The over 100 estuary dead zones increasing in size and quantity are mostly from agricultural runoff, specifically mostly fertilizers. Various hogs, cattle, goats, sheep, chickens, turkeys, and other domestic animal farms and ranches have a variable amount of mismanagement of wastes. There are many industrial and urban toxins also increasing, and worldwide oceanic mercury from coal fired steel and power plants. The thing acidifying the oceans the most is human caused atmospheric CO2.
Although deforestation and ocean acidification are lowering oxygen a small amount so far, the main thing affecting the ozone layer is still chlorine and fluorine based compounds from humans.
The mechanism of thermageddon is CO2 to high enough Arctic temperatures to cause a positive feedback loop with tundra methane deposits and open ocean warming to oceanic methane hydrate deposits self releasing until global "turnover" and a thermal max episode 30 times faster than PETM with effects at least three times worse and 50% longer.
Almost completely separate from that is the human overpopulation to lack of aquifer and surface pure water, lack of enough food from a variety of soil, water, and climate factors, to a crash in numbers in a cascading manner around the world, to a survival rate of 5 to 10%, around the 2030s to 40s starting and ending 2060s to 80s. Temperatures will continue to climb if the tipping points have been crossed, until thermageddon totally arrives 2300 to 2500AD. ~90% extinction rate, with oceanic life and equatorial life doing the best. Probability of Ecocide for humans is very high.
This life, like the thermal vent life in the oceans will provide stock to mutate into a myriad other life forms over the next 3 million years.
Unless, somehow, people keep burning all the rest of the fossil fuels they can get, and they start a runaway "Venus Effect".Statistics: Posted by Johhny Electriglide — Sun Apr 21, 2013 6:00 pm
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