Mass Extinction Underway

BIGGER Than BIG

Things that happen in slo-mo are invisible to most of us. Life is short, and events that take several lifetimes just disappear in the noise of day-to-day living. The BIG slo-mo elephant on the beach is climate change.

BIG REPORT

So what could be bigger? How about another MASS EXTINCTION as a result of climate change?

There is yet another huge, fully credible, completely frightening report just out (on 20 June) warning of this looming nightmare, already underway, in our precious oceans and seas.

Here are just the headlines of this report :

Human actions have resulted in warming and acidification of the oceans and are now causing

increased hypoxia.

The speeds of many negative changes to the ocean are near to or are tracking the worst-case scenarios from IPCC and other predictions. Some are as predicted, but many are faster than anticipated, and many

are still accelerating.

The magnitude of the cumulative impacts on the ocean is greater than previously understood.

Timelines for action are shrinking.

Resilience of the ocean to climate change impacts is severely compromised by the other stressors from human activities, including fisheries, pollutions and habitat destruction.

Ecosystem collapse is occurring as a result of both current and emerging stressors.

The extinction threat to marine species is rapidly increasing.

It is notable that the occurrence of multiple high intensity stressors has been a pre-requisite for all the five global extinction events of the past 600 million years.

So ask yourself, "Is this moving too slowly for me to see it?" I hope not. If we don't get off our duffs and start pressuring our elected officials to get serious about climate change, things will get way too serious for all of us non-fish as well.

Graphic credit "Invisible"

Graphic credit "Asymptotic"

Graphic credit "Fish Kill"