Adonis Diaries

Our oceans are dying

Water is everywhere. A potato is 80% water, a cow 74%, a bacterium 75%, a tomato at 95%, and human 65%.  Most liquid when chilled contract 10% but water only 1%, but just before freezing it expands.  When solid water is 10% more voluminous, an utterly bizarre property which allow ice to float, otherwise ice would sink and oceans would freeze from the bottom.

Without surface ice to hold heat in, the water warmth would radiate away and thus creating more ice and soon oceans would freeze.  Water is defying the rules of chemistry and law of physics.  The hydrogen atoms cling fiercely to their oxygen host, but also make casual bonds with other water molecules, thus changing partners billions of times a second and thus, water molecules stick together and can be siphoned without breaking but not so tightly so that you may dive into a pool (see link in note).

Marine ecosystems are collapsing, and 85% of fish stocks are dangerously depleted. But no one is policing the trawlers’ plunder, and waste is poisoning our seas.

Scientists say that what we need right now is a bold plan that:

1. sets aside 20% of our blue planet as conservation areas by 2020, allowing the seas to replenish for generations to come;

2. ends subsidies to the industrial fishing complex; and

3. creates a new protection agreement for the oceans outside of national boundaries.

Stephanie B of avaaz team is calling for action:

“Our oceans are dying. Beset by pollution and demolition industrial fishing, the magical and bountiful deep blue is turning into a barren desert. But in the next 72 hours, governments are considering a new rescue plan — and we can help push it through.

Governments spend billions subsidising the commercial fishing industry to pillage our seas. The new plan would end this scandal, craft a new treaty to protect the high seas, and establish critical marine protection reserves. But Canada, the US and Japan are threatening to water down or even kill it. Our only hope is to get behind Europe to champion the idea before it’s too late.

This crucial meeting is being held quietly behind closed doors at the UN. Let’s break open the talks and deliver massive global support to Europe to save our oceans.

Against the odds, the European Union is pushing for an agreement this week, and has the support of droves of developing countries. But the blockers are battling to limit the conservation areas and kick decisions on a global treaty far into the future.

If they don’t get that, they are threatening to drown the plan completely before it is even born. This week is do or die for the oceans — our only hope is to massively and publicly get behind the Europeans in the next three days and drive an oceans rescue plan through.

We know we can win on oceans. Our community helped establish the largest marine reserve in the world and won protections for whales and tuna. But our oceans are dying faster than ever, and one by one species are coming closer to the brink. Let’s demand a comprehensive global oceans rescue plan now.

Stephanie, Iain, Allison, Alice, Ricken, Luca, Diego and the rest of the Avaaz team

For signing the petition http://www.avaaz.org/en/72_hours_to_save_our_oceans/?vl

Note https://adonis49.wordpress.com/2011/05/21/part-4-whats-of-water-from-a-short-history-of-everything-by-bill-bryson/