Antarctic krill: keystone species menaced by acidification and overfishing

Krill photo: Stephen Brookes

Nature Climate Change reported two years ago that krill were in danger from CO2 ocean acidification. The entire ecosystem could collapse within 200 years, says biologist Dr So Kawaguchi. It is already under stress from climate change: temperature rise, productivity change and ice melt. Another NCC article reported the dangers to other species. Vast areas of the ocean will become uninhabitable for reproduction of the krill, a keystone species on which whales, seals, penguins and seabirds depend. The British Antarctic Survey points to an 80% decline of krill since the 1970s, possibly due to loss of  food: algae under shrinking sea ice.

BioMarine's Krill Fishing and Processing Factory Ship Photo: Erwin Vermeulen / Sea Shepherd

Meanwhile another threat has emerged: industrial overfishing. Huge factory ships suck up tons of krill to turn them into "organic" fertilizer, omega-3 pills and fishmeal for farmed fish. In effect, corporations are becoming the primary predator. Krill still constitute the largest biomass on the planet, outweighing the human population. In 2013, Sea Shepherd reported ships from Norway (shown), China, Korea, and Poland. Ironically, some  receive Marine Stewardship Council "sustainability" certification -- which leads to questions whether big conservation NGOs like WWF are greenwashing. 

Following the fishmeal trail raises more questions:  is this yet another case of factory farming, dangerous to ecosystems as well as human health? Sea Shepherd states: 
Fish farming has many well-documented problems: pollution of the fish farm locations, spreading of diseases and parasites to wild populations, higher contaminant levels than wild-caught fish... predators, like seals and sea lions [are] killed for being attracted to the fish farms and especially the wastefulness of catching fish (and in this case Krill), to feed other fish, to feed people...and dog food. Will there come a time when our pets consume more Krill than the world’s whales, like our factory farmed animals consume more fish than the world’s sharks?

Industrial competition for protein "is becoming more and more acute," Denzil Miller of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources told the New York Times. Though scientific estimates of the actual stock are still guesswork, NYT predicted the krill-killing industry, with new pumping and evaporator technology, could "jump from just more than 100,000 tons to several million tons" a year. Another fisheries collapse is in the making.

Further reading
Encyclopedia of Earth, the "Antarctica Large Marine System" (2012).
SOS Antarctic Krill, list of recent scientific studies.
Someofus.org: "Vacuuming the Antarctic for krill" (petition 2014).

Ocean sinks failing - acidification crisis in N. America's shellfish industry

islandscallops.com

A collapse of West Coast scallop hatcheries is reported in Desmogblog (20 June 2014, excerpt): 

In 2013, 25 years of smooth sea scallop farming at Island Sea Scallops suddenly came to an end. Years of dealing with a 10 per cent mortality rate, suddenly hit 90 to 95 per cent,CEO Rob Saunders told DeSmog Canada from his office in Qualicum Beach, B.C.

Over 10 million scallops died from the 2010, 2011 and 2012 batches. It was an unprecedented die-off and Saunders attributes their deaths to an increasingly acidic ocean. Saunders’ tests reveal the pH balance of the water used in his nursery dropped from the average of 8.2 to 7.2.

Some uncertainty still remains as to the cause of the die-off, but scientists have shown the growing amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is increasing the acidity of the oceans and inhibiting “the development and survival of larval shellfish.”

The Vancouver Aquarium’s records show the pH level in the Vancouver harbour has dropped from 8.1 in the 1970s to a low of 7.3 in 2001. And shellfish farmers up the Pacific Coast have been reporting massive die-offs for almost a decade.

“A lot of people criticize me, saying you can’t prove it and of course I can’t, but the correlation is pretty strong,” says Saunders.

Islands Scallops along with the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans are undertaking a research project to determine the root cause of the massive scallop die off.

This year, Island Scallops introduced a new heartier species of scallop and quickened harvest rates, “because we don’t expect the animals to live for two years,” said Saunders. The pH level is up a bit to 7.6, but Saunders is still seeing a 40 to 50 per cent mortality rate.

“Am I feeling desperate – absolutely,” said Saunders “If you want to maintain a coastal industry, then we are going to need some help – we are going to need some help now, not two years from now.”

The Boston Globe's title "Rising acid levels in oceans imperil region’s shellfish: changes from surge in carbon dioxide take toll" (7 Mar 2015) is somewhat misleading; the acid levels it reports in Maine rivers come from precipitation. But the "canary in the mine" role of hatcheries as a monitor is significant. The article also notes a "shellfish crash" in the Pacific Northwest. According to an (over-optimistic?) NOAA report, that crash was reversed. It doesn't say exactly how, but presumably the hatcheries dam off acid waters, or time the hatchling release.

