The survival tools northern fish have used for millennia could be a disadvantage as environmental conditions warm and more fast-paced species move in. Istvan Banyai / Wikimedia Commons / CC by 3.0
By Alyssa Murdoch, Chrystal Mantyka-Pringle and Sapna Sharma
Summer has finally arrived in the northern reaches of Canada and Alaska, liberating hundreds of thousands of northern stream fish from their wintering habitats.
<p>Through the long winter, many have endured cramped, icy quarters with perilously low oxygen levels. Others have recently journeyed incredible distances from large rivers and lakes to small summer habitats upstream.</p><p>Northern stream fish come from a long line of hardy adapters. Their ancestors were well equipped to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-1352-8_2" target="_blank">survive multiple ice ages and then go on to colonize some of the coldest newly accessible northern habitats</a>. They thrive in some of the most dynamic conditions on the planet, from short intense summers, with up to 24 hours of sunlight, to long cold winters with limited light and food.</p><p>But the survival tools these fish have used for millennia — exceptional tolerance to cold, slow growth rates and long lifespans — could be a disadvantage as environmental conditions in the north warm and more fast-paced species move in.</p><p>Our research team set out to see how stream fishes were responding to unprecedented environmental changes across their northern ranges. Ultimately, we wanted to know how these changes might affect the hundreds of thousands of people in Alaska and northern Canada that rely on local fisheries for food, culture and economic security.</p>
A Good News Story?
<p>On the surface, the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/fwb.13569" target="_blank">results from our study</a> appear to provide a "good news" story. Warming temperatures were linked to higher numbers of fish, more species overall and, therefore, potentially more fishing opportunities for northerners.</p><p>Initially, we were surprised to learn that warming was increasing the distribution of cold-adapted fish. We reasoned that modest amounts of warming could lead to benefits such as increased food and winter habitat availability without reaching stressful levels for many species.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQ1MzA0Ni9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNzk5MDY3NX0.IjplojcI7x34IWnPz7YlA72ZVLhHBb1AjpXt7GiudvU/img.jpg?width=980" id="e1628" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="128684685dc318c8600631cba0d7aee1" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Photo of Arctic grayling (left) and Dolly Varden trout (right). Alyssa Murdoch / Lilian Tran / Nunavik Research Centre and Tracey Loewen / Fisheries and Oceans Canada
<p>Yet, not all fish species fared equally well. Ecologically unique northern species — those that have evolved in colder, more nutrient-poor environments, such as Arctic grayling and Dolly Varden trout — were showing declines with warming.</p>Fish Strandings and Buried Eggs
<p>Recent news headlines run the gamut for Pacific salmon — from their increased escapades <a href="https://nunatsiaq.com/stories/article/more-pacific-salmon-showing-up-in-western-arctic-waters/" target="_blank">into the Arctic</a> to <a href="https://www.juneauempire.com/news/warm-waters-across-alaska-cause-salmon-die-offs/" target="_blank">massive pre-spawning die-offs</a> in central Alaska. Similarly, results from our study revealed different outcomes for fish depending on local climatic conditions, including Pacific salmon.</p><p>We found that warmer spring and fall temperatures may be helping juvenile salmon by providing a longer and more plentiful growing season, and by supporting early egg development in northern regions that were previously too cold for survival.</p><p>In contrast, salmon declined in regions that were experiencing wetter fall conditions, pointing to an increased risk of flooding and sedimentation that could bury or dislodge incubating eggs.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQ1MzAzMy9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxOTU1Nzk3OX0.cEBVXfCGyyk0dvV6j9caHJlnS1qfbyBIjv8IukxDrDY/img.jpg?width=980" id="7dfe7" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="446709f805ed143541f429131803df26" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Headwaters of the Wind River within the largely intact Peel River watershed in northern Canada. Don Reid / Wildlife Conservation Society Canada / Author provided
<p>Interestingly, we found that certain climatic combinations, such as warmer summer water temperatures with decreased summer rainfall, were important in determining where Pacific salmon could survive. Summer warming in drier watersheds led to declines, suggesting that lowered streamflows may have increased the risk of fish becoming stranded in subpar habitats that were too warm and crowded.</p>The Fate of Northern Fisheries
<p>The promise of a warmer and more accessible Arctic has attracted mounting interest in new economic opportunities, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2019.103637" target="_blank">including fisheries</a>. As warming rates at higher latitudes are already <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/" target="_blank">two to three times global levels</a>, it seems probable that northern biodiversity will experience dramatic shifts in the coming decades.</p><p>Despite the many unknowns surrounding the future of Pacific salmon, many fisheries are currently <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03632415.2017.1374251" target="_blank">thriving following warmer and more productive northern oceans</a>, and some <a href="https://doi.org/10.14430/arctic68876" target="_blank">Arctic Indigenous communities are developing new salmon fisheries</a>.</p><p>As warming continues, the commercial salmon fishing industry is poised to expand northwards, but its success will largely depend on extenuating factors such as <a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1060023067" target="_blank">changes to marine habitat and food sources</a> and <a href="https://www.yukon-news.com/news/promising-chinook-salmon-run-failed-to-materialize-in-the-yukon-river-panel-hears/" target="_blank">how many fish are caught during the freshwater stages of their journey</a>.</p><p>Even with the potential for increased northern biodiversity, it is important to recognize that some northern communities may be unable to adapt or may <a href="https://thenarwhal.ca/searching-for-the-yukon-rivers-missing-chinook/" target="_blank">lose individual species that are associated with important cultural values</a>.</p><p>For example, many Yukon First Nations, including Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in, <a href="https://thenarwhal.ca/trondek-hwechin-first-nation-aims-revitalize-critical-salmon-stocks-yukon" target="_blank">have voluntarily refrained from fishing their main traditional food of chinook salmon</a> to help stocks recover. Other communities that rely on increasingly vulnerable <a href="http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/techpap/TP373.pdf" target="_blank">northern-adapted species such as Arctic grayling and Dolly Varden trout</a> may also be at risk to future changes.</p><p>Although climate change action is urgently required at the global level, there are still tools that environmental managers can employ locally to reduce some of the effects. For example, watersheds with an elevated risk of flooding during the salmon incubation period could have more stringent streamside habitat protections, such as preserving larger areas of streamside vegetation from development, actively revegetating disturbed areas and conducting site-specific erosion and sediment control studies. In dangerously warm and dry years, fishing quotas could be reduced to limit salmon die-offs.</p><p>Ultimately, we advise that getting ahead of these impending changes by preserving the integrity of large intact watersheds will be key for protecting these evolutionary superstars from new human-driven pressures.</p>
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<em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/alyssa-murdoch-866709" target="_blank">Alyssa Murdoch</a> is a </em><em>PhD candidate and Wildlife Conservation Society Canada Weston Fellow, York University, Canada.</em>
</p><p>
<em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/chrystal-mantyka-pringle-187054" target="_blank">Chrystal Mantyka-Pringle</a> is a </em><em>Wildlife Conservation Society Canada Conservation Planning Biologist and Adjunct Professor of Conservation Biology, University of Saskatchewan.</em>
</p><p>
<em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/sapna-sharma-416603" target="_blank">Sapna Sharma</a> is an </em><em>Associate Professor and York University Research Chair in Global Change Biology, York University, Canada.</em>
</p><p>
<em>Disclosure statement: </em><em>Alyssa Murdoch received funding from a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Canada Graduate Scholarship and an Ontario Graduate Scholarship. </em><em>Chrystal Mantyka-Pringle receives funding from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Chrystal is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Saskatchewan and a Conservation Planning Biologist with the Wildlife Conservation Society Canada. </em><em>Sapna Sharma receives funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Discovery Grant, Ontario Ministry of Innovation Early Researcher Award, Genome Canada, and the York University Research Chair Program. Sapna is a York Research Chair in Global Change Biology and Associate Professor at York University and a Trustee at the Royal Canadian Institute for Science.</em>
</p><p>
<em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://theconversation.com/northern-fish-are-tough-but-climate-change-is-causing-some-to-dwindle-138676" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>.</em>
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Aerial view of burnt areas of the Amazon rainforest, near Porto Velho, Rondonia state, Brazil, on Aug. 24, 2019. CARLOS FABAL / AFP via Getty Images
NASA scientists say that warmer than average surface sea temperatures in the North Atlantic raise the concern for a more active hurricane season, as well as for wildfires in the Amazon thousands of miles away, according to Newsweek.
