More Reasons for that Sinking Feeling
So much of the damage from Anthropogenic Global Warming goes on literally and figuratively beneath the surface. Such is the case with many of the world’s kelp forests, where legions of heat-loving, kelp-munching sea urchins are reducing once-luxuriant kelp forests to vast tracts of sea floor populated almost exclusively by sea urchins—”urchin barrens.” The action is not where the kelp lie at the surface, it’s where the sea urchins dwell cloaked from view on the ocean floor.
For a quick visual of the onslaught’s progression, scroll down to the set of three photos in this report from Yale Environment 360: Kelp devastation off Tasmania
For those of you who have taken my repeated advice to subscribe (free) to the electronic Yale Environment 360 (highly recommended), you may have already got this message about one more wound torn in the living body of the planet.
With so much human misery brought to our attention every day, it’s hard to put these less dramatic, less heartbreaking events in perspective. It’s only plants! But you can’t help but look at the 3-photo sequence of the kelp forest being wiped out, without a deep sense of loss. (That is, anyway, if you are the typical reader of this blog.)
Continue reading “Hidden Effects of AGW: Kelp Death, Urchin Barrens, and . . . You Name It”