Global warming and extensive overfishing have damaged ocean ecosystems well beyond recognition from only a few decades ago. Still, on its own accord, the ocean stood tall for more than 3 billion years. But, alas, in less than one human lifetime it is teetering like never before, and credible studies claim the world鈥檚 oceans could be devoid of life within only three decades. This is one of the most troubling transformations of all time, nothing compares to it, absolutely nothing!
The ocean heat bomb is all about the impact of global warming and overfishing, neither of which is high enough on to-do lists of countries to help sustain ecosystems. It should be noted that Wall Street鈥檚 embrace of going green for a profit聽won鈥檛 come close (not enough scale soon enough) to solving the global warming problem, but there鈥檚 plenty of green to be made.
By all appearances, the love affair with fossil fuels is a permanent fixture, according to International Energy Agency (IEA) data, fossil fuels constitute ~80% of energy over the past 50+ years with no change as of 2023. And a reality check: 鈥.鈥
Moreover, as if an overheated ocean is not enough of a headache, overfishing is totally out of control, nearly wiping out several species, for example, more than 11,000 sharks killed an hour at risk of extinction in part for a brew of tasteless shark fin soup.
The oceans are a gigantic heat sponge, absorbing 90% of planetary heat, enabling life to go on within its 10,000-yr Goldilocks Holocene cycle, not too hot not to cold. But times are changing very rapidly. For the first time that scientists recall, sea surface temperatures that always recede from annual peaks are failing to do so, staying high 鈥.鈥
鈥淵ear by year ocean warming is increasing at an absolutely staggering rate,鈥 said Jean-Baptiste Sall茅e, Research Scientist with the French National Center for Scientific Research.
Scientists are now warning that human-generated greenhouse gases are demonstrably exposing the worst possible scenario with the ocean turning into a global warming 鈥渉eat bomb鈥. What goes around comes around. It appears that the ocean heat bomb has ignited.
According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) observatory recordings, in early April, average surface temperatures of the oceans, excluding polar waters, hit an all-time high of 21.1掳C. More than a passing interest, that all-time high might be goosed much higher by an upcoming El Ni帽o weather phenomenon, triggering the ocean heat bomb by loading more onto the climate system. As such, the 2022 unprecedented disaster year, whacking every continent with destabilising floods, droughts, heat, and fire may be bush-league when compared to what鈥檚 in store for 2023鈥24.
For perspective, it鈥檚 important to recall that 2022 was influenced by La Ni帽a,聽a natural cooling cycle, yet near-record heat consumed the planet. La Ni帽a聽didn鈥檛 help, which can only register as a telling disappointment. According to NASA, if the cooling impact of La Ni帽a is factored into the equation,聽2022 was the warmest year on record.
382_-_overview_of_climatic_changes_and_their_effects_on_the_ocean cr Wikimedia commons.png
The most immediate consequence of too much ocean heat will be more severe marine heat waves which are comparable to terrestrial wildfires of rainforests. These underwater fire-equivalents degrade/destroy underwater kelp forests, e.g., West Coast Pacific kelp losses聽and Great Barrier Reef coral bleaching, while also negatively altering key life-giving nutrients and oxygen needed for all sea life. Poof, the basic ingredients of a major ecosystem gone! This comes as the world鈥檚 oceans are already reeling from overfishing, chemical/plastic pollution聽and acidification whilst overly stimulated by too much heat.
The ocean heat bomb threatens the lifeblood of civilisation in a multifaceted manner and is expected to push back at some juncture by transferring heat back out. Could this spark a runaway overheated planet? Of course, it鈥檚 not only the human heat machine at work; it鈥檚 also human insatiableness, a gluttony that ignores sustainability, destroying world fishing stock with remarkable speed and efficiency as the modern fishing fleet literally clobbers sea life.
