Ho-ho. That was funny
So today, children, we're talking about oxygen: an element necessary for all things living (with animal cells, that is), and makes up 88.8% of the ocean's mass. But in some areas, that percentages is lower.
Drastically lower.
Drastically lower.
Low enough so that the area can no longer support life. These places are known as "Dead Zones".
As you can see above, there are many of these places throughout the world. Over four hundred, actually. The first largest is the Black Sea, which is now dead up to 150 meters. The second is in the Baltic.
But the third largest dead zone in the world is located right at the mouth of the Mississippi, off the coast of Louisiana.
And it's getting bigger.
According to CNN.com, (www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/08/18/dead.zone/index.html) the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico has grown from 4,564 square miles in 2004, to 6,662 in 2006, to over 8,000 square miles, just recorded last month.
This means that there is a dead zone about the size of New Jersey smack dab in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico.
The best thing about this whole disaster is that, you guessed it, we are at the cause of it.
During the spring, after the winter runoff has swelled the banks of the Mississippi, the water dumping out of the mouth of the river contains phosphorus and nitrogen, used en masse in huge corn farms throughout the Midwest, where farmers tried to take advantage of the increase of corn prices following the hullabaloo about ethanol fuels.
The only things that remain are the rotting corpses of the oxygen starved fish and shrimp floating at the surface. And, because of the horrible flooding this year, the dead zone has become even worse than usual.
This expansion of death means little to the farmers reaping the benefits of mass corn harvesting, but it means the world to the local fishermen who often must, "[spend] $450 a day in diesel fuel," (CNN.com) to just maintain a living.
Scientists predict that corn demand is only going to increase, which means the same for the Gulf Dead Zone.
...
I wonder when we are going to stop being so damn selfish...
1 comment:
Perhaps you've never considered that many farmers have not actually made a profit from their life's work until the last 3 years. Maybe nitrogen is doing more harm than good, but farmers have been forced to use such measures for decades just to keep from going under. This characterization of all farmers as greedy and sitting back and watching the money roll in is untrue and offensive.
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