A Global Map of Human Impacts to Marine Ecosystems

A global map of human impacts to marine ecosystems, via Science, via MeFi. The impacts page is even more stark than the main one; check out, for instance, the maps for ocean acidification (right), ocean-based pollution, and climate change.

NBC News devoted a few (two) minutes to this study recently. “If we change our ways,” the report says, “the oceans can recover.”

Glad that’s taken care of.

This continued Pollyannaism towards environmental issues drives me nuts. If we change our ways—but we won’t, not least of all because of the poisonous indifference of big media outlets like NBC News itself—the oceans can recover—can with a heaping spoonful of might and eventually in time, and recover always carefully underwritten with to some degree. Still, at least two minutes is time spent, some token acknowledgment of the problem; it’s better than CNN’s incredibly sorry record in the 2008 presidential primary debates, where in five coal-industry-sponsored debates not a single question was asked about environmental issues.

In fairness, CNN did once allow Dennis Kucinich to speak to a snowman for a minute and a half, so I guess we’re even.