<p><br/></p>
<p>As NASA pointed out in a <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/conditions-ripe-for-amazon-fire-us-hurricanes" target="_blank">statement</a>, warm <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oceans">ocean</a> temperatures near the equator draw the water northward. As the water moves away from the Amazon, the landscape becomes drier and more flammable. That means that fires set for agriculture and clearing land have an increased potential to grow out of control. Meanwhile, the additional moisture traveling north aids the development of hurricanes.</p>
<p>"The fire season forecast is consistent with what we saw in 2005 and 2010, when warm Atlantic sea surface temperatures spawned a series of severe hurricanes and triggered record droughts across the southern Amazon that culminated in widespread Amazon forest fires," said Doug Morton, chief of the Biospheric Sciences Laboratory at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, in the NASA statement.</p><p>Morton, who co-created the Amazon fire season <a href="https://www.ess.uci.edu/~amazonfirerisk/ForecastWeb/SAMFSS2020.html" target="_blank">forecast</a>, analyzes the relationship between climate conditions and active fire detections from NASA satellite instruments to predict fire season severity.</p><p>"Our seasonal fire forecast provides an early indication of fire risk to guide preparations across the region," Morton, noting that the forecast is most accurate three months before the peak of burning in the southern Amazon in September. "Now, satellite-based estimates of active fires and rainfall will be the best guide to how the 2020 fire season unfolds."</p>
<p>Their model suggests that the regions that were hardest hit by the 2019 wildfires are at the highest risk again. Furthermore, the depleted resources as South American countries try to combat the COVID-19 crisis will exacerbate the problem by diminishing firefighting and emergency responder capabilities, according to Newsweek.</p><p>"You have a perfect storm: drought, the recent increase in deforestation, and new difficulties for firefighting. 2020 is set up to be a dangerous year for fires in the Amazon," Morton said.</p><p>The COVID-19 crisis has also allowed deforestation in the tropics to surge as environmental enforcement has weakened, according to recent report from <a href="https://www.conservation.org/blog/poaching-deforestation-reportedly-on-the-rise-since-covid-19-lockdowns" target="_blank">Conservation International</a>.</p><p>"Fire season in the Amazon is influenced by ecological, climatic, social, cultural and economic factors, from sea surface temperatures that influence rainfall in South America, to commodity-driven deforestation and the COVID-19 pandemic," said Karyn Tabor, senior director of ecological monitoring at Conservation International, in a <a href="https://www.conservation.org/press-releases/2020/07/07/conservation-international-reports-on-elevated-2020-fire-risk-in-amazonian-region" target="_blank">recent statement</a>. "Some governments have used widespread focus on the pandemic to quietly roll back environmental protections designed to prevent deforestation which in turn fuels the capacity for future fires to take hold."</p>
<p>Despite the COVID-19 crisis, changing conditions as the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-crisis">climate crisis</a> bears down on the planet is the largest risk for wildfires, along with human activity, according to Yang Chen, Earth scientist at the University of California, Irvine, and co-creator of the Amazon fire season forecast.</p><p>"Changes in human fire use, specifically deforestation, add more year-to-year variability in Amazon fires," Chen said in a NASA statement. "In addition, climate change is likely to make the entire region drier and more flammable – conditions that would allow fires for deforestation or agricultural use to spread into standing Amazon forests."</p>
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EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
Watchdog Accuses Trump's NOAA of 'Choosing Extinction' for Right Whales by Hiding Scientific Evidence
11 July
Animals
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility on Thursday accused NOAA of ignoring its own scientists' findings about the endangerment of the North Atlantic right whale. Lauren Packard / Flickr / CC BY 2.0
By Julia Conley
As the North Atlantic right whale was placed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's list of critically endangered species Thursday, environmental protection groups accusing the U.S. government of bowing to fishing and fossil fuel industry pressure to downplay the threat and failing to enact common-sense restrictions to protect the animals.
