Fog Horn (A Call to Action)
- Good morning. The time is now 2 minutes to mid-night. Doomsday Has Never Been Closer. Good luck.
Despite the fact that we live in extremely dangerous times, the scientists in charge of the clock said there is hope. The clock has been wound backwards before, in the wake of the Cold War or during times when nuclear superpowers expressed interest in not mutually assuring destruction.
The scientists argue that civil society should turn the screws on government to reduce carbon emissions and push for even more ambitious climate action than what the Paris Agreement calls for. That sounds like a more fruitful plan than huddling in a bunker.
Flotsam (what we’re obsessed with right now)
- Some technology is pretty good, though: Cracking down on poaching with 3D-printed fake turtle eggs
Jetsam (what we’re enjoying from around the web)
- People are mostly pretty good, too: Shark Charities Receive Uptick in Donations After Report That Donald Trump Hopes ‘All the Sharks Die’.
- How one Egyptian girl became an underwater welder. TL;DR: by being awesome.
- I feel you, little fiddlers. The Confusing Social Lives of Fiddler Crabs: Climate change is causing some awkwardness in fiddler crab relationships.
Elegant fiddler crabs like the ones shown here are scurrying into banana fiddler crab territory, creating confusing social situations. Photo by Pat Backwell.
- Mining on the ocean floor could do irreversible damage to deep-sea ecosystems, says a new study of seabed mining proposals around the world.
- The Agency That Helped Create the Internet Now Wants to Wire the Ocean. The Agency, incidentally, is also how Al Gore refers to himself. Yes, that was an Al Gore joke. We’re trying to branch out here (also, communications hot tip: It’s 2018. No one in the environmental movement is particularly enthralled by Al Gore. Every time some random Fox News pundit starts going of on Al Gore, what they’re really saying is “I haven’t been paying attention for at least 10 years.”).
- Global Shipping Industry Failing to Fill Gender Pay Gap. You’d think news about the shipping industry would be in the Shipping News section, but it’s not.
- Oil spills are bad, but dispersants are worse for deep-sea coral.
- Scientists surveyed nearly 125,000 coral reefs in the Asia-Pacific region, finding that 11.1 billion pieces of plastic debris are entangled in corals and are drastically increasing the likelihood that they will contract deadly diseases. 11 Billion Pieces of Plastic Are Smothering Reefs, Infecting Corals.
- To nourish millions, we need global food trade.
- I don’t know anyone in the solar industry that thinks this is a good idea. But hey, putting 23,000 Americans out of work is no big deal, right? Trump’s Tariffs on Solar Mark Biggest Blow to Renewables Yet.
- Why Fisheries Aid to Developing Nations Has Plummeted.
- For $130,000, you could be one of the few to see the RMS Titanic in person this summer. This is a pretty good spot to remind you that I have a Patreon, and for $130,000 per month, I’ll @ you on Twitter from the wreck of the Titanic.
A birds-eye view of the Titanic bow. Once feared to be in danger of collapse, this photo shows that the bow is in good condition. (Premier Exhibitions, Inc./ Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)
Lagan (what we’re reading from the peer-reviewed literature)
- Eddy and friends (2018) Historical baselines of coral cover on tropical reefs as estimated by expert opinion. DOI: 10.7717/peerj.4308.
- Gooday and friends (2018) New species of the xenophyophore genus Aschemonella (Rhizaria: Foraminifera) from areas of the abyssal eastern Pacific licensed for polymetallic nodule exploration. DOI: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlx052.
Shipping News (academic and ocean policy wonkery)
- Looking for an ocean conservation job? Schmidt Marine’s Ocean Job Board has you covered!
- House Science Committee Wants to Investigate a Government Scientist for Doing Science. Because of course they do.
Driftwood (what we’re reading on dead trees)
- No dead tree this week. Instead, go play Subnautica. It’s amazing.
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