None of this will help the poor and vulnerable of the world who cannot afford fancy tech fixes. For instance, the Seattle Times' Seachange: food for millions at risk (21 Dec 2014).  

The 59th minute -- by David Suzuki

In his 2009 Legacy lecture, "An elder's vision for our sustainable future", David Suzuki points out that the Earth’s water, food and air are finite. If the Earth were a basketball, the biosphere — our only home -- would be thinner than a layer of varnish on its surface. What orthodox economics and our leaders assume, unlimited growth on a limited planet, is suicide.

Human population doubles every 42 years

Test Tube: this NFB animation asks what you would do "if you could find an extra minute". Just type one word and watch the 3 1/2 m video. Here's a note on how it was made using live Twitter data, constantly growing, as an analogue to the bacteria. And an app for your iPhone.

Suzuki proposes a thought experiment. Suppose we are bacteria in a test tube full of food. It’s huge compared to our tiny size, but still finite. Like humans, our population increases exponentially. 

“At time zero you have one cell; one minute you have two; two minutes you have four; three minutes you have eight; four minutes you have 16. That is exponential growth and at 60 minutes the test tube is completely full of bacteria and there is no food left, a sixty minute cycle. When is the test tube only half full? Well the answer of course is at 59 minutes; but a minute later it is filled. So at 58 minutes it is 25% full; 57 minutes 12½ % full. At 55 minutes of the 60 minute cycle it is only 3% full. 

So, if at 55 minutes one of the bacteria said to its companions that they had a population problem, the other bacteria would be incredulous because 97% of the test tube would be empty and they had been around for 55 minutes. 

Yet they would have only 5 minutes left. At the 58th minute it would only be a quarter full. At the 59th minute, half full, And if just before the hour bacteria scientists invented 3 more test tubes, they would only buy 2 minutes of life: the 60th minute, one test tube full; 61st, two full, 62nd, all four. With no food left, the population crashes. Their technology quadrupled the supply (three more Earths), and bought just TWO MINUTES.

In real life can we add even a fraction of 1% more of air, water, soil or biodiversity? We cannot. The biosphere is fixed and finite -- we are past the 59th minute -- and every biologist I have talked to agrees with me, ”

Back on Earth, right now, we see no shortage. In our air conditioned supermarkets the food is stacked to the ceiling, tap water flows in our kitchens, oxygen supplied by the trees. We are in the 59th minute. Time to change. But rightwing deniers (like this one) insist the scientists must be wrong.

Our blog in 2008 posted a 8 min animation that tells the same story: “Are humans smarter than yeast?” Read the two previous posts on this blog, The line cuts through the heart, and Letting go of honest hope. Listen to all of Suzuki's inspiring Legacy lecture, and read Bill McKibben’s Eaarth to understand what has happened to the biosphere in the last two generations, and what we must do about it.

Population mind map by Jane Genovese

Eco-economics deals with the human impact on the biosphere in the anthropocene era.
The Kaya formula  is


Some what better-known is the Commoner, Ehrlich and Holdren formula:
I=PAT
Human Impact (I) on the environment equals P= Population multiplied by A= Affluence and T= Technology. The Quaker book Right Relationship (p.76+) includes E for ethics, I=PATE, to argue that we must both for scientific and moral reasons adjust our impact, making major changes in PAT to reach a sustainable whole earth economy. “Change the system not the climate,” as the protesters chanted at the 2009 climate negotiations in Copenhagen and later. Humanity is still far from E action. We are robbing our grandchildren of their future.

Update - Suzuki Leap Manifesto in 2015, its signatories, and recent news of the movement.

Negawatts and negalitres: steps to a sustainable future

Conservation and efficiency should be measured in negawatts (for energy) and negalitres (for water). These steps have been proposed to the UN General Assembly's OWG studying targets and indicators for Sustainable Development Goals. 

The idea originally came to Amory Lovins when a coal-burning utility sent him a bill with a typo: "negawatt" instead of megawatt. Inspiration struck, when he realized that to consumers there was no difference; that avoided use (i.e. conservation by the consumer, or energy efficiency by the producer) would always be cheaper than new "hard energy". A win-win. But North American utilities have a different ideology: they prefer to blindly continue using massive amounts of fossil fuels, to predict endless rises in demand, lure industry with artificially with cheap rates, and lobby legislators to stick it to householders. So his Rocky Mountain Institute has led a campaign for "soft energy" for more than three decades. See his video Reinventing Fire, reviewed in our blog in 2010.

