It seems the alarming story of “Ocean extinction has started in our time” making the rounds of the alarmist blogs and gullible media is nothing more than an unpublished, unchecked opinion, and some pal review amongst activists at a three day conference.
Barry Woods writes:
Oh for goodness sake (parallels to IPCC 80% greenpeace renewables story)
The International Panel on the State of the Ocean !!! IPSO – modest bunch – see mission statement (front page website)
http://www.stateoftheocean.org/
The International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO) was established by scientists with the aim of saving the Earth and all life on it.
Another Press release – Gets a shocking headline – the wait for the report (so that it can be checked) so that it is forgotten about and at the end – it is too early to say, but the trends are, etc,etc,etc
Maybe the Oceans are in a shocking state, I’m just getting too cynical to care…
BBC: World’s oceans in ‘shocking’ decline – Richard Black – 20th June 2011
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13796479
“The oceans are in a worse state than previously suspected, according to an expert panel of scientists.”
“In a new report, they warn that ocean life is “at high risk of entering a phase of extinction of marine species unprecedented in human history”.
The International Panel on the State of the Ocean !!! IPSO
This is getting beyond satire ‘panel for the State of the ocean’ but no doubt lots more UN jobs and research required, plus urgent action and control of the oceans.
“The findings are shocking,” said Alex Rogers, IPSO’s scientific director and professor of conservation biology at Oxford University.
“Its report will be formally released later this week.”
Its worse than we thought (they considered)
”…As we considered the cumulative effect of what humankind does to the oceans, the implications became far worse than we had individually realised.”
“We’ve sat in one forum and spoken to each other about what we’re seeing, and we’ve ended up with a picture showing that almost right across the board we’re seeing changes that are happening faster than we’d thought, or in ways that we didn’t expect to see for hundreds of years.”
” These “accelerated” changes include melting of Arctic sea ice and the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, sea level rise, and release of methane trapped in the sea bed.”
BUT at the end. – It is too early to say !!!!
“The IPSO report concludes that it is too early to say definitively.”
But the trends are such that it is likely to happen, they say – and far faster than any of the previous five extinctions.
I’m sorry but I have utter contempt for this sort of pseudo-science by press release…
I wonder what the report really says, and how well it holds up to the headline, I wonder if anyone will bother to check…
Seriously though: The International Panel of the State of the Ocean (IPSO)
With a name like that and their mission statement, – “with the aim of saving all life on the planet!” – they are hardly ever going to come to the conclusion, that it might be doing ‘just fine’,
Diagnosing the state of the Ocean’s health
IPSO is currently compiling the Global State of the Ocean Report, which will collate world-wide marine science to give a comprehensive overview of the health of the Ocean. The Report is due to be published in 2012 but we already know that the Ocean’s health is in a critical state.
=================================================================
Thanks Barry, but wait there’s more. Ben Pile, of the website “Climate Resistance” writes:
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water…
World’s oceans in ‘shocking’ decline
Warns Richard Black at the BBC.
The oceans are in a worse state than previously suspected, according to an expert panel of scientists.
In a new report, they warn that ocean life is “at high risk of entering a phase of extinction of marine species unprecedented in human history”.
They conclude that issues such as over-fishing, pollution and climate change are acting together in ways that have not previously been recognised.
The impacts, they say, are already affecting humanity.
The panel was convened by the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO), and brought together experts from different disciplines, including coral reef ecologists, toxicologists, and fisheries scientists.
Call me a cynic, but I no longer take claims about ‘expert panel of scientists’ at face value. Sadly, Richard Black of the BBC does.
…
Ok. So who the hell are the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition?
A coordination team works together with a Steering Group that currently consists of the Ecology Action Centre, Greenpeace International, Marine Conservation Biology Institute, Natural Resources Defense Council, Pew Environment Group and Seas at Risk. The DSCC has developed a formidable international team of scientists, policy and communication experts, lawyers and political activists who on behalf of the deep sea have established a strong reputation and profile on the issue at the UN and in other fora.
The ‘panel of experts’ — IPSO — may well be expert. But, look, again, we see Greenpeace’s name up there, steering the research — in its own words — alongside the Pew group, and Friends of the Earth.
I don’t believe a word of it. This is not scientific research, it’s ‘grey literature’, put out by yet another grey institution, the true nature of which is concealed from first appearances. Not far behind, the agenda is revealed.
[Anthony: Ben Pile also located a helpful video:]
From the video description on YouTube:
Dr. Alex Rogers, Scientific Director of IPSO and Professor of Conservation Biology at the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, gives the overview of the main problems affecting the ocean – and some suggested solutions.
