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GOES GLOBAL OCEANIC ENVIRONMENTAL SURVEY

GOES GLOBAL OCEANIC ENVIRONMENTAL SURVEY. Billions of tonnes of Industrial waste enter rivers. a nd our oceans every year. from many different sources. THE FACTS. Sustainable Economies

carminda-ruiz
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GOES GLOBAL OCEANIC ENVIRONMENTAL SURVEY

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  1. GOES GLOBAL OCEANIC ENVIRONMENTAL SURVEY

  2. Billions of tonnes of Industrial waste enter rivers

  3. and our oceans every year

  4. from many different sources

  5. THE FACTS Sustainable Economies • Economies of countries including India, China and Brazil are unsustainable unless they prevent aquatic environmental pollution • 90% of all river and lake water is contaminated • 60% is not currently possible to use as a source of drinking • 75% of all aquifer water is grossly contaminated • All freshwater pollution eventually ends up in the oceans

  6. Priority Chemicals Priority chemicals are one of the greatest threats to the marine ecosystem and public health. They can cause cancer and are endocrine disrupters in people as well as marine mammals, they include… • PCB’s, consumer electronics 70million tonnes/year, transformers, capacitors, cooling fluids • PBDE, used as a flame retardant, in textiles, furniture and cars… • TBT, used as antifouling paint on boats, banned but still being used • Mercury, used in fluorescent lamps and industrial chemicals

  7. THE FACTS FOOD FOR THOUGHT • Countries around the world especially China and India that account for 50% of the pollution have begun to realize the severe consequences of aquatic environmental pollution of rivers and aquifers on public health and industrial sustainability. • The consequences of priority chemical pollution on the sustainability of the marine ecosystem and the health and wellbeing of everyone has not been fully appreciated

  8. THE EFFECT ON HUMANS A SHARKS MAY EAT YOU …

  9. THE EFFECT ON HUMANS BUT IF YOU EAT THEM YOU ARE MORE LIKELY TO DIE… “recent meat samples from at least three species of shark had levels of arsenic, mercury, PCB’s and other toxic compounds 10 times higher than safety levels recommended by the Foods Standards Authority of Australia and New Zealand”

  10. PCBS & ORGANOCHLORINE PESTICIDES UK, Nation Health Service “Pregnant women should not eat more than two oily fish per week from the North Sea because of pollutants such as dioxins and PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls)” U.S Journal of Science "The consumption advice is that no more than one meal of Scottish Farmed salmon every four months should be consumed in order to avoid an increased risk of cancer.” (if you remove the skin you avoid most of the problem). Fish meal is now processed to remove dioxin

  11. THE FACTS SPECIES DIVERSITY & MARINE PRODUCTIVITY • 1/2 million data points starting from 1899 show that plankton levels in nearly all of the world's oceans started to drop in the 1950s ** • Biggest changes in the Arctic, Southern and equatorial Atlantic and Pacific Oceans** • Decline has been since chemicals such as PCBs started to be manufactured • **Dalhousie University biology professor Boris Worm report published in Nature, 2010

  12. THE FACTS REDUCTION IN OCEANIC PRODUCTIVITY • Since 1950 the oceanic production of plankton may have reduced by UP TO 40%, even if it is only 5, this is still a huge number. • The oceans are responsible for 50% to 80% of the planets CO2 fixation • Anthropogenic CO2 emission only account for 3% of the total CO2 going into the atmosphere (from IPCC) • The reduction of Oceanic productivity may be due to priority chemical toxicity as opposed to an increase in temperature

  13. MARBEF • PCB concentration in the North sea, 8.8 ug/l, concentration in biomass 600 to 1200 ng/g • PCB concentration in Antarctic 1.2 ug/l, concentration in biomass is the same as N. Sea because solids / plankton concentration is 8 times lower. • Concentration over 1 ug/l can impact on productivity, when combined with PBDE. TBT & methyl mercury we really don’t know the impact.

