Other Natural Resources: Oceans
Marine ecosystems generally evade casual inspection, but marine biologists show that recent changes are immense and potentially catastrophic. More ocean links in the Climate pages.
Brave New Ocean: Online presentation (44 min) by Dr. Jeremy Jackson summarizing the evidence that essentially all of the oceans' major predators and ecosystems are facing long odds for survival as a result of human impacts. Sound quality not so great, but certainly worth watching.
Unsustainable open-ocean fishing: Ward & Myers' 2005 article documents precipitous drops in abundance and size of large marine species since 1950, and identifies commercial fishing as the probable cause (PDF file).
The Natural World Vanishes: How Species Cease to Matter: John Waldman's Apr 2010 article in Yale's Environment360 about human-caused destruction of the marine food web.
Callum Roberts, The Unnatural History of the Sea (2007): Scholarly yet very readable history of fisheries since about the 10th century CE, with plenty of excellent evidence for human impacts. The sea may supply <1% of human calories, but the collapse of its ecosystem is a clear indicator of the planet's ill health. Recommended.
Oceanic Climate Change and Sea Level: Chapter 5 from Working Group 1 (Scientific Basis) in the 4th IPCC Assessment, 2007 (PDF file).
Ocean Acidification: Long, detailed report from the German Advisory Council on Climate Change (in English; 2006).
Dead Zones: A short (4-min) movie describing dead zones (environmental hypoxia) and recent research off Oregon and Washington that links the dead zone there to climae change.
Plastic soup in the Atlantic: Another gigantic garbage patch in the world ocean (Apr 2010).
Iron fertilization goes awry: Article summarizing an unsuccessful attempt to pull CO2 from the atmosphere by dumping iron in the ocean to stimulate algae growth. Didn't work out the way the experts predicted.