Pile continues:
So, yeah, another NGO lobbying outfit, in cahoots with government and businesses, blurring the lines between activism, scientific research, and so on.
Back to IPSO. Here’s the web-page that relates to the new report. It describes the background to the report:
The 3 day workshop, co-sponsored by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), looked at the latest science across different disciplines.
The 27 participants from 18 organisations in 6 countries produced a grave assessment of current threats — and a stark conclusion about future risks to marine and human life if the current trajectory of damage continues: that the world’s ocean is at high risk of entering a phase of extinction of marine species unprecedented in human history.
So it turns out that this report took the scientists just three days of chin-wagging. Says the report:
The workshop provided a rare opportunity to interact with other disciplines to determine the net effect of what is already happening to the ocean and is projected to do so in the future. Over the three days 27 participants from 18 organisations in 6 countries (Annex 1) assessed the latest information on impacts and stresses, and the synergistic effects these are having on the global ocean.
Through presentations, discussions and recommendations the workshop documented and described the cumulative effects of such impacts, how these commonly act in a negatively synergistic way, and why therefore concerted action is now needed to address the consequences set out in this report.
==============================================================
Here’s the team from the IPSO website:
A high-level international workshop convened by IPSO met at the University of Oxford earlier this year. It was the first inter-disciplinary international meeting of marine scientists of its kind and was designed to consider the cumulative impact of multiple stressors on the ocean, including warming, acidification, and overfishing.
The 3 day workshop, co-sponsored by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), looked at the latest science across different disciplines.
The 27 participants from 18 organisations in 6 countries produced a grave assessment of current threats — and a stark conclusion about future risks to marine and human life if the current trajectory of damage continues: that the world’s ocean is at high risk of entering a phase of extinction of marine species unprecedented in human history.
Delegates called for urgent and unequivocal action to halt further declines in ocean health. (click for press release)
…
(They seem really upset about this photo, this fish seems happy with his new home though, and anyone who knows anything about aluminum in the ocean will tell you the fish will probably outlive the can – A)
So, the BBC story “World’s oceans in ‘shocking’ decline” seems to be based on nothing more than some joint opinion at a conference with Greenpeace activists, a regurgitated press release, and no peer reviewed publication yet.
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Yeah Timetraveler, bio-diversity is increasing, BUT, the alarmists only pay attention to increases in those species of plant and animal which are nasty, stinging, poisoning creatures.
Climate change will cause uncontrollable increases in poison ivy, huge clouds of angry wasps and nasty stinging nettles, but the lovely fluffy polar bears will drown… aw bless.
The other way that they get round increases in bio-diversity is to invent “localised extinction”. A global increase in any species can easily be offset in media hype by a ‘localised extinction’ or at least a dramatic fall in numbers in the region of that species.
simply hilarious.
that is all
But that’s not all! In the morning Metro this was on the same page as “Birds ‘face oblivion’ if farm payments cut” “… decimate bird life, the RSPB is warning …” “…species face possible extinction …”
So, no fish, no birds and the last polar bear floated away on his tiny iceberg long ago …. we’re doomed I tell you, doomed!
There’s a technical term for what ails these people: Manic-Depressive. Possibly in their case, more than a little paranoia thrown in for good measure, as well as the Jesus complex. They really should get some professional help. Seriously.
Oh noes! Does this mean, gulp, that we’ll be reduced to eating Soylent greenies?
James Reid says:
June 21, 2011 at 4:39 am
@Fred Fred
@roger Carr
Thanks for fixing the link!
that’s OK. I’m keeping an eye on it as I suspect a fraud. The vote counts have continued to rise but the percentage breakdowns haven’t budged. 59% in favour, 37% opposed, 4% don’t know:
Funnily enough the percentage breakdown by number of votes indicates that fractions of a person have made a vote. Funny that. I would have thought that a percentage breakdown of an online vote with only three choices would give percentage breakdowns of whole numbers. I guess not when the outcome appears to be rigged.
Distract and hide the real cause of the decline.
The real problem is agrichemicals – and well known in the agri business to be the cause of malformations and decline of stocks through contaminated water, lakes, rivers and marine, and so affecting humans also, such as atrazine in Tasmania:
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Endocrine_disrupting_chemicals_in_Tasmania
http://hancockwatch.nfshost.com/docs/adelaide.html#Bleaney
“The developments follow The Australian’s report earlier this week that American researchers had found that atrazine caused damaging changes to human cells at levels half those of Australia’s drinkin-water health value.”