<p>Only 400 right whales are left in existence, and fewer than 250 of them are mature, <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/41712/162001243#threats" target="_blank">leading the IUCN</a> to drop its "endangered" classification for the whale and add it to its "critically endangered" Red List. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.peer.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/7_8_20_emails.pdf" target="_blank">According to</a> Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), NOAA has access to extensive science showing the danger in which humans have placed the whales, but internal emails show the agency aimed to put a positive spin on the outlook for the creatures.</p><p>Emails from February 2020 show career scientific staff writing that political officials within the agency were "freaked out" at the notion of the press reporting on Dragon, a female right whale who has not been seen in months and is presumed dead. </p><p>"But they'd be all over another calf sighting," NOAA Fisheries biologist Tim Cole <a href="https://www.peer.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/7_8_20_emails.pdf" target="_blank">wrote. </a></p><p>"Ah, I see. They only want to share the good news, not the bad," replied Allison Henry, another scientist at the agency.</p><p><a href="https://www.peer.org/noaa-balks-at-steps-to-save-remaining-right-whales/" target="_blank">According to</a> PEER, 100% of North Atlantic right whale fatalities are caused by boats striking them and by entanglements in fishing gear.</p><p>"The North Atlantic right whale is the world's first large whale species nearing extinction," <a href="https://www.peer.org/noaa-balks-at-steps-to-save-remaining-right-whales/" target="_blank">said</a> PEER science policy director Kyla Bennett. "Its extinction is entirely preventable. NOAA has powerful tools to protect the North Atlantic right whale, but it is choosing not to use them. In this case, NOAA is choosing extinction."</p><p>In addition to fishing boats and 900,000 vertical lines that right whales are forced to navigate during lobster season, the whales' wellbeing is threatened by seismic airgun blasts conducted by oil and gas companies for offshore drilling. </p><p>In March, Democracy Forward <a href="https://democracyforward.org/press/democracy-forward-demands-investigations-noaa-political-appointees/" target="_blank">called on</a> the inspector general of the U.S. Commerce Department to investigate whether political appointees at NOAA had altered career scientists' proposed conservation measures regarding the blasts.</p><p>Reports that appointees modified scientists' warnings "raise troubling questions about whether political appointees at NOAA violated federal law and NOAA's own Administrative Order on Scientific Integrity, which mandates that in 'no circumstance may any NOAA official ask or direct Federal scientists or other NOAA employees to suppress or alter scientific findings,'" Democracy Forward <a href="https://democracyforward.org/press/democracy-forward-demands-investigations-noaa-political-appointees/" target="_blank">said</a>.</p>
<p>Democracy Forward demanded an investigation by the U.S. Commerce Department's inspector general.</p><p>"In reportedly bowing to political pressure and altering required scientific analysis in the policymaking process, NOAA appointees may have violated federal law and NOAA's own regulations, and jeopardized the very survival of the North Atlantic right whale," <a href="https://democracyforward.org/press/democracy-forward-demands-investigations-noaa-political-appointees/" target="_blank">said</a> Democracy Forward senior counsel Michael Martinez at the time. "The Trump administration's practice of injecting politics into the scientific decision-making process risks NOAA's credibility as a fact and science-driven agency. An investigation is warranted." </p><p>PEER <a href="https://www.peer.org/scientific-misrepresentations-sinking-north-atlantic-right-whale/" target="_blank">called for</a> a similar probe in 2019 when the National Marine Fisheries Service reportedly omitted scientific research about endangerment in its reporting on the right whale, but neither investigation has been completed. </p><p>NOAA has also failed to aggressively restrict the activities of fishing boats even when the agency is aware of right whales in a particular offshore area, PEER said Thursday.</p><p>In June, one of just 10 calves born this season was struck by a boat and killed off the coast of New Jersey, where officials had not issued a speed warning to vessels. Warnings are only issued when at least three right whales are known to be in an area.</p><p>"At the very least, NOAA must alert vessels when any right whale is in the area of shipping lanes," Bennett said.</p><p>The effects of NOAA's negligence on right whales has been compounded by President Donald Trump's June executive order permitting commercial fishing in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, <a href="https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/right-whales-decline-deadly-entanglements-continue-iucn-finds-2020-07-09/" target="_blank">said</a> the Center for Biological Diversity on Thursday.</p>
<p>"The United States and Canada must do more to protect whales from speeding ships and slow, painful deaths in fishing gear," <a href="https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/right-whales-decline-deadly-entanglements-continue-iucn-finds-2020-07-09/" target="_blank">said</a> Kristen Monsell, legal director of the Center for Biological Diversity's oceans program. "We should be closing more right whale habitat to fishing, speeding the transition to ropeless gear and requiring large ships to slow down. These are some common-sense measures both U.S. and Canadian officials should adopt to save these beautiful whales."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/07/10/watchdog-accuses-trumps-noaa-choosing-extinction-critically-threatened-right-whales" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>. </em><em></em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Left: Lemurs in Madagascar on March 30, 2017. Mathias Appel / Flickr. Right: A North Atlantic right whale mother and calf. National Marine Fisheries Service
A new analysis by scientists at the Swiss-based International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) found that lemurs and the North Atlantic right whale are on the brink of extinction.
<p>For lemurs, the analysis found that almost one-third of the species in Madagascar are critically <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/endangered-species" target="_self">endangered</a> while 98 percent are threatened or worse, according to the IUCN's updated Red List of Threatened Species. The demise of lemurs is largely attributed to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/deforestation" target="_self">deforestation</a> and hunting on the giant island off eastern Africa, conservationists said Thursday, as the <a href="https://apnews.com/82146ce2b2b9b98bb21b110eb14a797b#:~:text=GENEVA%20(AP)%20%E2%80%94%20Nearly%20all,eastern%20Africa%2C%20conservationists%20said%20Thursday." target="_blank">AP</a> reported.</p><p>To put that in numbers, instead of percentages, 33 lemur species are critically endangered, with 103 of the 107 surviving species threatened with extinction, according to the IUCN. The updated list now has 13 species pushed into the critically endangered category due to human activity.</p>
<p>The IUCN also says there were fewer than 250 mature North Atlantic right <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/whales" target="_self">whales</a> believed to be alive in 2018, marking a 15-percent drop since 2011. That number includes about only 100 breeding females.</p><p>"At the heart of this crisis is a dire need for alternative, sustainable livelihoods to replace the current reliance on deforestation and unsustainable use of wildlife," Grethel Aguilar, IUCN's acting director general, said in a statement, as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/07/09/north-atlantic-right-whale-is-face-an-extinction-crisis-report-says/" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a> reported. "These findings really bring home the urgent need for an ambitious post-2020 biodiversity framework that drives effective conservation action."</p>
<p>At the end of June, one dead whale was spotted off the coast of New Jersey. That six-month-old calf had been struck several times on the head, suggesting one or possibly two vessel collisions, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/09/climate/trump-north-atlantic-right-whale.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>. Increasingly, collisions with ships, entanglements in fishing nets, and underwater noise pollution are killing the animals, which rely on echolocation for basic activities such as feeding, communicating and finding mates, as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/07/09/north-atlantic-right-whale-is-face-an-extinction-crisis-report-says/" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a> reported.</p><p>The North Atlantic right whale also faces an increased threat from the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-crisis" target="_self">climate crisis</a>. The IUCN says that warming ocean temperatures have likely pushed the species' main prey species further north during summer, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where the whales are more exposed to accidental encounters with ships and also at high risk of entanglement in crab-pot ropes.</p><p>The whale's preferred home, in the Gulf of Maine's deep waters, has warmed nearly 9 degrees Fahrenheit since 2004, faster than 99 percent of the world's oceans for much of this century, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/09/climate/trump-north-atlantic-right-whale.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>.</p><p>The prospects are bleak for the North Atlantic right whale now that President <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/">Trump</a> lifted restrictions on commercial fishing in a key area of the whale's habitat.</p>
<p>"Unless we act decisively to turn the tide, the next time the right whale's Red List status changes it will be to 'extinct,'" Jane Davenport, a senior attorney for Defenders of Wildlife, said in a statement, as The Washington Post reported.</p><p>The deaths of 30 Atlantic right whales were confirmed as human-caused between 2012 and 2016, according to the IUCN report, and all but four were caused by entanglement in fishing gear.</p><p>Peter Corkeron, a senior scientist at the New England Aquarium, has chronicled the gruesome deaths of right whales as the director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association's research program for large whales for the last decade. He told the New York Times he feared the listing would have little impact.</p><p>"A lot of the dynamic was bad anyway, and under Trump it just got worse," Corkeron said. "People are terrified to do anything about right whales at the moment."</p>
<p>The update to the "Red List of Threatened Species" shows that 32,441 species are threatened out of a total of 120,372 on the list.</p><p>"We have to take bold and rapid action to reduce the huge damage we're doing to the planet if we're going to save whales, frogs, lemurs and ultimately ourselves," said Tierra Curry, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, as The Washington Post reported. "We really can do all of these things, but we need world leaders to stand up and do them."</p>
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Data from a scientist measuring macroalgal communities in rocky shores in the Argentinean Patagonia would be added to the new system. Patricia Miloslavich / University of Delaware
Ocean scientists have been busy creating a global network to understand and measure changes in ocean life. The system will aggregate data from the oceans, climate and human activity to better inform sustainable marine management practices.
