Unless humanity makes enormous changes in the way we live and in what we eat, entire populations of the world’s fished species will collapse by about 2048. This was the conclusion of a global study authored by 14 marine biologists and published in the November 3, 2006 issue of the journal Science. Including evidence from all of the world’s 64 large marine ecosystems, they found that 91 percent of native species suffered from a 50 percent decrease, and 7 percent were extinct. Continued overfishing as well as coastal land development, habitat destruction and world pollution are to blame. The study pointed out that nearly 29 percent of species that are fished have collapsed (defined by being below 10 percent of historic highs), that we are losing entire functional groups, and that the oceans will not be able to recover from the decline of so many species.
The authors wrote, “Our analyses suggest that business as usual would foreshadow serious threats to global food security, coastal water quality and ecosystem stability, affecting current and future generations.” Many scientists throughout the world voiced agreement with the study.
Massive nets are being dragged across the ocean floors at deeper and deeper levels to capture fish that were once abundant, but are becoming sparse or nonexistent in places where they had existed since their species began. Often nets get caught on underwater rock formations and are then abandoned as “ghost nets,” which continue to kill as fish, sea mammals and birds get tangled in them. The massive fishing operations cause a destabilizing of sea life biodiversity, extinguishing populations that rely on others to survive. Deep-sea trawling is the equivalent of killing every bird, animal, and bug in a forest during a hunt for several hundred deer. Many of these massively destructive fishing expeditions operate on government subsidies and are protected by laws formed to protect not the oceans or sea life, but the profits of the fishing industry.
Additional damage is being caused to waterlife by the hundreds of millions of pharmaceutical drugs taken every day that make their way into the water bodies of the planet. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 130 million Americans use prescription drugs every month. Even when taken as prescribed, the vast majority of pharmaceutical drugs pose serious health risks to both humans and the wildlife that ultimately ingest the drug-saturated water.
Even the way pharmaceutical drugs make it to market is rife with problems in the form of errors, tarnished manufacturing processes, contaminated packaging and quality control, and others have to be recalled once they do make it to market. In 2009 there were 1,742 types of drugs recalled from the market, often because they were even more unsafe than their warning labels indicated. These recalled synthetic chemical drugs end up in the soil and water, or are incinerated into the air, causing more pollution in the air, soil, and water.
Prescription drugs end up in the waters of the world because the drugs are urinated away, or expired and unwanted prescriptions are flushed down toilets. As the chemicals dissolve into the waterways they wreak havoc on waterlife. Scientists have tested marine life from all over the planet and found that their tissues contain prescription medications, including antibiotics and synthetic hormones, as well as drugs for pain, birth control, erectile dysfunction, hair loss, cardiovascular diseases, allergies, acne, weight loss, mood disorders, osteoporosis and chemotherapy.
Pharmaceutical drugs, farming chemicals, industrial pollutants and greenhouse gases are directly related to the global decline of frogs and other amphibians. Pharmaceuticals and industrial pollutants are also the cause of more and more amphibians being found with both male and female sex organs, extra limbs and other physical deformities.
Consider that you play a role in the health of the oceans. The way you live, including the foods you choose to eat, the cleansers you use, the medications you take, the transportation you choose, and the sources of energy you use have an impact on all areas of the environment, but particularly the water.
When you see water, realize that you and all life on the planet consist mainly of water. If our water bodies are polluted, so is wildlife and humanity. If life in and around our water bodies dies, so will humanity.
As Ryunosuke Satoro so eloquently summed it up: “Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.
Adapted from Extinction: The Death of Waterlife on Planet Earth (Carmania Books), available on Amazon.
Read more about our relationship with the Earth…
~ The Wilderness Adventure I Thought Might Kill Me
~ Interview with Debra Lynn Dadd on nontoxic living
1 Comment
I predicted the floods in NYC and even Vermont. The environment is the most important issue we are facing, but few are willing to head the warning signs of what is to be. After the fish are gone and we face food shortages, will we be able to eat money? I am sure if you put ketchup on it will taste pretty good, but will it sustain us?