For how much longer?: http://brandtasmania.com/show.php?ACT=Public&menu_code=600.300
http://hancockwatch.nfshost.com/docs/adelaide.html for more back history
Remember the worry about the rapidly declining bee populations? I think most have been left with the impression from MSM that it was some kind of ‘virus’..
http://tasmaniantimes.com/index.php?/weblog/article/wiki-bee-leaks-controversy-sparks-call-for-uk-ban/
Looking at the picture of the members of IPSO, I truly have to question where the Republican party got the reputation of being a bunch of middle-aged white men. I see a group that is much more deserving of that label…
mods – my last comment got disappeared. It contained some “percents” maybe this is the problem? Can you retrieve?
[Rescued & posted. ~dbs, mod.]
That sensationalist post hides the far greater real challenge of systemic overfishing and decimation of major fisheries. The industrial revolution created large overcapacity in fishing which in turn caused major overfishing and destruction of fisheries. Some reviews:
B. Worm et al., Rebuilding Global Fisheries, Science 325, 578 (2009)
Trends in the abundance of marine fishes
Lessons learned from stock collapse and recovery of North Sea herring: a review
Hi Anthony
I haven’t had time to write any of this up..
(working – own business – my time – trying to sort out some network cabling issues)
Isn’t this how the IPCC (or what went before ) started, a small group of scientists, ngo’s the ‘concerned’ gathered, had a talking shop, etc, and started lobbying governments…?
I sent a load of stuff to Ben PIle, after I saw he had written about it as well
Ben has an update from me on his website…
By the way The Guardian’s – Fiona Harvey is spreading the same story….
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jun/20/marine-life-oceans-extinction-threat
Guardian: ‘Shocking’ state of seas threatens mass extinction, say marine experts
“Overfishing and pollution putting fish, sharks and whales in extreme danger
– with extinction ‘inevitable’, study finds”
“The international panel of marine experts said there was a “high risk of entering a phase of extinction of marine species unprecedented in human history”. They said the challenges facing the oceans created “the conditions associated with every previous major extinction of species in Earth’s history”.
“The findings are shocking,” said Alex Rogers, scientific director of Ipso. “As we considered the cumulative effect of what humankind does to the ocean, the implications became far worse than we had individually realised. This is a very serious situation demanding unequivocal action at every level. We are looking at consequences for humankind that will impact in our lifetime, and worse, our children’s and generations beyond that.”
So no doubt as The Guardian has it, so will the entire world’s media….
The Guardian is one thing, the BBC is supposed to be neutral and independant by it’s CHARTER, it SHOULD do better than a BBC actvist correspondent, passing on this type of briefing without question…
I AM concerned about the oceans, overfishing , real pollution, etc. but all the NGO’s that have leapt on this, are advocates of ‘climate change’ and are using this to push their climate change policies to government.
So 27 people attended a 3 day conference… (peer, pal or groupthink reviewed?
“We’ve sat in one forum and spoken to each other about what we’re seeing, and we’ve ended up with a picture showing that almost right across the board we’re seeing changes that are happening faster than we’d thought, or in ways that we didn’t expect to see for hundreds of years.”
the world’s media is hearing and repeating this…..
“The world’s leading experts on oceans are surprised by the rate and magnitude of changes we are seeing. The challenges for the future of the oceans are vast, but unlike previous generations we know what now needs to happen. The time to protect the blue heart of our planet is now, today and urgent”.
And they (NGO’s a FEW scientists) call on the UN and governments to ACT.
“The scientists called on the United Nations and governments to bring in measures to conserve marine ecosystems. Dan Laffoley, of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, said:
“The world’s leading experts on oceans are surprised by the rate and magnitude of changes we are seeing.”
“The challenges for the future of the oceans are vast, but unlike previous generations we know what now needs to happen. The time to protect the blue heart of our planet is now, today and urgent”.
Haven’t we been here and heard it all before, urgent, unprecedented, faster than predicted, ‘if current trends continue’ ineveitable, catastrophic, extinctions….
………..at the hands of humankind
I’m not a sceptic or denier I’m a climate cynic, with good reason I think with all this hyperbole…
Especially as the Carbon Brief are now alerting the media…
http://twitter.com/#!/carbonbrief/status/83113137326395392
I have only one question: which have been and where are the previous studies that underlying the current results?
And yet the BBC article has comments open below the article – for a change, can’t see anyone mention the issues pointed out above unless they are being modded out of existance. I bet the comments won’t stay for long – the editors picks are hilarious – apparently there are too many people!
