Summer is around the corner. Living in Southern California means beaches will be packed. It’s a great way to escape the heat and enjoy the ocean. It’s a precious gift to have the Pacific as one’s playground. With the ever-increasing heat during summer, it doesn’t just affect humans. It impacts the waters we use for sailing, surfing, and swimming. Earth’s oceans have undergone severe changes over recent years. It may be obscure what the consequences of global warming are. This is why we need Ocean Global Warming Crisis awareness. Understanding how marine ecosystems correlate to climate change on land is crucial.
Global warming ocean crisis affects the environment since the ocean absorbs heat, and the excess of greenhouse gases gets absorbed as well, this causes oceans to be abnormally warmer. The temperature change has drastically pushed ice caps to melt. This has caused rising sea levels, ocean acidification, marine heat waves, and destruction of ecosystems. This chain of issues has shifted our world population’s safety, health, and socio-economy.
Causes of Ocean Crisis:
Rising sea levels mean more floods and more environmental disruption. Many metropolitan areas are in coastal areas; this affects dense populations’ housing and health. The rise in ocean acidification means higher carbon dioxide levels. So it causes coral reefs and shellfish are stripped of minerals and calcification, making them scarce. Thus it makes it harder to eat shellfish while destroying reef ecosystems. Therefore it is why ocean conservancy has become an issue that has gained momentum. It is vital to utilize measures to protect and restore our oceans. So much human life connects to our oceans; it is not too late to make a difference.
In putting into perspective, the relationship to the ocean addresses the urgent need to reverse the issues around climate change. “Around 680 million people live in low-lying coastal areas, 2 billion live in coastal megacities, half the world depends on seafood for protein, and 60 million work in fisheries and aquaculture worldwide”. (un.org). The reason why so many prefer to live in coastal regions dates to the beginning of economic trade opportunities and the quality of health. Bays play a significant role in trade and travel. Living coastal hass links to a lower risk of disease and less stress rounding out to a happier, more extended life. Read here for more on how oceans are impacted by climate issues.
Ocean warming is dangerous
The destruction of coral and mangroves means there is more erosion, so housing in those areas increases the chances of flooding.For reasons of being unable to tolerate the temperature increase, and in part because higher temperatures influence hurricanes to become more common, the marine heat waves cause issues on a grand scale. Natural climate disasters keep increasing over recent years, from excess seaweed washing up to more beached animals, hurricanes, and tsunamis. The number one contributor to the ocean heatwaves is the use of fossil fuels. Fossil fuels increase the temperature of the Earth.
Choosing to use less or support places that also use less fossil fuel would be a significant step. Secondly, be careful of pesticides and pollution getting into runoff waterways in household products. One can work on reducing their carbon footprint, benefiting land and ocean alike. Currently, an array of information is at our fingertips on how ocean conservancy can minimize and possibly restore.
Some areas in Los Angeles have an extremely high groundwater table where in water gets as shallow as 10 feet below the ground surface. To minimize flooding in LA area, Sway Features installs shoring walls. To ensure installment is done safely, LADBS’ redundant Methane Mitigation System Code requirements protect to safeguard against harmful subsurface activities and historical abuse of environmental concern. This also applies to accessory dwelling units which are rapidly building throughout Los Angeles properties.
Conserving oceans
To conserve means bringing back the balance of healthy marine life and restoring habitat destruction. Oceans can clean up, as daunting and irrevocable as it may seem. There are programs and laws that the public can become active in. Programs that fund research, implement clean-up processes, fund technology to build and regrow the reefs, and monitor the wellness of marine species. Another way to benefit the ocean and land is to reduce waste. Waste is garbage islands and oil spills, cleaning up the environment and reducing toxins and pollutants from getting into the runoff.
So, the next time one goes to the beach or drives through Pacific Coast Highway, one may consider the ocean living as they are. It is a hope that people start to see the ocean as a body of water that needs nurturing and restoration to the healthy environment it once was. There are energy practices and an abundance of programs that could use participation.
Topanga Beach, CA 2021 and 2022 shoreline change
Sources
“How Is Climate Change Impacting the World’s Ocean.” United Nations. Accessed 12 May 2023.
“Ocean Warming.” IUCN, 20 July 2022