25 breathtaking places threatened by us.

Some may try to deny it, but by now there’s next to no doubt that global warming is having real, profound effects on the world we live in. Perhaps one of the most alarming changes is occurring in the world’s oceans and endangering islands with diverse ecosystems, rich cultures, and breathtaking, beautiful landscapes. Pacific island nations like Kiribati and the Marshall Islands have already come to terms with the irreversible nature of the crisis and are formulating long-term relocation strategies for their residents.

The islands pictured below have been identified as being highly at risk for the devastating consequences of climate change. Their beauty is a reminder that global action is needed now.

(above) Palau

Tuvalu

Antigua

St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands

Kiribati

Fernandina Island, Galapagos

St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands

Nevis

Bartholomew Island, Galapagos

Northwestern Hawaiian Islands

Solomon Islands

Chuuk, Federated States of Micronesia

Papua New Guinea

Maldives

Guam

Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia

Fiji

Nauru

Majuro, Marshall Islands

Tonga

Rabaul, Papua New Guinea

Lord Howe Island, Australia

Kauai, Hawaii

Norman Island, British Virgin Islands

Aitutaki, Cook Islands

SEE ALSO:

40 Gorgeous Photos of Europe

40 Gorgeous Photos of North America

40 Gorgeous Photos of Latin America

40 Gorgeous Photos of Asia

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World Oceans Day is today and we celebrate that which sustains us.

Welcome to World Oceans Day 2011. Since 2008, the United Nations has recognized June 8th as a day to celebrate, learn about, and take action on behalf of the oceans that cover three quarters of our planet and sustain all life on Earth – what author Julia Whitty calls our Deep Blue Home.

Last year at this time, oil was still spewing into the Gulf of Mexico from the mangled riser pipe of BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig. All told, more than 4 million barrels of oil were spilled, and nearly 800,000 gallons of the chemical dispersant Correxit were injected deep into the Gulf. On the one-year anniversary of the explosion that killed eleven men and started what President Obama called “the greatest environmental disaster of its kind,” oil spill researcher Chris Reddy told me it was still too soon to know how much oil and dispersant remains in the Gulf and what the long-term ecological impacts will be.

This year, as we recognize World Oceans Day, we wait for news of another environmental disaster – the ongoing nuclear crisis in Japan. Yesterday, Japan’s nuclear agency doubled their estimate of how much radioactive material has been released from the Fukushima Daichi nuclear power plant that was crippled by the March 11th earthquake and tsunami. In the weeks immediately following the disaster, levels of radioactivity in surrounding ocean waters skyrocketed. Now Bloomberg has reported that radioactive water may once again begin flowing into the ocean as it overflows service trenches. The announcement adds to the urgency of a research expedition now underway to map the location, type, and levels of radioactive contamination in the Pacific Ocean.

And yet, despite their devastating effects, these dramatic environmental disasters are not the greatest threats to our ocean.

Studies released in the past year have trumpeted dire news: nearly 60% of the world’s coral reefs are at risk of being lost in the next three decades, 85% of natural oyster reefs have already been lost, and it’s estimated that large fish have declined by two-thirds in the past century. These declines are largely the result of five human-driven processes that slowly but surely chip away at ocean ecosystems.

1. Climate Change: The ocean has absorbed more than 90% of the excess heat trapped by rising levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Rising water temperatures are driving commercially important fish species offshore and toward the poles in search of cooler climes – bad news for fishermen and seafood lovers alike. Warmer water also holds less oxygen, and that spells trouble for marine animals who – like us – breathe oxygen. Scientists recently warned that low-oxygen ‘dead zones’ are expanding, and that we could be in for a repeat of the mass extinctions triggered by prehistoric warming events.

 

Carbon dioxide emissions pose a double threat to the ocean, raising water temperatures and increasing acidity.

2. Ocean Acidification: Carbon dioxide doesn’t just build up in the atmosphere; about a third of it gets absorbed by the ocean. The inevitable chemical result is the production of carbonic acid that, in sufficient quantities, disrupts the acid-base balance of the ocean (thus, the term ‘acidification’). That, in turn, throws off a whole host of other chemical processes. Corals and shellfish can’t get the calcium carbonate they need for their skeletons and shells. And the microscopic marine plants upon which the entire ocean food chain depends may not be able to get the nutrients they need to grow. Scientists have generally considered ocean acidification to be a problem of the future, but a study published last fall forced a revision of that thinking by demonstrating that scallops and quahogs are already feeling the burn.

