Bloomberg: Fishermen Say Carbon Dioxide Having ‘Really Scary’ Ocean Effect

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aTRe5iVHwbAM&pos=9

Fishermen Say Carbon Dioxide Having ‘Really Scary’ Ocean Effect

By Daniel Whitten

Dec. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Jeremy Brown, a fisherman from the Pacific Northwest, is pulling things from the ocean he says are so disturbing that he came to Washington to warn U.S. lawmakers about it.

“This is not overfishing, this is something far larger,” said Brown, one of 10 people who met with lawmakers and legislative aides this week on behalf of the http://www.sustainablefish.org/main/about+us/overview">Sustainable Fisheries Partnership, a San Francisco-based group that advises seafood producers on fishing practices.

The group said the ocean is becoming more acidic because of carbon-dioxide emissions that are damaging coral reefs, decimating populations of tiny animals at the base of the food chain and eating away at the shells of clams, mussels and oysters.

“Every so often we snag a piece of coral on the gear,” Brown, of Bellingham, Washington, said in an interview. “It doesn’t look healthy, the color has gone out of it. The evidence is that we have instabilities in the system, and this last year was really scary.”

…

[phantom power]

1. My god, they've even recruited the fishermen into their freedom-hating conspiracy!

[hatrack]

2. Do these fishermen have the capability to receive . . . EMAILS while at sea??!!??!?!?!

The mind reels!

[TxRider]

9. They are government regulated, FOIA them now!

[NOW tense]

3. I just don't think people truly grasp

the seriousness of our situation. Some models show 50% of species becoming extinct. One of those species could be us. It is truly time to become part of the ecosystem again, instead of trying to dominate nature. For too long we have considered ourselves somehow, outside of nature, above all the other creatures on this planet, and that just isn't true. We for the first time in our history, are seeing our mortality as a species and too many of us are in denial of it.

[ensho]

4. kick - what's happening in the oceans is dreadful

one tick of the clock left

[GliderGuider]

5. +1

Exactly.

[kestrel91316]

6. I wouldn't be surprised if all forms of life higher than jellyfish and cockroaches

wind up extinct. We have really screwed the pooch.

Of course, I'll never know.

[Raster]

8. Unfortunately, you may be correct. It's funny how we look back at recorded human civilization,

and realize that although 2000 years ago Jesus Christ *may* have walked the Earth, there is no guarantee that 500 years from now humans will continue to walk the Earth. In fact, the evidence and odds are not in our favor.

We humans, with our industrialization and the dirty hydrocarbon-based fuels that powered it, are changing the planet--and not only the climate--in ways we are only beginning to now understand. Climate change, unfortunately, may be only the tip of the iceberg.

It is telling that the main deniers of human-induced climate change are all either agents of the petroleum industries or their lackeys in governments. From Exxon's Phil Cooney to Oklahoma's Inhofe, supposed educated persons contribute irresponsibly to the decimation of the human species all in the name of continued economic profits.

[MH1]

10. Some of the younger folks here

might end up with a pretty good idea of what's coming.

[pleah]

7. K&R