EcoWatch sat down with some of the scientists spearheading the collaboration to learn more.
<p>"There is the <a href="https://www.goosocean.org/" target="_blank">Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS)</a> and the <a href="https://marinebon.org/" target="_blank">Marine Biodiversity Observation Network (MBON)</a>. We're trying to put them together," explained Frank Muller-Karger, a professor at the University of South Florida studying phytoplankton, a member of the Biology & Ecosystems Panel (BioEco Panel) of GOOS and a co-founder of MBON.</p><p>GOOS recommends what kinds of essential measurements should be collected to address particular problems. Over the last few decades, physical variables (salinity, temperature, oxygen, etc.) have helped improved weather forecasts and understanding of how the ocean redistributes heat around the world, Muller-Karger said.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzQ0NzgxOS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0ODE2OTE0MX0.FEfKKy8pBNvRAcmFZxjv5NOR091Ic42VVpZLcCvQCCA/img.jpg?width=980" id="dc9f8" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="cc9679b2e14d4d050938af7041bed306" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Climate models are predicting faster warming of the North Atlantic Ocean, which will shift the Gulf Stream. NASA
<p>MBON has established biodiversity variables (genetics, number of species at a certain depth, ecosystem structure, etc.) to understand the structures of life in the oceans, explained Patricia Miloslavich, executive director of the Scientific Committee on Oceanic Research at the University of Delaware and member of both the BioEco Panel and MBON.</p><p>Now, scientists are trying to bridge the gap between the two observing networks by creating one "language" both systems can speak and in which all data can be collected and shared. A major goal is to be more efficient and effective in solving issues that affect people around the world by leveraging the oceans' resources sustainably. The effort will be a key contribution to the <a href="https://www.oceandecade.org/" target="_blank">United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development</a> (2021 - 2030), an international effort under which top researchers have been collaborating to reverse ocean decline.</p><p>"Data have to be formatted and have to carry a measure of precision if you want any hope to understand how the world is changing," Muller-Karger said. "It's so difficult to make measurements in the sea, that if we don't follow standards, we end up with things we cannot compare. It complicates things even further."</p>
<p>Woody Turner, who works with NASA and remotely sensed data that will be incorporated into the new system, said the entire endeavor is about "coordination at a global scale to get a global view of the planet." He noted that people have been looking at phenomena in the ocean for centuries and that the hard part has always been stitching these diverse observations together.</p><p>"That's why the U.N. Decade is such a big deal. It's an effort to bring together natural and social scientists from around the world to deliberately tie things together and create a standardized global observation system for it all," he said.</p>
<p>The system will also link into a similar global climate observation system that has been in place for over 40 years, as well as account for human intervention. In this way, scientists hope to more fully understand how the two biggest stressors on the oceans — climate change and human activity — affect <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/biodiversity">biodiversity</a> and abundance of life in the oceans, Miloslavich said.</p><p>"This can be used by policymakers to better manage how we use the oceans," she added.</p><p>For example, through the system, scientists could explain the fact that the oceans off the northeast U.S. are warming and document the how and why of a northward-migration of lobsters to forecast whether specific action may <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/lobsters-climate-change-2639919647.html?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1" target="_self">prevent the impending collapse of current fisheries</a> and the resultant shift towards new species in the ecosystem.</p>
<p>Traditional climate data would show the effect of increased emissions of greenhouse gases, the GOOS might measure higher water temperatures, and the MBON might separately register the disappearing lobster populations, but the new system would hopefully be able to connect it all. Fisheries managers could then anticipate shortening or shifting a catch season accordingly, making the fishery more effective and profitable.</p><p>"We really need to be measuring life and the diversity of life, because that's ultimately what we depend on," Muller-Karger said. "We don't eat bulk carbon; we eat fish and potatoes."</p><p>Fundamentally, the scientists are trying to create a way to link physical and chemical measurements to the changes in biodiversity and life in the oceans.</p><p>"We need to be able to harness all that information so we can profit more from the info we're collecting," said Nic Bax, co-chair of the BioEco Panel. "That multi-disciplinarity is really needed now."</p>
<p>Critically, the new integrated observing system also shows how human actions can increase biodiversity in a particular region, so that abundance and productivity can be used to improve human life in various ways, Bax explained.</p><p>For example, Turner and Maury Estes apply space-based satellite imagery of the Earth with sea-based measurements to improve aquaculture practices in Palau. This combats overfishing while sustaining the health of the people and the economy of the island nation. They are also applying such technologies to <a href="https://www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/story/mangrove-conservation-more-valuable-ever-thanks-carbon-trading" target="_blank">mangrove conservation</a> and restoration efforts in Kenya, where carbon credits are purchased to maintain mangroves as essential fish spawning grounds, increasing biological resilience while reducing human poverty.</p><p>"As we understand more, how we talk about sustainably developing the environment won't be just about how to not lose diversity, but about how to bring it back," Bax said. "A lot of things just require someone to invest in them, and financial markets need to be informed about what's going on in the larger system. This is a way to generate profit while improving the lives of people."</p><p>Turner added, "It's not only about saving life on the planet, it's about saving ourselves. It's a global problem, so we have to address it top-down, globally."</p>
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A truck spreads lime on a meadow to increase the soil's fertility in Yorkshire Dales, UK. Farm Images / Universal Images Group via Getty Images
As we look for advanced technology to replace our dependence on fossil fuels and to rid the oceans of plastic, one solution to the climate crisis might simply be found in rocks. New research found that dispersing rock dust over farmland could suck billions of tons of carbon dioxide from the air every year, according to the first detailed large scale analysis of the technique, as The Guardian reported.
