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Monday, February 8th, 2016

Is Man-Made Noise Messing Up the Oceans?

Author:     Sara Rathod
Source:     Mother Jones
Publication Date:     Fri Feb. 5, 2016 5:43 PM EST
 Link: Is Man-Made Noise Messing Up the Oceans?
Stephan:   The Judaeo-Christian idea that the world is ours to exploit as we will, that we have dominion over it, is one of the most benighted and dangerous myths to come out of the early Iron Age. That it is Biblically enshrined and therefore, to about 40 per cent of the American population inerrant, and oh so useful to corporations whose only purpose and priority is profit, is a truth  about ourselves we must face or die. In reality we live embedded in a matrix of life that we are rapidly degrading and destabilizing. When that destabilization reaches a tipping point we may well go the way of the dinosaurs. It is a lesson we should never forget. Here is a report on another way we are polluting the Earth and reducing our chances of survival.
Naval Surface Warfare forces prepare to go to sea Credit: Flickr

Naval Surface Warfare forces prepare to go to sea
Credit: Flickr

We may imagine the bottom of the deep blue sea as a peaceful, quiet place—certainly compared with the blaring horns and chit-chattering radios of rush-hour traffic. But the ocean is filled with the sounds of undulating waves, marine animals calling out to one another, and, increasingly, the ceaseless din of human commercial activity. Over the past 60 years, our contribution to the undersea cacophony has doubled every decade, and much of that noise is generated close to the shore. Roughly 40 percent of the world’s population lives within 100 kilometers—or 62 miles—of the coast. (emphasis added)

The affected creatures “are crucial to healthy and commercially successful oceans because they form the bottom of the food chain.”

A new study in the journal Nature finds that all the racket from our ships and construction activities penetrates deep beneath the surface, not merely messing with the communications of undersea mammals but changing the very nature of life at the bottom. The researchers found that bottom-dwellers […]

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