A recent report by Jeremy Jackson, director of the Scripps Center for Marine Biodiversity and Conservation at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the Univ. of California, San Diego, focused on his study results of the health of the oceans. The report has been published in the online version of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. As you might expect, Jackson’s study cites potentially catastrophic changes to the oceans’ health due to overexploitation, pollution, and climate change.
Another recent report by researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Col., discusses how strong El Niño effects in the Pacific Ocean have a significant warming effect on the Western portion of Antarctica. However, overall trends in the Antarctic as the report notes, are still difficult to fully characterize.
Still another book just published, “Global Amphibian Extinctions,” documents the worldwide decline of amphibians that has been ongoing since the early-1990s. No definitive cause has yet been identified for this die-off, but some have listed either fungal diseases or disruption of the ozone hole as causal factors.
What all of these reports (and more) point to is that the global ecosystem is changing. Some researchers cite man’s influence on these changes as the main factor. Other researchers cite natural effects as the primary driver—in actuality, a combination is more likely. Why should anyone be surprised about changes (and dangers) in the ecosystem? We’re part of the ecosystem and our growth in numbers and productivity touch every aspect of our planet. And as we learn from history, change has been a factor in the earth’s existence, even before modern man was around.
What strikes me as unreasonable are those that expect the ecosystem to maintain its status quo. While as good citizens we should attempt to eliminate those effects that cause damage to our environment, in that very same breath we should plan for an environment that is likely to be different than the one we currently enjoy. Those plans should include the start of major programs for rebuilding or repopulating parts of the ecosystem that could (and more likely “will”) be lost. And looking at some of the reports I’ve noted above, noticeable changes could now come within our own lifetimes, rather than our grandchildrens’ as some might have expected a few years ago.