<p>The <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2448-9" target="_blank">study</a>, published Wednesday in the journal <em>Nature,</em> found the technique could pull enough carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to remove about half of the amount of that greenhouse gas currently produced by Europe. To put it another way, that would mean pulling more CO2 from the atmosphere than the current total emissions from global aviation and shipping combined, according to a <a href="https://www.newswise.com/articles/applying-rock-dust-to-croplands-could-absorb-up-to-2-billion-tonnes-of-co2-from-the-atmosphere-research-shows" target="_blank">press release</a> from the University of Sheffield where the study was conducted.</p><p>"Spreading rock dust on agricultural land is a straightforward, practical CO2 drawdown approach with the potential to boost soil health and food production, said David Beerling, director of the Leverhulme Center for Climate Change Mitigation at the University of Sheffield and lead author of the study. "Our analyses reveal the big emitting nations – China, the US, India – have the greatest potential to do this, emphasizing their need to step up to the challenge."</p>
<p>The research showed that if the world's three largest emitters of CO2 — China, the U.S. and India — adopted the practice on a large scale, they could collectively clear about 1 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide from the air, as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/2020/07/08/spreading-rock-dust-ground-could-pull-carbon-air-researchers-say/" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a> reported.</p><p>The technique of spreading rock on the ground is known as enhanced rock weathering. The researchers took a realistic approach to perform a global analysis of the technique. The researchers say their modeling of enhanced rock weathering is the most realistic yet because it factors in how much rock is available and the energy countries would be willing to use for grinding it up, as <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2248222-a-sprinkle-of-rock-dust-could-help-avoid-catastrophic-climate-change/" target="_blank">The New Scientist</a> reported.</p>
<p>Looking at each country's climate, farmland and energy infrastructure, they found that rock dust could remove between 0.5 and 2 gigatons of CO2 annually by 2050. Right now, global dependence on fossil fuels emits around 35 gigatons of CO2 each year, according to The New Scientist.</p><p>Enhanced rock weathering is a system where crushed rock is layered into the soil. As The Washington Post explained, when silicate or carbonate minerals in the dust dissolve in rain, carbon dioxide is drawn from the atmosphere into the solution to form bicarbonate ions. The bicarbonate ions then run off into the ocean, where they form carbonate minerals and store their carbon indefinitely.</p><p>The Guardian noted that while researchers are clear that the most important step to fighting the climate crisis is drastically reducing emissions, a reduction in emissions won't be enough to keep the world from breaking the targets of the Paris agreement keeping global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius. In order to achieve lasting success, the excess carbon in the atmosphere also needs to be removed.</p>
<p>"We have passed the safe level of greenhouse gases. Cutting fossil fuel emissions is crucial, but we must also extract atmospheric CO2 with safe, secure and scalable carbon dioxide removal strategies to bend the global CO2 curve and limit future climate change," said James Hansen, a partner in the study and director of the Climate Science, Awareness and Solutions Program at Columbia University's Earth Institute, in a press release. "The advantage of CO2 removal with crushed silicate rocks is that it could restore deteriorating top-soils, which underpin food security for billions of people, thereby incentivizing deployment."</p><p>The researchers say that enhanced rock weathering has several advantages, according to The Guardian. First, many farmers already add limestone dust to <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/soil">soils</a> to reduce acidification, and adding other rock dust improves fertility and crop yields, meaning the application could be both routine and desirable.</p><p>"CO2 drawdown strategies that can scale up and are compatible with existing land uses are urgently required to combat climate change, alongside deep emissions cuts," said Beerling. "Enhanced rock weathering is a straightforward, practical approach."</p>
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Global heating imposes a harsh cost at the most critical time of all: the moment of spawning. Pxfuel
By Tim Radford
German scientists now know why so many fish are so vulnerable to ever-warming oceans. Global heating imposes a harsh cost at the most critical time of all: the moment of spawning.
<p>"Our findings show that, both as embryos in eggs and as adults ready to mate, fish are far more sensitive to heat than in their larval stage or as sexually mature adults outside the mating season," said <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Flemming_Dahlke" target="_blank">Flemming Dahlke, a marine biologist</a> with the <a href="https://www.awi.de/" target="_blank">Alfred Wegener Institute at Bremerhaven</a>.</p><p>"On the global average, for example, adults outside the mating season can survive in water that's up to 10°C warmer than adults ready to mate, or fish eggs, can."</p><p>The finding – if it is confirmed by other research – should clear up some of the puzzles associated with fish numbers. There is clear evidence, established repeatedly over the decades, that <a href="https://climatenewsnetwork.net/ocean-heatwaves-drive-more-fish-north/" target="_blank">fish are responding to climate change</a>.</p><p>But almost three fourths of the planet is blue ocean, and <a href="https://climatenewsnetwork.net/hunger-threat-as-tropical-fish-seek-cooler-waters/" target="_blank">at depth is responding far more slowly</a> than the land surface to global heating fueled by fossil fuel exploitation that releases greenhouse gases.</p>
Nearing the Brink
<p>Since <a href="https://climatenewsnetwork.net/abundant-fish-need-cool-seas-and-protection/" target="_blank">fish in the temperate zones already experience a wide variation</a> in seasonal water temperatures, it hasn't been obvious why species such as <a href="https://climatenewsnetwork.net/sardines-swim-into-northern-waters-to-keep-cool/" target="_blank">cod have shifted nearer the Arctic, and sardines have migrated to the North Sea</a>.</p><p>But <a href="https://climatenewsnetwork.net/ocean-warming-spurs-marine-life-to-rapid-migration/" target="_blank">marine creatures are on the move</a>, and although there are other factors at work, including overfishing and <a href="https://climatenewsnetwork.net/fish-cant-smell-well-in-more-acidic-seas/" target="_blank">the increasingly alarming changes in ocean chemistry</a>, thanks to ever-higher levels of dissolved carbon dioxide, temperature change is part of the problem.</p><p>The latest answer, Dr Dahlke and his colleagues report in the journal <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi/10.1126/science.aaz3658" target="_blank">Science</a>, is that many fish may already be living near the limits of their thermal tolerance.</p><p>The temperature safety margins during the moments of spawning and embryo might be very precise, and over hundreds of thousands of years of evolution, marine and freshwater species have worked out just what is best for the next generation. Rapid global warming upsets this equilibrium.</p><p>The Bremerhaven scientists looked at experiments, observations and recorded data for the life cycles of 694 marine and freshwater species, to decide that oxygen supply is the key decider of reproductive success. Warmer waters carry less dissolved oxygen. Embryo fish have no gills: they cannot simply take in deeper breaths.</p><p>Fish about to mate are busy producing extra mass in the form of sperm and egg cells: this additional body mass also needs oxygen. Even at lower temperatures, piscine cardiovascular systems are under stress.</p><p>So the reasoning follows that, if global heating continues, climate change and rising water temperatures are likely to affect the reproduction of perhaps 60% of all fish species.</p><p>"Some species might successfully manage this change," Dr Dahlke said. "But if you consider the fact that fish have adapted their mating patterns to specific habitats over extremely long timeframes, and have tailored their mating cycles of specific ocean currents and food sources, it has to be assumed that being forced to abandon their normal spawning areas will mean major problems for them."</p>
<p class=""><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://climatenewsnetwork.net/warming-oceans-deter-more-fish-from-spawning/" target="_blank">Climate News Network</a>.</em></p>
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Florida Gov. DeSantis Prohibits Cities From Banning Sunscreens, Even Ones That Harm Coral
03 July
Politics
Sunscreen pollution is accelerating the demise of coral reefs globally by causing permanent DNA damage to coral. gonzalo martinez / iStock / Getty Images Plus
On July 29, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law a controversial bill prohibiting local governments from banning certain types of sunscreens.
