Researcher says Gulf dead zone bigger than ever

[Frankie]

Breaking news from SeahorseBT!

HOUSTON - A "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico off the Texas-Louisiana coast this year is likely to be the biggest ever and last longer than ever before, with marine life affected for hundreds of miles, a scientist warned.
"It's definitely the worst we've seen in the last five years," said Steve DiMarco, a Texas A&M University professor of oceanography who for 16 years has studied the Gulf of Mexico dead zone, so named because the oxygen-depleted water can kill marine life.


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Researcher says Gulf dead zone bigger than ever (AP) | Yahoo! Green

[Woodstock]

[SeahorseBT]

No problem, isn't it sad? We are really screwing up this planet.

[Frankie]

It all depends on how you look at it. Don't get me wrong, I hate the pollution our presents causes on this planet.
We are really not screwing up the planet though. There is very little we can do to kill this planet to the point of a Mars situation. This planet has gone through much worse already, were but a fraction of the devastation in the past.
The trouble is were killing ourselves off. The question is not how much longer does the planet have but how much longer do we have. Once were gone this planet will heal and start a new population. Just like it has in the past.
Did you know that all the carbon dioxide we release into the atmosphere actually helps the trees grow better and faster? What an oxymoron!

[Varga]

Originally Posted by Frankie

Did you know that all the carbon dioxide we release into the atmosphere actually helps the trees grow better and faster? What an oxymoron!

????????????????????????????????

[Frankie]

Confused?
Read this: Rising Carbon Dioxide is Great for Plants

[Octoman]

It's not so great for plants when weather patterns start to change and their environment either turns into a desert, goes under the rising ocean, the temperature rises above their tolerance, etc... I agree that the life is resilient and will most likely go on after us, however, we are seeing change at unprecedented rates and we really don't know how the earth is going to respond.

Part of the issue behind the dead zone is a growth in corn production in recent years to meet the demand for ethanol. Corn is a "leaky" crop meaning that much of the fertilizer is not absorbed and runs off into streams, to the river, and then to the ocean.

Here's a recent paper about corn and the dead zone...

"Corn-based ethanol production compromises goal of reducing nitrogen export by the Mississippi River"

http://www.sage.wisc.edu:16080/pubs/...arikPNAS08.pdf

[dfurbee]

Interesting DVD by the History Channel; Life After People.. Great DVD and very interesting.

[Frankie]

I saw that also dfurbee. Interesting for sure. It would be great if it scared a few people into thinking about there life style wouldn't it?