3. Pollution: Plastic, nutrients, pesticides, hormones, oil. The list of things we dump into the oceans is disconcertingly long. Last summer, a team of researchers from Woods Hole, MA, confirmed what many had long suspected – that plastic debris is accumulating in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, just as we’ve known for decades that it does in the Pacific. Another recent study confirmed that the vast majority of plastic releases estrogenic chemicals when soaked in saltwater and exposed to sunlight.

But not all pollutants are chemicals. Some experts include ‘biological pollution’, or invasive species – plants and animals that are introduced by human activities, like global shipping, into areas they have never been before. These species often out-compete or outright kill native species. This year, we learned that rising water temperatures may be making a bad situation worse, giving invasive species a competitive edge over their native counterparts.

4. Overfishing: Ecosystems are like jigsaw puzzles: remove one piece and you can’t complete the puzzle. Remove several, and the puzzle may not hold together or form a recognizable image. In this way, overfishing and its cousin, by-catch, wreak havoc on ocean ecosystems. Of course, collapsed fisheries take a human toll as well, causing economic hardship and threatening food supplies.

Counting fish is no easy matter, and there is always controversy about the status of fish populations. This year was no different. A high-profile presentation at a high-profile scientific conference set off a renewed debate, with one side claiming that large, predatory fish could be virtually extinct by 2050 and the other arguing that the reductions in large fish are exactly what would be expected of well-managed fisheries. But scientists on both sides of the overfishing debate have agreed that more than half of fish populations worldwide need rebuilding.

Still, there’s some good news on the overfishing front today. Federal officials are optimistic that the 2010 fishing season may go down in history as the year U.S. fisheries set – and stayed within – science-based, sustainable fishing limits. The U.S. is just one country, but this is evidence that we have the tools necessary to end overfishing. The challenge is putting them to work in the places – like Asia – that need them most.

5. Ignorance: Less than 10% of the ocean has been explored by humans. We have better maps of Mars than the seafloor, and some oceanographers have compared their research to shining a flashlight into an immense, dark cavern. Last fall, scientists announced the completion of the Census of Marine Life – a decade-long, global effort to shine a light on the amazing diversity of life that inhabits the ocean. The efforts of more than 2,000 scientists raised the total number of known marine species to almost a quarter of a million. Still, they estimate that’s less than a quarter of what’s out there; the vast majority of ocean life remains unknown to science. That means that, even for the ocean scientists who know the most, the ocean is largely a big blue bag of mysteries. Susan Avery – Director of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution – says that the greatest threat facing the ocean is our limited ability to see what’s beneath the surface, to truly grasp our impact on the vast expanses of ocean.

Lest you think this doom and gloom doesn’t affect you, let me remind you of a few key facts.

It is no exaggeration to say that the ocean sustains all life on Earth. To quote W.H. Auden: “Thousands have lived without love, not one without water.” The oceans contain 97% of all water on the planet and drives the global water cycle. We’d also be hard-pressed to live without air, and microscopic marine plants produce more than half the oxygen we breathe.

Almost half of the world’s species live in the ocean. That rich biodiversity is not only an ecological wonder, it’s a treasure trove of chemicals that show up in everything from ice cream to toothpaste, and could hold a cure for cancer.

And in the age of globalization, when what you’re wearing, eating, or driving is more likely to be made in China than made in the U.S.A., it’s worth remembering that more than 90% of international trading is conducted via the ocean.

Just as we all benefit from the ocean, we all contribute to the threats facing the ocean, and we can all do something to help.

The greatest threats facing the ocean start in our homes and workplaces, whether we’re five minutes or 500 miles from the beach. While beach clean-ups are a tried and true way to repair some of the damage we inflict, they’re far from the only way.

• Learn more about what the ocean does for us, and what we’re doing to it.

• Tell others what you’re learning.
• Eat fish responsibly: Buy local, if possible, and know how the fish you eat was caught. Look for the Marine Stewardship Council label or check with a consumer guide, like Seafood Watch or the Smart Seafood Guide. None of the guides or labels are perfect, but they’re better than nothing.
• Ditch disposable plastic: We may only use it once, but it stays in the ocean forever. Plastic shopping bags and water bottles are particularly egregious offenders. Invest in a reusable water bottle and some canvas shopping bags.
• Reduce your carbon footprint: Don’t know where to start? Try an online carbon footprint calculator or a home energy audit to pinpoint areas where you can reduce.

