150 ‘dead zones’ counted in oceans: U.N. report warns of nitrogen runoff killing fisheries

The number of oxygen-deprived “dead zones” in the world’s oceans has been increasing since the 1970s and is now nearly 150, threatening fisheries as well as humans who depend on fish, the U.N. Environment Program announced Monday in unveiling its first-ever Global Environment Outlook Year Book. These “dead zones” are caused by an excess of nitrogen from farm fertilizers, sewage and emissions from vehicles and factories. In what experts call a “nitrogen cascade,” the chemical flows untreated into oceans and triggers the proliferation of plankton, which in turn depletes oxygen in the water.

I imagine we’ll hear the same sorts of denial, whining, complaining and finger pointing on this issue as we see in the global warming or climate change issues. Everybody will talk about the negative effects on their individual economies, how their businesses will be affected, how country “X” is doing more damage than “we” are, how large the oceans really are compared to the really, really, tiny percentage that is being affected, and how, just possibly, this to is part of some cycle of deadness we just don’t know about yet.

- - all together now can we get a rousing “It’s not that bad, and anyway…. what about them?!?

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