Measuring energy in negawatts negalitres would not only demonstrate cost savings. It would deliver more human benefit from the same throughput of resources, a concept that needs to be applied to all products of the Earth if planetary boundaries are to be respected, and human needs to be met.

Ecojustice: planetary boundaries and human needs: Kate Raworth's Oxfam doughnut

According to Lovins, gradual but mindful personal lifestyle changes can provide:

20% of negawatts from personal conservation + 20% from energy efficiency = 40% reduction

courtesy smartenergyliving.org

According to the Union of Concerned Scientists' figures, that is the equivalent of eliminating over 500 coal plants! Despite the claims of industry lobbyists, the process could be gradual, eliminate no jobs, and start with the dirtiest plants. A mandatory 5% yearly reduction in all fossil and mineral energy sources over 17 years would result in over 80% reduction in CO2 emissions and noxious pollutants.

And renewable energy increase of 5% a year is quite possible! For example, by solar rooftops. They may already be cheaper than normally generated electricity, according to to new report by Rocky Mountain Institute.

References: RMI, The Economics of grid defection, Feb 2014; OWG, Focus areas of the SDGs, Feb 2014; GEAS report Feb 2014, summarizing IPCC5 and UNEP EmissionsGap Report 2013.

Related concepts: Herman Daly on "throughput" in a steady-state economy, cradle-to-cradle design, Lovins' negawatt and soft energy path (20% efficiency + 20% conservation= 40% reduction in use of present fossil source and GHG emissions), County of Maui water conservation, GCI contraction and convergence, CBDR, Raworth's Oxfam doughnut (satisfy human needs while respecting planetary boundaries), a mandatory renewable portfolio standard, solar rooftops in the US, zero-energy bottle lighting in Kenya.

Thanks to Quaker economic analyst Jack Bradin for this overview. See also David Roberts, "Preventing climate change and adapting to it are not morally equivalent" Grist 16 Sep 2014. 

Four warning signs that free expression is at risk in Canada -- by Franke James

Cross-posted from the website of Franke James, environmental artist and activist, with her permission. See also our 2009 post about her green driveway.

Here is the presentation I gave at the Ai Weiwei  event organized by the CJFE and the AGO. I have added notes in italics and a couple of slides, so you can follow along.

And in fact…

Nope. I never thought for a minute I’d get in trouble for speaking up — because I live in Canada! But I did get in trouble. So let me tell you the 4 warning signs I see…

However the artwork I submitted was considered too provocative and off-message from the sponsor’s brand.

I could have given the example of Librarians being muzzled. Or Canada’s wounded soldierswho have been told not to criticize the government online. Or aboriginal groups  who are protesting the government’s failure to consult, but this talk was brief… So I focused on scientists being muzzled, and pointed to how they are protesting  the ‘death of evidence’ . This photo (licensed from CP) shows the protest on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, July 2012. In September 2013, scientists again protested the muzzling of science on the Hill — and on university campuses. “The facts do not change just because the Harper government has chosen ignorance over evidence and ideology over honesty.”

You know Canada has a problem when our friendly neighbours to the south give us sharp rebukes like this recent Editorial in the New York Times, which points out that the Harper government’s silencing of scientists is an attempt to “guarantee public ignorance”. I agree. The Canadian public at large is not worried about climate change because the scientific evidence has been buried. One infuriating example: In 2008, a major Health Canada report on the impact of climate change on human health was suppressed. If Canadians were properly informed they would want to take action rather than hiding their heads in the tar sands.

News of Harper’s Enemy List broke in July 2013. I took the opportunity to write a Letter to the Editor at the Hill Times stating that the PMO’s Enemy List infringes on our rights to free expression. Many people are afraid to speak up lest they get on Harper’s Enemy List too!

See Voices-Voix for who is who on the blacklist flag above. Below is a short summary of how I discovered I was blacklisted by the Harper Government in 2011 and why they were interfering in my proposed European art show… Read the full story in Banned on the Hill.

The AGO crowd cheered and broke out in spontaneous applause  when I said, “If art has to agree with government policies then art is government propaganda”.

In September 2011, I hosted a ‘Blacklisting Party‘ to raise funds for my protest art show in Ottawa in November 2011. The ‘thank you’ note below is a perfect example of a person self-censoring themselves out of fear of government reprisals.

In May 2013, I shared the news of the Guardian UK writing about my new book with a friend from an environmental organization. His response is an example of the culture of fear in Canada — and why an independent individual like me has an important role to play in speaking up.