<p><a href="https://www.flsenate.gov/Session/Bill/2020/172" target="_blank">SB 172</a> responds to and reverses the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/sunscreens-oxybenzone-ban-2628295489.html" target="_self">City of Key West's 2019 ban on the sale of sunscreens containing oxybenzone and octinoxate</a> to protect its <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coral-reefs" target="_self">coral reef</a>. The ban was set to take effect Jan. 1, 2021, but the new law strikes down that ban and prohibits similar ones.</p><p>According to the <a href="https://www.coris.noaa.gov/portals/florida.html" target="_blank">National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)</a>, Key West sits on Florida's Reef Tract, the only barrier reef in the continental U.S. </p><p>Florida's multi-billion coastal economy "is highly tied to the coral reefs and dependent on their health," the <a href="https://www.eesi.org/articles/view/floridas-dying-reefs-could-kill-the-florida-keys-economy" target="_blank">Environmental and Energy Study Institute</a> found.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/reef-friendly-sunscreens-2634686426.html?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1" target="_self">Sunscreen pollution is accelerating the demise of coral reefs</a> globally by causing permanent DNA damage to coral, according to experts, reported <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/sunscreens-oxybenzone-ban-2628295489.html" target="_self">ABC News</a>.</p><p>"(Coral reefs) provide billions of dollars in economic and environmental services, such as food, coastal protection, and tourism," said a <a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/news/sunscreen-corals.html#:~:text=In%20a%202016%20study%2C%20a,against%20the%20sun's%20harmful%20effects." target="_blank">NOAA infographic article</a> about the harms of sunscreens. The infographic focuses on how sunscreen chemicals enter the ocean environment, the harm they cause to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/marine-life">marine life</a> including corals, fish, algae, etc. and alternative, reef-safe ways to stay protected from the sun.</p><p>Common <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/chemicals">chemicals</a> in sunscreens and cosmetics are "highly toxic" to marine life and "even very low concentrations" of oxybenzone and octinoxate accumulate in coral tissue, inducing bleaching, damaging coral DNA and deforming and killing young coral larvae, according to NOAA.</p>
<p>This harm to the next generation of reefs threatens the survival of corals generally <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/coral-reefs-climate-crisis-predictions-2645201373.html" target="_self">at a time when reefs are already heavily imperiled</a>. <a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/news/sunscreen-corals.html#:~:text=In%20a%202016%20study%2C%20a,against%20the%20sun's%20harmful%20effects." target="_blank">NOAA </a>called nontoxic sunscreen alternatives "critical" to protect reefs against "exacerbating effects posted by climate change and bleaching."</p><p>Oxybenzone and octinoxate also <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/sunscreen-chemicals-bloodstream-2636509218.html" target="_self">disrupt the human endocrine system</a>.<br></p><p>Even while the new Florida bill was moving towards DeSantis' desk, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration removed most chemical sunscreens from its list of "safe and effective" products pending health studies, instead designating mineral-based sunscreens containing zinc oxide or titanium dioxide as "safe and effective, reported <a href="https://www.floridaphoenix.com/2020/06/30/desantis-signs-bill-prohibiting-florida-cities-from-banning-any-sunscreens-even-those-that-threaten-corals/" target="_blank">Florida Phoenix</a>.</p><p>Proponents of the bill, including many business interests, claim sunscreen is necessary to protect the residents and visitors to the sunshine state from skin cancer.</p>
<p>Senate Appropriations Chairman Rob Bradley spearheaded the bill, disputing the science claiming that sunscreens harm reefs. He argued that protecting tourists and residents from cancer trumps protecting coral reefs, reported Florida Phoenix and <a href="https://miami.cbslocal.com/2020/06/30/sunscreen-ban-in-florida/" target="_blank">CBS Miami</a>.</p><p>Those criticizing the bill call it the latest attack on local government home-rule authority as well as on coral reefs, reported <a href="https://www.startribune.com/florida-gov-chooses-side-in-sunscreen-debate-slather-away/571569782/?refresh=true" target="_blank">Star Tribune</a>.</p><p>Some have called the bill a "gross overreaction" to Key West's "measured and reasonable limitation" meant to protect their lucrative, important natural resource, reported <a href="https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/politics/fl-ne-nsf-desantis-signs-sunscreen-ban-into-law-20200630-vjbksvzx5zh23kevo4d2nibvg4-story.html" target="_blank">Sun-Sentinel</a>.</p><p>"When it comes to protecting Florida's coral reefs, the Governor is standing with corporate interests, despite millions of taxpayer dollars spent on reef preservation and restoration," environmental groups said Tuesday in a joint press release, reported <a href="https://www.floridaphoenix.com/2020/06/30/desantis-signs-bill-prohibiting-florida-cities-from-banning-any-sunscreens-even-those-that-threaten-corals/" target="_blank">Florida Phoenix</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/news/sunscreen-corals.html#:~:text=In%20a%202016%20study%2C%20a,against%20the%20sun's%20harmful%20effects." target="_blank">NOAA</a> said that "although pollution is a major cause of coral reef degradation," it is also "the easiest factor to mitigate" because manufacturers and consumers can choose to create and purchase less harmful products. The only issue, NOAA found, was that regulation of the toxic chemicals in sunscreens "has largely been ignored."</p><p>DeSantis did not issue statements as his office Monday night released the new bill, reported <a href="https://miami.cbslocal.com/2020/06/30/sunscreen-ban-in-florida/" target="_blank">CBS Miami</a>.</p>
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Trending
A women walks with COVID-19 care kits distributed by Boston's Office of Neighborhood Services in Boston, Massachusetts on May 28, 2020. The pandemic has led to a rise in single-use plastic items, but reusable bags and cloth masks can be two ways to reduce waste. JOSEPH PREZIOSO / AFP via Getty Images
This month is Plastic Free July, the 31 days every year when millions of people pledge to give up single-use plastics.