The overfishing dilemma
Overfishing is a direct threat to future human consumption of seafood. According to research conducted by The World Counts (a source for "state of the planet" real-time data): 鈥淭he world鈥檚 oceans could be virtually emptied for fish by 2048. A study shows that if nothing changes, we will run out of seafood in 2048. If we want to preserve the ecosystems of the sea, change is needed.鈥
The four-year study of 7800 marine species concluded that the long-term trend is clear and predictable. It鈥檚 on a steep downward slope.
According to the World Bank, 鈥.鈥
Nevertheless, according to The World Counts: As for fish stocks, roughly 80% of world fisheries are overly exploited, depleted or in a state of collapse. Worldwide, 90% of large predatory fish, e.g., sharks, tuna, marlin and swordfish are already gone. For example, according to the International Tuna Conservation Commission, the stock of Atlantic bluefin tuna has plummeted to 13% from its 1950 level. And according to Sci/Dev.net and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, Pacific bluefin tuna is estimated to be 4%鈥5% of its 1950 levels.
The ocean鈥檚 problems are known. The solutions escape authorities. Today鈥檚 world fishing fleet has enough capacity to cover four (4) Earth-like ocean systems. It鈥檚 high-tech and eerily similar to strip mining on land. According to Canadian journalist Michael Harris, we are 鈥溾.
Almost totally unregulated, the oceans are open prey for massive technologically advanced fishing fleets that literally scoop up everything, tossing aside bycatch, e.g., sharks. Mostly, these are Chinese vessels that prowl the seas. The Overseas Development Institute claims China鈥檚 distant-water fishing fleet has 17,000 vessels. The United States distant-water fleet numbers 300.
According to an August 17, 2020 article in YaleEnvironment360: 鈥.鈥
According to the Illegal, Unreported, Unregulated (IUU) Fishing Index, China is ranked as the world鈥檚 worst abuser of sea laws, especially shark finning. China鈥檚 gigantic refrigerated vessels referred to as 鈥淢otherships鈥 upload the catch of the Chinese fleet, thus allowing an entire fleet of trawlers to fish 24/7 without returning to port for weeks on end.
The ocean heat bomb fuse has been ignited. The question is whether it can be extinguished before it鈥檚 too late. The most likely answer is:聽No, it cannot be extinguished, not because it is impossible but rather because there is no coordinated worldwide plan to do so. After all, it鈥檚 underwater where nobody sees, and statistics about the status of ocean fishing stock are suspect and subject to considerable conjecture and easily criticised.
Where is a credible world-coordinated plan to sustain ocean ecosystems? Where is a credible world-coordinated Marshall Plan-type of a concerted effort to combat global warming with the funding in place and the wherewithal to make a difference? These do not exist in the face of abundant factual evidence of a planet that鈥檚 screaming 鈥渉elp me!鈥
However, there simply is not enough focus or enough scale committed to controlling or ameliorating the deleterious impact of human-caused global warming that鈥檚 changing the climate 10 times faster than seen in any paleoclimate study of Earth鈥檚 history going back a billion years. Furthermore, cleaning up the mess is an overwhelming task from the get-go.
Meanwhile, greenhouse gases set new records by the year, every year without fail. 鈥, said Rick Spinrad, Ph.D., NOAA administrator.鈥
Year over year, there鈥檚 more and more degradation, more and more greenhouse gases, more and more lip service to 鈥渉old the line at 1.5掳C鈥 by toothless global conferences聽and more and more distortions of the truth, which is at epidemic levels. Distorting the truth has been, and still is, one of the biggest impediments to addressing the global warming issue.
In the recent past, telltale evidence of a profound change in how society approaches existential issues reared its ugly head four days following [US President] Donald Trump鈥檚 inauguration, which boldly and falsely claimed 鈥渢he largest audience to ever witness an inauguration鈥. Immediately thereafter sales of George Orwell鈥檚 Nineteen Eighty-Four聽rocketed by 10,000%, making it a聽number 1 bestseller overnight. People sensed a putrid rot lingering in the air, burning nostrils.
Nineteen Eighty-Four聽remains the go-to source for people when 鈥溾.
