August 18th, 2008

Trouble In Our Oceans

Posted by Jason Pelletier, Low Impact Living

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One of the great things about green building and living is that it takes the “over there” of traditional environmentalism and brings it home. Saving our last great wild and remote places around the globe is critical, but the only way we’re truly going to get there is if everyone can see the benefits right at home. Using FSC-certified reclaimed wood, for instance, not only saves orangutans in Sumatra but also can be used to build a stunning and unique home.

Unfortunately, our oceans are not benefitting in as significant a way from green building, and there’s increasing evidence that they are getting worse. We’ve written before about “dead zones” in the ocean created by excessive fertilizer runoff into our rivers and streams, but a recent study highlighted in the New York Times shows just how bad this problem is becoming — the number of dead zones in the ocean is doubling every ten years, and they are appearing right where they do the most damage, in the incredibly important marshes and estuaries where rivers and streams enter the ocean. That’s not the only bad news. Even though the low oxygen levels that produce these dead zones can be seasonal, the damage that they do isn’t. Once you’ve killed off the worms, clams, etc that form the basis of the marine food chain, they rarely recover.

The composition of the worldwide oceanic ecosystem is also changing due to rampant overfishing and the chemical and temperature changes driven by global warming. Who benefits? Jellyfish and other primitive forms of life that can deal with less-than-ideal ocean conditions. Who loses? Sharks, tuna, marine mammals and the other large predators that make up the top of the food chain (and an important and increasing part of diets around the world). Coral reefs are also in decline and may be gone by 2050 due to the climate-change-related acification of the seas.

Such huge problems are daunting, but there are things we can do in our daily lives that can help. If you’re particularly worried about our oceans, consider taking these steps to help out:

• Buy organic foods & produce. Dead zones are caused by the over-application of concentrated industrical fertilizers. In general organic agriculture uses less and lower-strength fertilizers, so buying organic produce will encourage better use of fertilizers and pesticides.
• Eliminate stormwater runoff from your yard if you live in an urban area. With stormwater runoff, even clean water leaving your yard can do damage. It will pick up pollutants in the streets and storm drains between your home and the ocean. Consider installing rain barrels and rain gardens, two relatively inexpensive ways to capture rainfall on your property. If you have a higher budget, investigate using a cistern to capture rainfall and reuse it for irrigation.
• Buy seafood that has been certified as sustainable. Figuring out what seafood is both healthy for you and won’t harm ocean ecosystems is a very difficult process. The same fish or shellfish can be great if purchases from the right source and very harmful if not. Salmon is a good example - wild-caught Alaskan salmon good, farm-raised salmon generally bad. Check out this sustainable seafood guide.
• Fight global warming. Almost all problems in the ocean have at least some link to global warming, whether it be changes in wind patterns contributing to dead zones or coral die-offs due to acidification.  Click here to learn what you can do to reduce global warming.

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