario with serious planning, funding, and effort. Our children, and their children, deserve much better than we are doing now.
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EARTH 89 Article New research has found that pollution from plastic waste in the oceans is correlated with ocean acidification. Polluted water bottles left in the sea for three weeks became sources of harmful bacteria and microorganisms, known as the «plastisphere». Bacteria that damage marine ecosystems, such as coral bleaching, are being found more often on plastics. Ocean acidification, caused by CO2 emissions being absorbed into the sea, since the year 1850 it has increased by 26 %, ten times faster than any period within the last 55 million years. This is putting marine life at risk of increased acidity in the ocean, which can cause drops in metabolic rates and immune responses. It can also affect larger predators like whales and sharks who struggle to find food sources. Overview: Ocean Acidification Linked to Plastic Pollution - Study Earth.org, Sophie Hadley 13th January 2021
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EARTH 91 New research has found that pollution from plastic waste dumped into the world’s oceans is correlated with ocean acidification, which occurs when the water’s chemistry is altered as CO2 is absorbed by seawater. This process reduces water PH levels and vital minerals like calcium carbonate, a key building block for many marine skeletons and shells. Increased ocean acidity is also caused by CO2 emissions being absorbed into the sea. Ocean acidity has increased by 26 % since 1850, ten times faster than any period within the last 55 million years. The study describes how after three weeks of leaving discarded water bottles in the sea, the bottles became sources of harmful bacteria and microorganisms. The accumulating bacteria that spread on plastic and into the ocean are now referred to as the ‘plastisphere’. Bacteria that damage marine ecosystems are being discovered more often, for example the Photobacterium rosenbergii, which has been linked to coral bleaching. Original Article Also, the Vibrio parahaemolyticus bacteria has been found in marine plastic within the North and Baltic sea, which can pass cholera to humans. The study found that the bacteria found on single-use plastic bottles were twice as bacterially diverse in comparison to samples from surrounding seawater. The study was conducted off the coast of Japan’s Shikine Island, known for its natural presence of underwater CO2 seep vents. Using a combination of statistical analysis and DNA sequencing, the team was able to discern that an increase of CO2 will further accelerate bacterial distribution. The research also showed that 350 groups of bacteria examined were found to be unique to plastics only. In areas higher in Co2, it was found that many taxonomic groups were affected, including vital bacteria that play an important role in carbon cycling. 300 million tons of plastic is produced every year, 50 % of this for single-use purposes. Everyday, approximately
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EARTH 93 8 million pieces of plastic are discovered within the ocean; consequently, scientists predict there could be up to 5.25 trillion pieces of macro and microplastic within oceans around the world. Professor of Marine Biology and co-author to the study, Jason HallSpencer, says, “Up to 13 million tons of plastics from land end up in the oceans each year and they have been shown to affect all types and sizes of marine species. Combine that with rising Co2 levels and the threat posed to the global ocean is stark. It reinforces the importance of taking steps to meet the standards demanded by international climate treaties so as to reduce the impact of ocean acidification and warming. It is also within our power to change cultures so that litter created on land does not become an environmental hazard in our oceans, both now and for future generations.” Marine life is at risk of increased acidity within the ocean – acidity can cause drops in metabolic rates (the amount of energy expended by the particular species) and immune responses to other organisms like parasites. Additionally, the decline of calcium carbonate and increased ocean acidification as a result of plastic pollution cause damage to life-forms with carbonate-based shells and skeletons, such as sea urchins, clams, oysters, starfish and scallops. This then affects larger predators like whales and sharks who struggle to find food sources, disrupting food webs. Ocean acidification also affects coral, weakening the skellingtons and causing breakage. Its effects on the ecosystem are wide-ranging, from reducing habitat quality to weakening ecological processes like nutrient cycling. Lead author of the study, Dr. Ben Harvey voiced his concerns over growing Co2 levels and continuous plastic pollution: “Discarded plastic drinking bottles have become a common sight in our oceans and we were expecting to see them being colonised by different types of bacteria. We also predicted that raised Co2 levels would cause significant changes in the bacterial colonies, but it was still surprising to see the extent of that change and how the raised levels affected species differently. To see beneficial species dwindling while harmful species thrive is an obvious present and future cause for concern.” Organisations such as the International Alliance To Combat Ocean Acidification are working with governments and scientific networks to spread awareness about the impacts of plastic pollution, while the International Partnership For Blue Carbon, consisting of governments including Australia, the UK, Belize and Mauritius as well as organisations and research institutions, is designed to share knowledge and advance practical action. Reversing the damage of microplastics to food webs and ecosystems will be a difficult process but cutting down on the production of single-use plastic would be a significant start to ensuring that the ocean can rejuvenate itself. Marine life is not only threatened by ghost nets, illegal fishing and rising sea levels, but by the water itself. The Paris Agreement makes no mention of ocean acidification and more awareness and dedication is vital to ensuring this developing problem is taken more seriously by governments worldwide.
94 TERRAFORMS I Impact of Plastic Waste on Turtles in the Oceans Mixed Media Collage
EARTH 95 Description: This mixed media collage was created by Reem Qushmaq to showcase the devastating impact of plastic waste on turtles in the oceans.
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EARTH 97 What do sea turtles eat? Unfortunately, plastic bags. World Wildlife Fund, Worldwildlife.org Article Plastic pollution puts sea turtles that live in the world›s oceans at risk. Research suggests that 52 % of the world's turtles have eaten plastic waste, with different species being affected in different ways. For example, a study from the University of Tokyo found that loggerheads ate plastic 17 % of the time they encountered it, likely mistaking it for jellyfish. This figure rocketed to 62 % for green turtles probably on the hunt for algae. Ingesting just one plastic item can be a deadly action for 22 % of turtles. Governments must take action to end this pollution epidemic. Overview:
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EARTH 99 Original Article Would you rather pick a fight with a jellyfish or a plastic bag? For sea turtles, this question should be simple. Their scales protect them from the worst of a jellyfish's venom, and the resulting meal is both tasty and nutritious. But a single piece of plastic can be deadly. The problem is that sea turtles don’t know what plastic is, and they don’t get to choose. What do sea turtles naturally eat? There are seven species of sea turtles found in the world’s oceans today, and they each have different dietary preferences. • Loggerhead: Hatchlings are omnivores (meaning they eat both animals and plants) but adults are carnivores, favoring crabs, whelks, and conchs. • Green: Fully grown sea turtles are herbivores and like to hang around coral reefs to scrape off seagrass and algae. Hatchlings, however, are omnivorous. • Hawksbill: The bird-like beak that gives them their name allows hawksbills to access cracks on coral reefs to reach sea sponges, which are pretty much all these fussy eaters want. • Leatherback: Leatherback turtles are often known as gelatinivores, meaning they only eat invertebrates such as jellyfish and sea squirts. • Flatback: This species will eat everything from seaweed to shrimp and crabs. • Kemp’s ridley: Meat is the only thing on the menu for the Kemp’s ridley—with a strong prefer-ence for crab. • Olive ridley: Another omnivorous species that eats jellies, sea cucumbers, fish, and a wide variety of other plants and animals. The earliest ancestors of these seven species appeared on Earth around 220 million years ago, and today’s sea turtles have evolved to hunt successfully beneath the waves. That was until plastic came along.
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