Oceans = Life

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The lone tanker in view, the Bum Shin, looks impressive in size. It is 19,997 dead weight tons. The biggest bulk carrier in the harbour, the Hyundai Passion, looks downright huge, and it is, at about 179,000 dwt. This is way bigger than Panamax, the maximum size for passing through the Panama Canal.  But even this is only slightly more than half the size of the supertankers, up to 320,000 dwt that may be passing through narrow Douglas Channel to take tar sands diluted bitumen from Kitimat to China. The extraction and burning of heavy oil is the second most CO2 intensive source of energy.

 

This website is about the ocean and how it is being changed by the burning of fossil fuels and over-fishing. There is also information about alternative energy strategies. Also noted are ocean pH (acid) readings from a few places on the globe (from friends in wet places).



I bring no special skills or insight to this undertaking: just a lifetime spent near or on the water. Hopefully, my affliction of clipping news articles will shed a little light on ocean acidification and the carbon industry.



 

The information is presented on Google Earth. To all of the journalists, authors and scientists whom I have quoted: In order to fit your quotes into the Google dialogue boxes, I sometimes had to shorten and abbreviate. However, I am certain that I have kept true to the meaning of your remarks, even as I have left out your first names. I am sorry.



If you haven’t already, you will need to download Google Earth. The Earth page of this site, will take you to the link.



So, spin the world. Click and double click. Our time is short.





Douglass Simpson

Vancouver Harbour

February 2013

 

I am sitting on a rock, at water’s edge, watching the wigeons nibbling on unseen shore nutrients. Farther out, bufflehead and goldeneye ducks are diving for small fish. Beyond, in the bay, a dozen freighters and a lone tanker lie at anchor. For these birds, and for all life dependent on a healthy sea, this is a big problem. Most of these freighters are bulk carriers and most of their cargo will be coal – the world’s dirtiest, most abundant fossil fuel, and largest contributor to the climate crisis. Every ton of thermal coal burned to produce electricity releases about two tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. 30% of this is absorbed into the oceans.  The oceans of the world are already 30% more acidic than before the industrial era began and they are changing much more rapidly than sea animals can adapt. In my area of the world, oyster larvae are dying due to acidification, and salmon are at risk.

Ducks, Ships & Coal

Tar Sands

Oceans

Google Earth