This story was originally published in Climatide.

Image: Nasa Goddard Photo, Mike Baird, rkraemer, laszlo photo

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For the last eight months I have been living in a tent on top of a car parked on beaches, in playgrounds and office carparks in countries around the Atlantic. I hand wash my clothes, cook over campfires and shower outside.

Please don’t get the wrong idea, it wasn’t always like this – I used to be a journalist living in a London flat, taking hot water and electricity for granted. Things changed when, with two friends from university, we started an environmental education project called Atlantic Rising. The plan was to travel around the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, overland along the one meter contour line, tracing what is predicted to be the new coastline in 100 years if sea levels continue to rise. It’s an exploration of what could be lost if we don’t change our behavior, as well as an investigation into how communities are already adapting to the effects of climate change.

We are creating a network between schools, talking to students about their experiences of climate change and putting them in touch with their peers across the ocean. Based on our research we create multimedia teaching resources on environmental subjects.

While my friends planned weddings and had babies, I traveled through Europe and West Africa and am now in Brazil heading north to Canada. Instead of cheekily jumping red lights on my bicycle commute in London, I have negotiated with countless West African policemen wanting bribes for imagined driving offenses. Rather than chasing members of parliament around Westminster I have been interviewing climate change experts from African universities. I am unlikely to be celebrating my forthcoming 30th with cocktails, but more likely to be talking to students about how climate change is already affecting the lives of young people all around the Atlantic.

We have had some tricky moments – digging our car out of the mud in the middle of the night in Mauritania, racing through politically unstable Guinea weeks and spending three weeks on a container ship between Africa and Brazil. But this is absolutely nothing compared with what some women do for environmental causes.

I certainly couldn’t work in conditions so cold you have to dance to keep warm, or trek for days in the pouring rain up along muddy jungle paths to track down an injured gorilla. But there is a growing band of dedicated women prepared to tackle environmental work that is difficult, dangerous and far from home.

Scientist Maria Banks, 38, spent three months in Antarctica drilling ice cores to study the history of the climate in the layers of ice. She lived in an unheated tent, sometimes having to dig through snow to get out of it in the morning, and worked in a facility that was cooled to -25C where the biggest danger was getting to cold. She said: “We coped with this by eating lots of calories, particularly in the form of chocolate, dancing to music while we worked to keep warm, and by keeping an eye on each other.”

Maria and the other scientists used just five gallons of water per person a day, compared to the average person who uses 90. Showers were weekly affairs and rationed to just two minutes. She says: “One also becomes very aware of how much water we use for each shower when you have to shovel snow into a melter to provide the water for that shower! Trying to use an unheated outhouse with a 30 knot wind blowing on you is an experience you will not soon forget!”

She was prepared to endure this because she believes her work is worthwhile. She said: “I value the science that comes from it and the adventure and fun of the work itself. “I also find much happiness in knowing that the work I do will hopefully improve our lives in some way, and help us to better understand our environment.”

In much hotter climes Lucy Spelman, 47, worked as a gorilla doctor. She was treating wild gorillas in Rwanda and Uganda but the job was not just that of a vet. She also tried to prevent injuries or illnesses resulting from contact with humans. She said: “The veterinarians were involved in helping to prevent these problems from happening in the first place by helping to improve farming practices, offering free rabies vaccinations for dogs, and ensuring better health care for people who live near the gorilla park.”

Apart from the danger of injury from one of her gorilla patients, Lucy faced other difficulties. She was living in an unstable area of the world and at times did not feel safe. She worried about her security and that of the families of her staff.

But she has a passionate environmental philosophy and says, “I believe that the health of everything is connected and that the environment benefits from every patient I heal. Of course, not every animal gets better; I don’t always have the solution. But I learn from each case. I also love my work as it involves helping both people and animals live healthier lives.”

I think it is great women are prepared to go to these lengths for environmental reasons. While this sort of lifestyle choice is obviously not for everyone, they act as inspiration for all of us trying to live greener lives.

Editor’s note: This is a guest post courtesy of Lynn Morris. Lynn Morris is director of an environmental education charity called Atlantic Rising. She is currently on an expedition around the edge of the Atlantic Ocean raising awareness about how climate change is already affecting communities. For more information about the project please visit Atlantic Rising.

Main Image: John Yavuz Can

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