If there was ever an element that needed defending, it is the element of water.

These days, our oceans are particularly at risk. For too long we have functioned under the "out of sight, out of mind" principle, dumping and polluting their vastness with impunity. The recent BP oil spill has shifted our attention, as a nation, to the untenable plight of our beleaguered seas.

In particular, the current BP disaster--there have been many--functions as a non-stop, catastrophic wake-up call, an alarm that just won't stop ringing. Be assured that this is one call we desperately need to answer. We are compelled as a nation to vigorously support reform that safeguards and prevents these types of assaults on our oceans and all the myriad life sustained within their borders.

In a watershed effort to begin to protect the rich diversity of our nation's oceans, President Obama has set in motion a policy that will unify our efforts to tackle the challenges facing our marine resources. According to the NRDC staff blog, Switchboard, this policy will help to:

1. Rehabilitate and rebuild our struggling fisheries and protect the endangered species therein.
2. Preserve and restore vulnerable and compromised habitats from further industrial harm.
3. Stop storm water runoff from contaminating our beach water.
4. Stop the introduction and spread of invasive species.
5. Safeguard against the impact of ocean acidification and rising sea temperatures.

By protecting our oceans' diversity we are in essence protecting ourselves. It is altogether too bad that it takes a disaster of this magnitude to unify and compel us as a nation to come to the defense of our environment. We need to stop sawing off limbs that we are standing on and recognize that there is no place on earth that deserves to be polluted and destroyed for the sake of expediency or profit. Better late, come we to this realization, than never.

We here at Super Eco applaud the President for spurring the creation of a National Ocean Council designed to protect our seas. Hallelujah! It's about time.

(Photo credit:ms.lume flickr)

The prognosis for global warming is even bleaker than previously estimated, warns Nicolas Stern, the economist who warned governments in 2006 to brace for the economic impact of climate change. Scientists at an international climate change conference in Copenhagen are urging negotiators for a new United Nations climate agreement to crack down and drive a hard bargain to cope with what appears to be an accelerating situation. But is government getting the big picture?

Understanding the scope of temperature change scientists are now using as a baseline for their discussions may help heat up the debate. Many experts now think the European target of limiting world temperature rise to 2C above pre-industrial levels is no longer an attainable goal. Scientists from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Yale University have already warned governments to prepare for a 4C rise. Average temperatures could rise by 6C or even more during this century if greenhouse gas emissions aren't curbed. Stern characterizes an increase in global temperature averages of more than 5C as "likely to lead to major disruption and large-scale movement of population," "catastrophic" and "far outside human experience."

All this talk of numbers gains perspective, given Stern's 2006 scenarios for a 4C worldwide temperature rise:

• 7-300 million more people at risk of coastal flooding every year
• 30-50% reduction in water availability in southern Africa and the Mediterranean
• Agricultural yields down 15%-35% in Africa
• 20%-50% of animal and plant species facing extinction

Just yesterday, scientists projected that a 4C rise would also lead to the loss of 85% of the Amazon rainforest.

At a 5C increase, sea level changes would endanger major cities including New York, London and Tokyo, and increases in ocean acidity would wreak havoc on marine ecosystems. Global warming of more than 5C works out to the amount of warming that occurred between the last ice age and today. We'd shiver—if we still could.

(Photo credit:cikaga jamie, flickr)

The planet's coral reefs are dying. Those gorgeous, multicolored waving arms of living stone are dying. They say that Australia's Great Barrier Reef will be gone soon so if you're going to see it, go soon. And a fifth of the world's coral has died already, according to a report released this week by the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network. Why?

• Rising ocean temperatures due to greenhouse gas emissions
• Ocean acidification caused by the ocean's absorption of CO2 from the atmosphere
• Overfishing
• Local pollution
• Invasive species

Half a billion people around the world depend on coral reefs for food, livelihood, and tourism. And zillions of fish and other marine life depend on coral as a habitat.

What can we do? Scientists say that if we do nothing, based on the current model of expected global climate change the coral will continue its path toward extinction. Even if we halt the level of greenhouse gas emissions we're creating on a human level, it may too late to stop the downward spiral that's already begun for coral.

On the brighter side, half of global coral reefs are still healthy, and it's possible that with strong conservation measures (installation of marine parks, halting of overfishing and local pollution, etc) that the devastation could be slowed or stopped.

(Photo credit:Steve Navarro, flickr)

It's easy to feel passionate about protecting the ocean. The question is, what can a land-locked environmentalist contribute? Sure, you can make donations and engage in letter-writing campaigns on issues that affect the sea. But if you're anything like us, you're itching for something you can get your hands into ... An effort worthy of the sea's majestic waves, rather than a token effort that feels merely all wet.

We understand that. The knee bone's connected to the thigh bone—and the ocean, one continuous body of water, is connected to the world's ecosystems so integrally that its tendrils reach all the way to the back yard of yours truly. You don't have to be an eco-celebrity like Hayden Panettiere, with a schedule that allows for play dates with the whales. Landlubbers play their own part in protecting the world's oceans. The Practical Environmentalist has a new list of ocean-friendly tips that leans a little toward the lofty side, so we backed up to a few basics:

• Think before you buy. Don't purchase products that chip away at the biosystems (like old-growth forests that help buffer the pH of rain and filter chemicals before they reach the sea) that support the ocean.
• Quit eating endangered species. Yes, that bite counted. And that little nibble there. And that one, too. Just stop, already.
• Don't pollute runoff. What you put on the ground at home eventually makes its way to the sea. That means no chemicals down drains, no automotive chemicals into the streets and storm drains, no chemical fertilizers and insecticides on the lawn.
• Let the rain soak in. Remove man-made paving, gravel and other cover that prevents the ground from absorbing rain, which artificially inflates runoff rates.
• Buy from responsible companies. Put your money where your mouth is and give your hard-earned cash to companies that care.

Read more at The Practical Environmentalist.

(Photo credit:saavem, stock.xchng)

Pelicans are an everyday sight where I live in coastal California. My kids pass time in traffic counting the pouched birds, which often wing over us on the freeway. Now they’re turning up starved, dazed—many of them dead—along the same bridges and freeway overpasses we usually see them perched on. Eco-toxicologists and marine scientists are scrambling to pinpoint the cause of the sudden rash of diseased and dying brown pelicans. Some suspect runoff from highly toxic fire retardants used to combat the state’s frequent wildfires, others the recent spate of La Niña triggered cold weather. 

No one knows exactly why hundreds of pelican carcasses are mysteriously washing up on shores from Baja California all the way up to Oregon. Of those, more than 20 were discovered dead or near-death in Ventura County, since Christmas (where I spent the holiday playing at the beach with my family). Not only are researchers baffled by the cause of the pelicans’ unusual plight, they’re also surprised at where the seabirds are ending up. They’ve been spotted miles from the ocean at the most peculiar places, including Costco and Kmart parking lots. (Yeah, the poor birds must be confused.)

The malnourished pelicans might also be suffering from severe brain damage and seizures caused by another neurological toxin, domoic acid, a pollutant produced by harmful algae blooms potentially feeding off an influx of fertilizer nutrients leaching into Southern California shore waters, where an unprecedented number of sea lions are also turning up dead.

Yet more frightening reasons—among dozens—not to let my kids swim in at our local beaches or eat locally-caught shellfish (oysters, mussels, scallops and clams). Remind again me why I live here? Oh, that's right. Must be the earthquakes. Only about 100 ripple through California each day.

(Photo credit:exrorro, Flickr)