  14. COUNT DOWN PH AND OCEAN ACIDIFICATION • CO2 dissolves into the water and drops the pH • The 40% reduction in productivity (due to priority chemicals ?) accelerates the acidification because CO2 is not being used as a carbon source • At current rates in 25 to 40 years, oceanic pH will drop to pH7.95, at which point there may be a cascade destabilization of the marine ecosystem • From the aquarium and aquaculture industry we know that many marine fish and invertebrates can not reproduce at a pH below 7.95

  15. COUNT DOWN CO2 TIME SERIES IN THE NORTH PACIFIC OCEAN

  16. COUNT DOWN Oceans are becoming more acidic, 25 to 40 years to reverse the trend

  17. WHAT’S NEXT Reduction of oceanic pollution would allow the marine ecosystem a chance to recover… and this could happen very quickly…

  18. Trees take over 100 years to remove CO2 carbon from the atmosphere

  19. Marine Algae takes a few hours

  20. Marine Bacteria take a few minutes

  21. WHAT’S NEXT • There is very little data for mid oceans • You can’t control water you don’t measure • We need to measure key Priority Chemicals because they impact on the whole ecosystem • The Clipper Race provides the vehicle to allow this to be accomplished • We don’t know what we will find BUT we do know marine mammals, birds, fish, plankton and bacteria are all being affected

  22. GOESGLOBAL OCEANIC ENVIRONMENTAL SURVEY PRIORITY CHEMICALS… the primary focus • Analyses for priority chemicals PCBs, PBDE, TBT & Mercury • Determine potential impact on primary productivity • Relate results to impact on atmospheric CO2 • Raise awareness that aquatic environmental pollution impacts on everyone

  23. The mission of GOES is to raise global awareness of the issues in time for Governments and industry to reduce and eliminate pollution • If we eliminate priority chemical pollution over the next 25 years we may be able to prevent a cascade destabilization of the marine ecosystem • If we protect the marine ecosystem we also protect the terrestrial ecosystem, the health and wellbeing of everyone and perhaps also the impact of climate change.

  24. GOES Global Oceanic Environmental Survey www.Goes.foundation Dr.Howard Dryden

  25. TELEMETRY, real-time analysis GOESGLOBAL OCEANIC ENVIRONMENTAL SURVEY • pH & alkalinity • Redox (Oxygen fixing capability of cells) • Turbidity / transmission • Temperature • Salinity • Spectrometer (clarity and colour of water / phytoplankton) • Cytometer (measuring size / shape etc of cells) • Genotyping of all living organisms in the water samples

  26. ACTION HOW WILL THE GOES PROJECT MAKE A DIFFERENCE • Clipper Race – Sample collection, and global profile • United Nations – Ratification and endorsement • Governments – Create policy • Industry – Embrace change, provide funding and stop polluting • Academia – Educate and research • Aquaria – Inform, educate and disseminate • Media – Profile • Water industry –Provide new water treatment technological solution

  27. REFERENCES • Joiris, C.R.; Overloop, W. (1991). PCBs and organochlorine pesticides in phytoplankton and zooplankton in the Indian sector of the Southern ocean. Antarctic Science 3: 371-377 • Global phytoplankton decline over the past century, Nature, 466, 591-596 Date published: 29 July 2010. doi:10.1038/nature09268 www.nature.com/nature/journal/… abs/nature09268.html • M Hofmann1, B Worm2, S Rahmstorf1 and H J Schellnhuber1, 1 Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, PO Box 601203, 14412 Potsdam, Germany 2 • Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, B3H 4R2, Canada, Environ. Res. Lett. 6 (2011) 034035 (8pp) doi:10.1088/1748-9326/6/3/034035…Declining ocean chlorophyll under unabated anthropogenic CO2 emissions • David A. Siegel & Bryan A. Franz. Oceanography: Century of phytoplankton change. Nature, July 28, 2010; p569 DOI: 10.1038/466569a • Ocean greenery under warming stress, Published online 28 July 2010 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2010.379 • The toxic effect of pollutants on phytoplankton: http://dge.stanford.edu/SCOPE/SCOPE_12/SCOPE_12_3.6_chapter12_257-274.pdf • Effects of Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) on a Marine Plankton Population and Sedimentation in Controlled Ecosystem Enclosures MARINE ECOLOGY - PROGRESS SERIES Mar. Ecol. Prog. Ser. Vol. 5: 207-214, 1981 K. Isekil*, M. Takahashi2, E. Bauerfeind3 and C. S. Wongl, Ocean Chemistry Division and Marine Carbon Research Centre, Institute of Ocean Sciences. P.O. Box 6000, Sidney, B.C., V8L 4B2 Canada • “Global Assessment of Organic Contaminants in Farmed Salmon,” by R.A. Hites at Indiana U. in Bloomington, IN; J.A. Foran at U. of Michigan in Ann Arbor, MI; D.O. Carpenter at U. at Albany in Rensselaer, NY; M.C. Hamilton at AXYS Analytical Services in Sidney, BC, Canada; B.A. Knuth and S.J. Schwager at Cornell U. in Ithaca, NY. To be published in the journal Science on 9th January 2004: http://www.sciencemag.org/sciencexpress/recent.shtml

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