<p>Last year, the month <a href="https://www.plasticfreejuly.org/about-us/" target="_blank">boasted</a> around 250 million participants in 177 countries, but this year there's a complication. The <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coronavirus" target="_self">coronavirus</a> pandemic is still very much with us, and it has led to a rise in single-use items, from personal protective equipment (PPE) to disposable coffee cups. In the U.S., many states have paused or backtracked on <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/plastic-bags" target="_self">plastic bag bans</a>, <a href="https://www.wired.co.uk/article/coronavirus-plastic-pollution-environment" target="_blank">WIRED reported</a>, and the UK has delayed its ban on <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/plastic-straws" target="_self">plastic straws</a> and stirrers by six months. Coffee shops including Starbucks have temporarily prohibited reusable mugs. And some U.S. grocery stores and states have gone so far as to prohibit personal shopping bags, as <a href="https://www.mprnews.org/story/2020/03/18/states-and-stores-are-banning-reusable-bags-is-it-safe-to-use-them" target="_blank">MPR News reported</a>.</p>
<p>When it comes to plastic, the spread of the new disease has created a false dichotomy between <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/public-health" target="_self">public health</a> and environmental stewardship. The organization <a href="https://www.citytosea.org.uk/" target="_blank">City to Sea</a> found that 36 percent of Brits feel pressured to use more plastic because of the pandemic. But it doesn't have to be this way.</p><p>"Caring for the planet doesn't mean we can't care for ourselves," Plastic Free July founder Rebecca Prince-Ruiz told <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/01/climate/nyt-climate-newsletter-masks.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>. "We can do both at the same time."</p>
<div id="cc791" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="bbe6689bcee22c2633c7c9142f9488e2"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1278099014542454786" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Plastic Free July is a global movement that helps millions of people be part of the solution to plastic pollution –… https://t.co/1kymzp2vi3</div> — Plastic Free July (@Plastic Free July)<a href="https://twitter.com/PlasticFreeJuly/statuses/1278099014542454786">1593557525.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Here are three ways you can go plastic-free this July while keeping yourself healthy and safe.</p><p><strong>1. Use Bar Soap</strong></p><p>COVID-19 has made everyone newly aware of the importance of washing their hands for at least 20 seconds with soap and water.</p><p><a href="https://www.sas.org.uk/news/plastic-free-in-a-time-of-covid/" target="_blank">Surfers Against Sewage suggests</a> doing this with bar soap instead of plastic soap dispensers to reduce waste. But is it really safe for everyone in your household to be handling the same bar?</p><p>That's what <a href="https://earther.gizmodo.com/coronavirus-has-me-thinking-way-too-hard-about-my-bar-s-1842797302" target="_blank">Earther's Yessenia Funes wondered</a> until Stanford University soap expert Marlene Wolfe set her mind at rest.</p><p>"While bar soap is icky to a lot of people because it can become wet and cracked and look dirty, if you are touching it and then using it to wash your hands, whatever negligible amount might transfer to your hands should also be washed off during washing," Wolfe said. "And there's some work to suggest that bacteria are unlikely to transfer off of bar soap, and I would suspect this would hold for viruses."</p><p>But if you really love those pump bottles, Wolfe recommends getting reusable ones and refilling them in bulk.</p>
<p><strong>2. Wear a Cloth Mask</strong></p><p>Wearing masks is <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/face-masks-and-social-distancing--2646281827.html" target="_self">vitally important</a> for slowing the transmission of COVID-19, but, sadly, disposable masks and gloves are <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/covid-19-masks-beaches-oceans-2646165717.html" target="_self">already</a> ending up in the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oceans" target="_self">ocean</a>.</p><p>You can protect yourself and the planet by choosing a cloth mask, experts told The New York Times. While N-95 respirators and surgical masks offer the best protection against the virus, experts say that, for the general public, cloth masks are plenty safe and much more sustainable. Both N-95 and surgical masks are made with petroleum products that do not break down, plus it is important to reserve them for frontline workers whose risk of exposure is greater. Disposable paper masks, another option, are slightly misnamed because they often contain lots of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/microplastics" target="_self">microplastics</a>.</p><p>When it comes to selecting a cloth mask, it is better to use old clothing you already have at home, like a T-shirt or bandanna, than to buy a new one.</p><p>"Virgin fiber of any kind is going to require more energy, more resources and more toxic chemicals than something that has already been made," University of California, Berkeley physician and environmental health researcher Dr. Megan Schwarzman told The New York Times.</p>
<p><strong>3. Don't Ditch Your Reusables</strong></p><p>If you were using reusable shopping bags and food containers before the pandemic, you don't have to abandon them now. And, if you haven't yet picked up this habit, it is safe to start this Plastic Free July.</p><p>More than 100 scientists from 18 countries <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/reusable-containers-coronavirus-health-science-2646222334.html" target="_self">signed a statement</a> last month saying that it was safe to use reusable items like bags, cups and utensils as long as they were properly cleaned.</p><p>"Single-use plastic is not inherently safer than reusables, and causes additional public health concerns once it is discarded," the experts wrote.</p><p>The choice may be out of your control if your coffee shop, grocery store or state has banned reusable cups or bags, but you can participate in online campaigns to promote reusables.</p><p>In the the UK, City to Sea has started <a href="https://www.citytosea.org.uk/contactless-coffee/" target="_blank">#ContactlessCoffee</a> to encourage the safe use of refillable containers as cafes reopen. They are asking people to share the campaign video on social media while tagging their favorite local coffee joint and using the #ContactlessCoffee hashtag.</p>
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A diver swims with sharpfin barracuda, one of the many ocean species under threat from global warming, in Australia, Queensland, Great Barrier Reef. Pete Atkinson / The Image Bank / Getty Images Plus
The oceans could look much emptier by 2100, according to a new study that found that most fish species would not be able to survive in their current habitat if average global temperatures rise 4.5 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, as The Guardian reported.
