This short informative story is dedicated to Ocean Issues, a course which I wouldn't have known half of this without - and neither would Darya.

What is Climate Change and Why Does it Matter?

Climate change occurs when too many greenhouse gases - mostly from the waste emissions from burning fossil fuels - are trapped in the atmosphere, which in turn, traps heat on the planet. 

Despite what many think, the impact reaches far beyond melting glaciers and rising oceans; we can feel the impact in West Virginia, too! The state has already warmed around one degree Fahrenheit over the last century. Continued warming can increase the likelihood of destructive floods, and destroy climate-sensitive species such as the red spruce, the northern flying squirrel, and the eastern brook trout.

Follow Darya on her journey as she travels from her hometown of Fairmont, West Virginia in search of methods she can use at home to protect the planet.

Warming Waters and Rising Tides

The warming of the Earth due to climate change is causing both low and high tides to be much higher due to thermal expansion of the heated water, as well as the melting of glaciers.

Darya  first stop is Florida's coast, where she learns how much of the coastline would be underwater if sea levels and tides continued to heighten; she knows thousands of people would be displaced from their homes, as well. The red locations on her map would be completely underwater if the sea were to rise merely five feet.

Tsunami Incoming!

Next, Darya's travels brought her to the South China Sea, where she discovers that tsunamis, which are a series of massive waves caused by large displacements of water (typically due to seismic activity), are becoming more destructive.

Tsunamis become more destructive through climate change when sea levels rise, causing storm surges to come farther inland, and flooding to be much more destructive. An 8.0 magnitude earthquake from the Manila Trench could cause tsunami waves varying from 6 to 14 meters in height, destroying metropolitan areas such as Hong Kong and Macau.

Red Tides? Oh My!

Upset at the discovering of massive potential tsunamis, Darya next sails off to the Gulf of Maine for a little R&R. When she arrives, the water is streaked a deep red color! Upon talking to local experts, Darya discovers this is a red tide, or an algal bloom caused by the overgrowth of unicellular dinoflagellates, often  cyanobacteria.

The warming of the ocean's waters due to increased climate change, especially in the Gulf of Maine which warms much faster than other parts of the ocean, allows for the algae to reproduce at rapid rates. This algae sits atop the water, suffocating and toxifying the fish below.

Really? How much worse is this gonna get?!

Hurricanes, Hurricanes, and More Hurricanes

Darya decided to sail back towards the Southern part of the U.S., landing in the Gulf of Mexico, where it was currently the Atlantic hurricane season (from June to November). Because of climate change, intense storms the likes of Hurricane Harvey (2019) have increased in likelihood from once in one hundred years to once in sixteen years.

This is due to the warm atmospheric air being able to hold more moisture, as well as sea surface temperatures increasing to the hurricane's desired heat of 80 degrees Fahrenheit, both acting as fuel for the storms.

Bleaching Reefs

Next, to investigate the impact of climate change on coral reefs, Darya sailed to the famously beautiful Great Barrier Reef. Except -Oh no! - when she gets there, she sees nothing but miles of drab, colorless, bleached reef.

Darya discovers that the corals are expelling their symbiote, zooxanthellae, due to the warming of the waters around Australia. They rely on these microorganisms for not only their stunning pigment, but also for the nutrients they provide via photosynthesis. The warming of waters also makes coral disease to spread more easily.

Mixing Waters and Garbage 

Gross, start recycling!

Darya found herself halfway between Hawaii and California, where she was stopped by the piling debris in the Great Pacific Garbage Gyre. While mostly microplastics, she encountered a patch that was so littered, it was difficult to sail through.

This debris circulates via the Global Conveyor Belt, which moves nutrients globally when cool, dense water sinks beneath warmer water. These nutrient-rich upwelling events cannot happen to the scale they're supposed to if seas continue warming, as the water must cool to become dense.

I think I'm gonna be sick...

1 Fish, 2 Fish, Red Fish, Dead Fish

On her way back to the coast, Darya encounters yet another horrific side effect of global temperature increases: Dead Zones, where fish and other marine organisms are suffocated by hypoxic, or low-oxygen, zones. 

Water bodies undergo eutriphication, where they're exposed to far too many nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen, which abundantly feeds cyanobacteria. The algae on the surface of the water then die and sink, where the decomposition process uses all the oxygen in the water. Increasing global temperatures only makes it easier for bacteria and algae to survive and bloom. 

Acidifying Oceans

Sailing back to the Great Barrier Reef, Darya discovers yet another reason organisms are dying and massive coral bleaching events are far more common - ocean acidification. This is the process of atmospheric carbon dioxide being absorbed by the ocean, lowering the pH of the water.

The globe is warming mostly due to CO2 emissions, 31% of which are absorbed by the oceans. The acidification of the water can dissolve the shells of microorganisms that make up the bottom of the food chain, and can prevent calcifying and shell-building creatures from doing so.

Darya decides to sail back to the Gulf of Mexico, where she knows at least 1800 offshore oil rigs are active. These rigs are quite messy - oil, mud, and drilling debris and materials contaminate the waters, toxifying sea creatures' habitats.

Offshore Oil 

According to Greenpeace, it is unlikely that, once spilled, even 20% of oil can be recovered from the water. Furthermore, burning oil is a main contributor to global warming by way of carbon emission, which Darya has already seen acidify oceans.

There are FAR too many rigs - about 1,862 - to be sustainable. 

Overfishing

Fed up, Darya heads to the northern East Coast of the U.S., hoping to hear something positive about the state of our oceans. Nope! She's met with yet another disaster, that of overfishing. Fish and shellfish are being trawled, fished, and farmed through aquaculture at unsustainable rates which cannot be met by fish reproductive rates.

Around one-third of harvestable sea organisms are being overfished. The impact this can have on ecosystems and food web balance is immense. Not only this, but it can increase the rate of climate change, as "having more fish and other marine life in the sea means more CO2 sequestration...lock[ing] CO2 emissions away" (Greenpeace). 

Invasive Species 

Next, Darya decides to investigate the seas of the United Kingdom, where she finds that species typically seen in the seas of the Mediterranean are invading the ever-warming waters of the East Atlantic. Some of these species included bluefin tuna, stingrays, thresher sharks, and oceanic sunfish such as Mola Mola.

These species, and many others, are invading areas that aren't native to them. This displaces native species from their habitats and spawning grounds, limits resources available to them (limiting population), and is exacerbated by continually warming ocean waters.