I also find it amusing that the Green Brigade ignores the generally accepted view that people, and our technology, evolved on this planet and therefore we (and our technology) are as much a part of the “natural” world as anything else on this rock. Unless, of course, they think we “are not of this world”.
Evolution does not stop simply because we wish it would. The current state of the planet (including people) is transitory whether they like it or not. It seems to me that their goal is to pick some point in past history that they feel is the “ideal” and declare that “evolution stops here”. Sorry to disappoint, but that’s not going to happen.
WOW BBC comments closed – that was fast.
“with the aim of saving all life on the planet!” Which must include those organisms responsible for typhoid, smallpox, malaria, …..
Why do you react on a media published news. Wait for the darn scientific papers/proofs.
Yet, after filling multiple nets of plastic bags floating at sea it’s about time someone raise a flag , ask an off shore fisherman now stuck with jellyfish all over.
Very white family picture, there.
More from the BBC – an Antarctic penguin in New Zealand. Obviously the world’s first climate refugee…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13856024
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/20/ipso-2011-ocean-report-mass-extinction_n_880656.html?icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl1|sec1_lnk3|71953
Huffington is the neo-something of Amerika. Please go make notes next to Huffington’s boytoy’s face.
3 day conference, 27 people (now many marine scientists in the world?) over half not scientists, report not out yet……
and in main stream UK non-tablod newspaper, The Independant we have….
The Independant: Oceans on brink of catastrophe
http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/oceans-on-brink-of-catastrophe-2300272.html
Marine life facing mass extinction ‘within one human generation’ / State of seas ‘much worse than we thought’, says global panel of scientists
By Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor, 21 June 2011
The world’s oceans are faced with an unprecedented loss of species comparable to the great mass extinctions of prehistory, a major report suggests today. The seas are degenerating far faster than anyone has predicted, the report says, because of the cumulative impact of a number of severe individual stresses, ranging from climate warming and sea-water acidification, to widespread chemical pollution and gross overfishing.
* The speed and rate of degeneration of the oceans is far faster than anyone has predicted;
* Many of the negative impacts identified are greater than the worst predictions;
* The first steps to globally significant extinction may have already begun.
—————————————————————
Michael McCarthy says, ‘the report says’
Has he seen the report for himseld (out in 2012 ? !)
Is he qualified enough to make sense of it..
Has he passed it on to some other marine experts for a professional opinion?
Would other scientist in the field support it?
Or has he just regurgitated a press release, and recycled the BBC or someone elses article….?
or seen the Carbon Brief’s tweetings…
One of the NGO’s presents is fynded by tHe Oak Foundation, which also fund the European CLimate Foundation, whose communications unit and head of, run and fund The Carbon Brief.. that just tweeted this story to the world’ environment media, Press Officers, Environment NGO, University, lobby groups, 350, 10:10, activists even the University of East Anglia and the UK Commitee on Climate Change that advice the UK government to PUSH for 30% reductions in emissin unilaterally (even with respect to the EU) in the UK…
Will ANY of the above think to check the provenance of the above… Or does it all become FACT by media ‘consensus’
Greenpeace is the GoldmanSachs of the environmental activist organisations:
It’s big and powerfull and it has it’s tentacles stretsched out everywhere…
Exactly, curiousgeorge at 5:05
Its what my ‘significant other’, a mental health nurse for over 30 years, calls ‘catastrophising’
Its also noteworthy that these people have entirely no sense of humour, its all so deadly serious with them, not just ‘climate change’
tallbloke made a comment (last week – ish) about the British being ‘controlled’ by cheap (relative to most other things) supermarket alcohol (a known depressant and that’s all its got going for it) and junk TV. I couldn’t agree more. And, what are the (two) most popular shows on British TV?
Almost identical soap operas that revolve around (fictional) dysfunctional people walking in and out of public houses with the sole intention of slagging off, picking fights with and generally bad-mouthing the rest characters in the soap.
Then 60%+ of UK adult females (the biggest fans of this televisual junk) are on anti-depressants, mostly Prozac of which the only real use of which is to cure premature (Read= prevent entirely) ejaculation (in boys and men obviously)
This CAGW thing runs very deep indeed……
The Coelacanth is just a thing of the past.
http://tinyurl.com/68p98zn
Don’t be surprised by BBC bias on climate change – they have invested lots of their pension scheme in carbon schemes. The lack of balance is self-preservation.
Expert panels of scientists are in a worse state than previously suspected.
In a new report, they warn that science is “at high risk of entering a phase of extinction unprecedented in human history.”
How can the oceans be in decline? I thought the sea level was rising.