Oceans and Lakes Are Becoming 'Dead Zones' Again | Hacker News Reader

Oceans and Lakes Are Becoming 'Dead Zones' Again

undark.org

123 pointsIntronExon28 comments

It will never cease to amaze me how we allow farms, factories and power plants to dump millions of gallons of toxic chemicals and fertilizers in the same lakes, rivers and oceans we rely on for food, bathing and drinking water.

Besides the fact that governments allow cancer causing chemicals to flow into our water tables and rivers, humanity is now going to have to deal with the massive repercussions of an ocean that is not capable of supporting the bio mass we rely on for food.

We are quite possibly serving as a solution to the fermi paradox.

Seems far worse, overall, than global warming.

Sure, we might be toast in a century, but this problem of industrial pollutants is far, far more urgent, because it is far more immediate in effect.

In comparison to said pollutants, carbon dioxide, is fucking tame. Might heat up the planet to whatever degree, but plants also consume excess amounts as food for photosynthesis.

This is why I sometimes suspect that the focus on global warming is something of a distraction from the far more immediate threat of chemical pollution by corporations. Well, the corporations probably pay enough in bribes to keep the politicians mostly silent about it... :(

One of the challenges with global warming is the gloal effect. If you poison you own well, you better believe that the repercussion cycle is very quick.

If you're dumping CO2 into the air like no tomorrow, there are no repercussions for effectively sinking the Philippines or Bangladesh 100 years from now.

*edit better example, Sri Lanka not as low lying as I thought.

Global warming contributes to this, and will make the situation worse as the earth heats up as Warmer waters hold less oxygen compounding the problem.

you might want to read up on rapid climate change on the arctic news blog. greetings from Sam and have a nice couple of years!

>Corporations have paid more than $57 billion in environmental, health and safety penalties since 2010 (from 2015)

I checked, and Koch Industries has paid over $700M in fines for environmental violations. Seems like the penalty is too light.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/20...

Possibly a case of it being cheaper to break the rules.

Hard to imagine it's anything else, but I'd be curious to read alternative suggestions.

Any fines paid will ultimately be passed back to the consumer through increased prices.

Maybe the funes should be replaced by firing and/or imprisonment of culpable management?

I really believe we're entering a new global Gilded Age, in which the concentration of wealth is yielding increasingly abject poverty and misery for the lower and middle classes. Corrupted government, environmental degradation, a resurgence of authoritarianism - these are all symptoms of the dominance of wealthy and the consequence popular disillusionment with social institutions.

It's high time for a revamped Progressive Era.

Not only that, but certain fertilizers (like phosphorus) are in limited supply. The fact the US effectively subsidizes the dumping of these valuable micronutrients is baffling.

http://web.mit.edu/12.000/www/m2016/finalwebsite/solutions/p...

>an ocean that is not capable of supporting the bio mass we rely on for food.

Honest question, does this just apply to people that eat seafood? For instance, if I have never eaten seafood, is my own personal food source at risk? Of course I should be concerned for people that do rely on seafood, but does the health of the oceans affect the growing of wheat, sugar, beef cattle, Doritos spices, etc.?

You don't have your own personal food source. Everything is connected.

Perhaps there is something down the food chain of what you eat that relies on there being sea food? I'm not a biologist, though.

if there's less seafood to be eaten, more people are gonna eat Dorito spices, etc

Do you like breathing? Because the oceans provide most of that oxygen https://www.nationalgeographic.org/activity/save-the-plankto...

If the ocean dies, so do we. The phytoplankton in the oceans is responsible for something like 50% of the Earth's oxygen.

Waiting for Netflix to produce a TV show to explain that to the people. [And yes, I really mean it. It is not just sarcasm].

With some of the entities that you'd expect to take the lead in this absent-without-leave it just might come to that. But it is a pretty sad realization that the likes of Netflix are low looked at to inform the general public about such important topics.

Any distribution medium could be used that way. Newspaper, radio, OTA TV, cable TV. Now that Netflix has more subscribers than cable TV in the USA, they're a pretty serviceable means for getting information out.

Also they tend to have better production values than most PSAs.

Did you see the first comment on the article?

"How about bioengineering. Look up there are chemical trails being sprayed everyday over the globe. And no uprising. We need to collectively say stop enough is enough. Why does everyone care about global warming and not what’s happening in your skies, believe you me this is part of the warming, part of the fires in country, as these metallic particles lay atop dry mountain grass, the sun came being magnified causing more chances of fires. Not to mention the habitats eating and breathing this in. Everyone is sick all over out country, it is not a coincidence we are all sick. It’s out environment. Its what’s being sprayed above you everyday. Just watch the lines. Please."

I like to assume he is joking, but nothing surprises me anymore!

Someone replied with a gentle "this is not a real thing" response.

Not a joke sadly, just another “Chemtrail” conspiracy theorist. If you really want to dive headfirst into the intersection of the internet and untreated delusional disorders though, google keywords like “Orgone” and “Cloudbusters.”

I just try to remind myself that there are probably no more crazy people today than a few decades ago, it’s just that everyone has an international megaphone today.

Strictly speaking, there are a few billion more people today than a few decades ago. Hence presumably also more crazies.

That isn’t what I meant, but arguably it is what I said, so thanks for the correction.

I know it isn't. But it certainly is a valid consideration re. dying oceans and the whole sorry kaboodle.

The human population of planet Earth has probably slightly more than doubled in my lifetime.

I thought it's not chemical trails but rather aluminum and other materials for reflecting light back into space? Afaik, chemtrails conspiracy people think these small particles are dangerous, but I am not even sure of any program the government runs to do this.

Chasing Coral was a well-made documentary that opened my eyes to some of the scary things happening to our oceans:

http://www.chasingcoral.com/

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