<p>The researchers of the new paper said that 60 percent of fish species face a grave threat from global heating if temperatures approach that worst-case scenario level. The species under threat include many <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/seafood" target="_self">common fish found in grocery stores</a>, including staples like Atlantic cod, Alaska pollock and sockeye <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/salmon" target="_self">salmon</a>, and sport fishing favorites like swordfish, barracuda and brown trout, as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/02/weather/fish-vulnerable-ocean-warming-climate-change-scn/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported.</p><p>The new study, published in the journal <em><a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/369/6499/65" target="_blank">Science</a></em>, looked at how nearly 700 fresh and saltwater fish species respond to warming ocean temperatures. The problem for most fish is that as ocean temperatures rise, the oxygen level goes down, which makes it extremely challenging for embryos to survive.</p>
<p>"A 1.5C increase is already a challenge to some, and if we let global warming persist, it can get much worse," said Hans-Otto Pörtner, a co-author on the paper and a climatologist at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research in Germany, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/02/fish-species-survival-climate-warming-study" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported.</p><p>That 1.5 degrees Celsius threshold would result in 10 percent of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/marine-life" target="_self">marine species</a> suffering over the next 80 years, including the aforementioned grocery staples.</p><p>However, even a 10 percent decline in fish species has a large ripple effect on ecosystems as one species being pushed out effects the food supply and the habits of many other species that have evolved to be interdependent.</p>
<p>Since we are already 1 degree warmer than the pre-industrial level and emissions are starting to rise around the world as countries reopen, it seems highly unlikely that the world will not blow past that lowest benchmark. In fact, we are currently on pace for a 3 degree increase over the pre-industrial level, as The Guardian noted.</p><p>"More than half of the species potentially at risk is quite astonishing, so we really emphasize that it's important to take action and follow the political commitments to reduce climate change and protect marine habitats," said Dr. Flemming Dahlke, a marine biologist at Germany's Alfred Wegener Institute and one of the authors of the study, as CNN reported.</p>
<p>The declining oxygen levels threaten fish because adult fish preparing to mate fill up their bodies with either eggs or sperm, which strains their hearts as they pump more blood to supply their reproductive organs with enough oxygen, according to the <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-8484103/Rising-water-temperatures-endanger-matings-fish.html" target="_blank">Daily Mail</a>.</p><p>Also, fish embryos inside eggs could also die since they don't have gills — meaning they will be unable to get enough oxygen to survive.</p><p>"There's a difference in the tolerable temperature range of almost 20 degrees on average between embryos and adults," Dahlke said, as CNN reported. "This of course makes a big difference when you want to look at the sensitivity of species to global warming."</p>
<p>The rapid increase in temperatures could force fish to adapt in an unprecedented way or to move toward cooler water closer to the poles. Freshwater fish living in lakes and ponds have a bleak outlook since they cannot move towards cooler waters.</p><p>"Some species might successfully manage this change," said Dahlke, as the Daily Mail reported. "But if you consider the fact that fish have adapted their mating patterns to specific habitats over extremely long time frames, and have tailored their mating cycles to specific ocean currents and available food sources, it has to be assumed that being forced to abandon their normal spawning areas will mean major problems for them."</p><p>A lot of this is a conservative estimate since the study did not take into account pollution or the increased acidity of the ocean, which could present additional challenges to sensitive species, as The Guardian noted.</p><p>"Some tropical fish are already living in zones at their uppermost tolerance, their areas are already 40C," Pörtner said. "Humankind is pushing the planet outside of a comfortable temperature range and we are starting to lose suitable habitat. It's worth investing in the 1.5C goal."</p>
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Women walk from Santa Monica beach after a social media workout on the sand on May 12, 2020 in Santa Monica, California. Al Seib / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Independence Day weekend is a busy time for coastal communities as people flock to the beaches to soak up the sun during the summer holiday. This year is different. Some of the country's most popular beach destinations in Florida and California have decided to close their beaches to stop the surge in coronavirus cases.
<p>In Florida, Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez announced last week that all beaches and parks in the county will close from Friday, July 3, through Tuesday, July 7, as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/28/us/florida-coronavirus-miami-beaches/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported. He added that the closed beaches might not reopen next week if coronavirus cases continue to rise and people are not adhering to social distancing and face mask guidelines.</p><p>"As we continue to see more COVID-19 positive test results among young adults and rising hospitalizations, I have decided that the only prudent thing to do to tamp down this recent uptick is to crack down on recreational activities that put our overall community at higher risk," Gimenez said in a <a href="https://www.miamidade.gov/releases/2020-06-26-mayor-july4-beaches.asp" target="_blank">news release</a> last week.</p>
<p>Once Miami-Dade County made that decision, the ripple effect extended to surrounding areas as one county after another worried about an influx of visitors and started to close beaches as well. Broward County was quick to follow when it <a href="https://twitter.com/FTLCityNews/status/1277288404343050242" target="_blank">tweeted</a> its closures. The domino effect continued with Monroe, Palm Beach, Martin and St. Lucie counties and the city of Vero Beach following Miami-Dade's lead, according to the <a href="https://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/20200701/despite-6500-new-coronavirus-cases-desantis-questions-beach-closings" target="_blank">Palm Beach Post</a>.</p><p>"The reason why we're doing this is because we feel that we will not be able to provide the necessary safe environment that everyone is entitled to enjoy when they come to our beaches," said Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis, as <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/28/us/florida-coronavirus-miami-beaches/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a> reported.</p>
<p>Across the country, in California, where there are nearly 250,000 coronavirus cases, beaches in Los Angeles will county will be closed for the holiday weekend, from Friday through Monday. That includes a complete ban on fireworks in an effort to "prevent dangerous crowding that results in the spread of deadly COVID-19," the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said in a statement earlier this week, according to <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/california-closes-beaches-july-4-after-alarming-coronavirus-spike-1514289" target="_blank">Newsweek</a>.</p><p>Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn <a href="https://twitter.com/SupJaniceHahn/status/1277742020799238146?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1277742020799238146%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newsweek.com%2Fcalifornia-closes-beaches-july-4-after-alarming-coronavirus-spike-1514289" target="_blank">tweeted</a> on Monday: "We had almost 3,000 reported cases just today. We cannot risk having crowds at the beach this holiday weekend," in a post on her official Twitter account.</p>
<p>To the north of Los Angeles, Ventura county will also close all of its county beaches over the weekend. California State Parks will close beach parking lots in Orange, Santa Barbara, Marin, Monterey, San Diego, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Cruz and Sonoma counties, according to <a href="https://ktla.com/news/local-news/l-a-ventura-county-state-beaches-closed-for-4th-of-july-weekend-parking-lots-shuttered-at-o-c-santa-barbara-state-beaches/" target="_blank">KTLA</a>.</p><p>Following those orders, Governor Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday that state beaches in Southern California and the Bay Area will be closed this weekend, as the <a href="https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article243936147.html" target="_blank">Sacramento Bee</a> reported.</p><p>In New England, officials are worried about more than just the coronavirus. While officials in Cape Cod are expecting smaller than usual crowds due to COVID-19, they are warning beach visitors that a large number of great white sharks have been spotted in the area, according to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jun/30/cape-cod-issues-great-white-shark-warning-ahead-of-4-july-holiday" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>.</p>
<p>Leslie Reynolds, the chief ranger with Cape Cod National Seashore, warned the powerful predators were coming close enough to shore to be a concern for swimmers at a recent news conference.</p><p>"Yes, we're in the middle of a pandemic, but if you choose to recreate in the water off Cape Cod, it is home to white sharks and they're coming close to shore," said Reynolds, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/02/us/Cape-cod-sharks.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> reported.</p><p>Great whites frequently visit the waters off Cape Cod to prey on the large seal colonies that live there.</p><p>"It's kind of like when a new restaurant opens and people realize it's a really good spot, and someone else discovers it and slowly the clientele builds," said Gregory B. Skomal, a senior fisheries scientist at the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries, about the uptick in great whites recently, to The New York Times.</p>
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