Oceanic dead zones emit potent greenhouse gas and accelerate global warming

As a growing number of oxygen-deprived “dead zones” in the world’s seas not only threaten marine plant and animal life, the suffocating waters also give off the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide.

In an article published in the journal “Science,” Dr. Lou Codispoti, oceanographer at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science in the USA explains that the warming oceans are causing microbes, especially those in the more shallow, low-oxygen zones, to produce high levels of the gas, which are then passed into the atmosphere to further aggravate climate change.

Along with trapping 289 times more heat than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period, nitrous oxide also further depletes the Earth's ozone layer, thus increasing our exposure to harmful UV radiation.

Dr. Codispoti, your study indeed sounds a warning that cannot be ignored and we are grateful for your observations. Let us all act now in planet-cooling endeavors to stabilize the environments of both land and sea.

Supreme Master Ching Hai has often cautioned about the detriments of poisonous gases being released by the warming oceans, along with global warming’s root solution, as during an international gathering with our Association members in February 2008.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: You see, the gases are fuming from the ocean and from the land that’s been deforested. It’s fuming everywhere. It’s just that at the moment, it’s not so intense. , yeah? But it’ll be more and more intense if we don’t do something.

Everybody knows by now, from the UN Report that meat eating, animal raising, it’s one of the worst factors, or even the worst factor of global warming.

And nobody talks about it. Everybody says, okay, new energy, biofuel, hybrid car, dig a hole and store the carbon. As if it will not bust one day. And before that you have to breathe in already, as if it will not affect you.

What is so difficult, to put down one piece of meat, and replace it with one piece of tofu. Which is exactly the same, better nutrition. Better for your health. More economized.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100311141213.htm
http://www.epa.gov/nitrousoxide/sources.html
http://www.inhabitat.com/2010/03/12/aquatic-dead-zones-produce-greenhouse-gas-300x.../

Stranded whales returned to sea

After 105 pilot whales were found stranded and perished on southern New Zealand’s Colville Beach, another 64 were found and 43 saved on Coromandel Beach, thanks to the help of about 300 volunteers, rescuers and visitors who kept the mammals wet until the tide came in and they could safely swim back to the ocean.

The 21 who perished were buried on the sacred Maori land.

Although the reason for these strandings is unknown, such events have been observed to be increasing along with the human-caused effects of global warming.

Our appreciation all volunteers and rescuers whose tireless efforts helped keep the whales alive during this heart-wrenching incident. May God continue to bless the loving whales as we work to protect all marine species and their beautiful ocean homes. During an international gathering in August 2008, Supreme Master Ching Hai spoke with sorrow about stranded ocean mammals, and how humans both cause and can help with their predicament.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: So many whales and dolphins, they wash up ashore and die. There are so many dead zones in the ocean. It’s suffocating them, so they have to swim out of the water where it’s full of the poisonous gas that has been released! They cannot bear it, they cannot breathe. So they have to get out of it.

For them, life is in the water, but if water is full of poison, of course they come out. But when they come out, they die, too. Because they have no water. They stay in the ocean, they die; they came out, they die. There is no choice for them. This is the worst of all cruelty, that the people don’t take care of the environment. And let all beings keep dying like this.

Just to be vegan, how difficult can it be?

Even the dolphins have to swim out of the ocean; because they think like that they can survive, even risking their lives. So why not we can just can change to vegan diet?

http://www.3news.co.nz/60-whales-stranded-on-northern-Coromandel-beach/tabid
/423/articleID/135482/Default.aspx#top
http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/3196490/Hundreds-in-whale-rescue
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/stranded-pilot-whales-buried-in-coromandel-3319223
http://www.ndtv.com/news/world/new_zealand_125_pilot_whales_die_on_beaches.php

Warming temperatures linked to oceanic dead zones

Researchers from Oregon State University recently published results of studies evaluating the occurrence of hypoxia, or extremely low levels of oxygen, that occur in the oceans.

Although such regions were previously unknown to central Oregon, these “dead zones” now appear annually, with the low levels of oxygen causing a massive die-off of marine life including fish and invertebrates such as crabs.

Unlike the dead zones already found in the coastal Mississippi Delta and other areas, which can be traced to runoff from livestock manure and fertilizers, the hypoxic regions off the Oregon coast occur in the open ocean.

In studying ancient sea sediment, the scientists found that such dead zones also occurred about 20,000 years ago during a rapid warming of the Antarctic similar to what the Earth is experiencing now, as wind and water circulation was affected globally.

Oregon State researchers, we are grateful for your work that adds to our growing knowledge about the dangers of a warming planet. We pray for lifestyles leading to the well-being of all life in our shared ecosphere.

As she has in earlier times, Supreme Master Ching Hai indicated in a June 2008 videoconference in Formosa (Taiwan) the proper action that is needed to avoid even larger-scale devastation than the ocean dead zones.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: Stock raising, animal breeding, is the #1 cause of damage to our planet and it is going to destroy our world if we do not stop. I really mean it. We have to stop this. We have to stop the killing. We have to stop the meat eating. We have to stop insecticides. We have to go organic. And vegetarian is a must. Otherwise, there will not be just the dead zones in the ocean.

I repeat: Otherwise, if we don’t do anything now, if we don’t be veg and we don’t stop polluting our planet in many ways, then there will not be just the dead zones in the ocean. There will a dead planet. And we also will be dead beings, too. Vegan diet will save the planet. The fastest and the easiest, and everyone can do it.

http://www.physorg.com/news180096546.html
http://surfchecker.wordpress.com/category/pacific-northwest/

USGS Identifies Watersheds Contributing to Dead Zone

Watersheds contributing to Gulf of Mexico dead zone identified. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) recently reported 150 watersheds, or geographic water runoff regions, spanning nine Midwestern US states that are responsible for more than 70 percent of the 8,000 square-kilometer oceanic dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, a growing area of water that is unable to support life. The cause of this watershed contamination is animal manure and commercial fertilizers, with the contaminants draining into the Mississippi River basin, which then flows south into the Gulf of Mexico. Also highlighted in the report is a growing ethanol industry originating from fertilizer-intensive corn, which pollutes the Gulf as well as state waterways.

Our appreciation, US Geological Survey for revealing the detrimental effects of livestock raising and conventional farming methods, which reach even beyond the nation’s boundaries. Let us switch immediately to organic farming and a plant-based lifestyle to end environmental devastations such as these.

At the March 2009 SOS Save the Planet climate change conference in Xalapa City, Mexico, attended by Mexican dignitaries and many other participants, honored guest Supreme Master Ching Hai spoke via videoconference about the solution for the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, among other harbingers of global warming faced by the country.

Videoconference with Supreme Master Ching Hai
SOS: Save the Planet Xalapa, Mexico March 6, 2009

Supreme Master Ching Hai: It’s already almost 8,000 square mile dead zone and now it’s going to increase larger. Dead zones are ocean areas that no longer contain enough oxygen to support marine life. River run off laden with nitrates of farm fertilizers are a main cause of these oxygen deprived areas. With this year’s Gulf of Mexico zone expected to extend beyond 10,000 square miles. There are surely more terrible situations in Mexico that are not checked, due to our carelessness in taking care of the environment, and the global warming resulting thereof.

We still have hope, high hope to save the planet. We still have several more years to save the planet, but we are counting down the days. You just be vegetarian, and then you ask anybody who you know to be vegetarian with you. That’s the most simple solution and the most effective to save the planet, according to scientific research, according to medical research, and according to all the religious advice.