Here’s the wrap-up on how we can fight for our right to free expression! I had learned some hard lessons in how corporations and the Canadian government can stifle free expression when you are “off-message”. So I turned to the very democratic crowd-funding platformIndiegogo to help me raise funds for an outdoor art show. My pitch…

I wanted to raise $5,000 to put this poster up in Ottawa.

Within 45 days, 221 people had pitched in more than enough money to make it happen! 

The posters went up in Ottawa and succeeded in getting people talking about climate change (and government censorship). There was media coverage from coast-to-coast, in newspapers, online, radio and TV. And some in the USA too.

Enough money was raised to also take the posters to Halifax. Dalhousie University asked me to give a talk to 375 students. and conduct an art workshop. It was a big success. 

So does government censorship of the arts work? Playwright Michael Healey nails it…

Then I showed the audience my new poster opposing the Keystone XL pipeline…

And I announced my BIG news…

The Indiegogo crowd-funding, together with support from Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Sierra Club and National Wildlife Federation has made the Washington DC art show happen!

Censored Canadian Artist Launches DC Anti-Tar Sands Ad Campaign…

Washington, DC – Franke James, a Canadian environmental writer, illustrator and activist is bringing her protest art show to DC in the form of a series of bus stop advertisements along Pennsylvania and Constitution Avenue.

The five-figure ad buy will run through November, and features six pieces of art in protest of Canada’s attempts to silence environmental voices, including hers. The bus stop locations are at 7th & Pennsylvania NW, 10th & Pennsylvania NW, 8th & Pennsylvania SE, 7th & Constitution NW, and 15th & Constitution NW.

One poster shows the Canadian Parliament Buildings dropped into the tar sands with the words, “Do Not Talk about Climate Change. It Is Against Canada’s Policy.” Another uses text from The Guardian that says, “Canada Is The Dirty Old Man” and features a Stephen Harper caricature wearing a trench coat and revealing his tar sands oil barrel undergarments.

“Canadians’ right to free expression is being quietly eroded by a pro-oil government insistent on promoting tar sands and silencing anyone who might interfere with those plans,” said Franke James. “Rather than the friendly neighbor to the north, Canada has become the dirty old man.”

James is part of a Canadian delegation that will be in Washington, DC next week for high-level meetings and to share the Canadian perspective of the Harper government, tar sands, and climate change.

Under the government of Stephen Harper, Canada has been cracking down on dissenting voices, including scientists, activists, and artists. Documents show that James fell victim to this aggressive censorship when her 20-city European art show was cancelled as a direct result of behind-the-scenes government interference by high-level bureaucrats, including the Deputy Director of Climate Change, Jeremy Wallace, a Canadian Ambassador Scott Heatherington and a Senior Trade Commissioner in Berlin Thomas Marr.

James has vigorously and creatively fought back against the government’s interference and censorship calling it an infringement on her right to free expression. James used freedom of information laws to obtain 2,172 internal government documents concerning herself, and used those documents as the basis for Banned on the Hill: A True Story about Dirty Oil and Government Censorship, the book in which James tells how she first discovered she was being censored by the Canadian government—and how she fought back.

Just this week, James participated in a Toronto event to honor the Chinese activist artist Ai Weiwei and pay tribute to his relentless pursuit of free expression, where she gave a presentation titled “Four Warnings Signs that Free Expression is at Risk in Canada.”

Franke James will be giving an illustrated talk, “Speaking up for the climate and against censorship” at Georgetown University on Wednesday, October 9th at 6:30pm. It is open to the public.

The delegation, featuring some of Canada’s leading environmental leaders, including Dr. David Suzuki and Tzeporah Berman, will participate in a briefing at the National Press Club on Friday, October 11th from 9:00-10:30 am about Canada’s failed climate policies, anti-democratic actions, and tar sands expansion goals. See the media release and the six posters…

4 Warning Signs Credits

“Four Warning Signs” copyright Franke James, 2013. All writing, illustration and photography by Franke James with the following exceptions in order of appearance…
“Franke James with cardboard Ai Weiwei” photo by Henry’s Camera staff
Billboard art – “Decked Mackerel” by Mary Pratt
Billboard art – “The Stuff of Life” by Jack Shadbolt “Death of Evidence” photo by Fred Chartrand, Canadian Press
New York Times Editorial: Silencing Scientists by Verlyn Klinkenborg
The Guardian UK: Artist finds inspiration in Canadian government’s attempt to silence herby Suzanne Goldenberg
“Franke James in Halifax” photo by Nick Pearce, Dalhousie News
Michael Healey quote “Art Under Harper” Broken Pencil Magazine
The Ai Weiwei: Voices of Freedom event was organized by the CJFE and the AGO.