Are we driving the seas to destroy us?

In the last century sea levels have increased at an average of 19cm globally, and in the last two decades, at more than twice the rate than any other time in history.  The UN has just put this short video on Twitter, airing the consequences:  http://buff.ly/Wke1KM 

It does not attempt to explain why these changes are occurring, though clearly, melting of the polar ice caps must play a large part.  But that in itself is an effect rather than a cause.  Sadly, mankind must take the blame when it comes to the massive changes going on in the natural world.

But leaving aside the effects of global warming, there is all the other harm we are causing to the oceans - using it as a burial ground for all our unwanted rubbish, for instance.  It is not difficult stories on the internet about the 'icebergs' of plastic items floating in the Pacific and causing untold harm to marine life.  As another recent UN film points out *, we need to recycle our waste if the harm we instigate is not going to come back and bite us.

 

NATURE’S LAW

As I walk along the beach the tide teases me – in, out.

In. Or out?
It sucks and blows, advances and retreats.
How tantalizing – does it know what it’s doing?
Yet every year it sucks a little more sand into its maw.
Every year it inches higher up the shore:
every year we lose a little more land.

 

The sea is winning, slowly,

taking away man’s foothold on life,
leaving us wailing.
Not to say whaling:
Who fishes the seas to extinction?
Not whales!
Who scours the seabed to death?
It’s not the cod or the haddock!
Who poisons the sea with toxins galore?
Not the inkjetting squid.
And it’s not the dolphin calls that break the sound barrier
and drive the whales to terminal madness.
So who can blame the sea for eating up the land,
When we’ve done so much to drive it to destruction?



* UN film http://bit.ly/1rnV2xm