Just think how unfortunately coincidental it is that (1) Orwell (2) global warming (3) overfishing and (4) Trump, the avatar of disinformation, should intersect at the same moment in history. The upshot is people question the credibility of facts and refuse to accept the truth when it matters most, thus crippling a public understanding of crucial scientific studies that should educate, not distract.
As a result, the world community doesn鈥檛 seem to know which way to turn next. It鈥檚 directionless and possibly paralysed by the overwhelming scope of a very sticky climate problem that鈥檚 starting to haunt existence. Additionally, most people don鈥檛 live where climate change shows up first and thus find it difficult to accept the reality of the danger. For example, who lives on the Siberian permafrost or Antarctica, or Greenland?
Until only recently, daily life has not been impacted by the hidden reality of a fierce and rapidly changing climate system far from urban life which has only recently started encroaching upon all continents聽in 2022. Then, for the first time, the public finally saw and/or felt the impact of global warming鈥檚 influence, as trucks delivered drinking water to more than 100 parched towns and villages in the world鈥檚 most developed countries France and Italy and commercial barges sputtered in mud on commercial waterways of the Rhine, the Danube, the Po, whilst flash floods in China leveled 9000 homes (payback for concrete supplanting wetlands) and trapped subway riders with water up to their chins. These eye-popping events happened in 2022. None of it is normal.
Meanwhile, according to a recent interview with Noam Chomsky in Boston Review,聽鈥淭he Proto-fascist Guide to Destroying the World鈥: 鈥淎 brutal class war has devastated much of the world and led to tremendous anger, resentment, contempt for institutions 鈥 The United States is leading the way to a kind of proto-fascism.鈥
A primary target of proto-fascism is intelligentsia鈥檚 handwringing over climate change.
According to an聽August 10, 2021 article in The Atlantic: 鈥.鈥
The populist right, or in Chomsky鈥檚 words proto-fascists, claim green policies such as fuel taxes and decarbonisation incentives represent an elitist attack on the lives of regular people, thus telegraphing the issue beyond its root cause of human-generated greenhouse gases like CO2, which is becoming too obvious for outright dismissal. In a similar fashion, they鈥檒l brush off the overfishing issue, assuming it ever rings a bell with mainstream America, which is doubtful.
How is it possible to assemble a worldwide collective effort to tackle the thorny issues of climate change when disinformation muddies the waters beyond recognition?
And when is it too late to do anything?
And, at its root cause, what鈥檚 fundamentally wrong with a socio-economic system that causes, and chooses to ignore, ecosystem imbalances leading to collapse?
A of the cause/effect of dangerous ecosystem imbalances concludes: 鈥淭he evidence is clear. Long-term and concurrent human and planetary well-being will not be achieved in the Anthropocene if affluent overconsumption continues, spurred by economic systems that exploit nature and humans. We find that, to a large extent, the affluent lifestyles of the world鈥檚 rich determine and drive global environmental and social impact. Moreover, international trade mechanisms allow the rich world to displace its impact on the global poor. Not only can a sufficient decoupling of environmental and detrimental social impacts from economic growth not be achieved by technological innovation alone, but also the profit-driven mechanism of prevailing economic systems prevents the necessary reduction of impacts and resource utilization per se."
In other words, neoliberal capitalism鈥檚 premise that a profit-driven free market best serves society needs a major overhaul, maybe go in reverse. Evidence of its failure to聽account for and respect and husband a livable planet is found throughout the world with out-of-the-ordinary heat, floods, fires and drought on every continent, all of it beyond anything normal, beyond anything resembling a normal occurrence in nature. Ipso facto, Milton Friedman鈥檚 richly decorated legacy 鈥 "Neo-Liberalism and its Prospects", 1951 and "The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits", 1970 鈥 enacted by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher is a bust!
Neoliberalism鈥檚 not working for the planet!
There鈥檚 gotta be a better way.
[Reprinted from pressenza.com under a Creative Commons license. Edited for style.]