Line drawn in the sand between beach access and protection
Even on such a soggy, San Francisco day, people still enjoy city beaches. It’s incredible that 19th-century legislators had the foresight to preserve coastal areas as a public right in the California Constitution. For more than 40 years, the California Coastal Act has further protected “maximum access” to the coast “for all the people.”
Pollution Has Worked Its Way Down To The World’s Deepest Waters
The Mariana Trench in the northern Pacific is the deepest part of the world’s oceans. You might think a place that remote would be untouched by human activity. But the Mariana Trench is polluted.
The Dangers of Surfing After a Rain
To surf, or not to surf. That’s the question many of us frequently face, when a deluge falls from above, surface streets are lined with tributaries, and bacterial runoff rushes towards the ocean. The Surfrider Foundation just completed a three-year study exploring the dangers of surfing during or after a rain.
Increasing factory and auto emissions disrupt natural cycle in East China Sea
China’s rapid ascent to global economic superpower is taking a toll on some of its ancient ways, patterned around the vast fisheries of the East China Sea. But now those waters are increasingly threatened by human-caused, harmful algal blooms that choke off vital fish populations.
Warmer West Coast ocean conditions linked to increased risk of toxic shellfish
Hazardous levels of domoic acid, a natural toxin that accumulates in shellfish, have been linked to warmer ocean conditions in waters off Oregon and Washington for the first time by a NOAA-supported research team, led by Oregon State University scientists.
U.S. agency says no to requests for ocean surveys with airguns
Federal officials have turned down six applications to use airguns to look for undersea sites that might yield oil and natural gas up and down the East Coast, on the ground that the risks to marine life outweigh the potential benefits of seismic surveying along the Outer Continental Shelf.
Christmas Revelers Leave 15 Tons of Trash on Australian Beach
Coogee beach – a popular destination in the Sydney suburb for backpackers on Christmas Day – was left strewn with a reported 15 tonnes of garbage by an estimated 10,000 resellers…
Age-Old Problem: River in Jordan Polluted by Copper 7,000 Years Ago
The first river polluted by humanity may have been discovered in the Wadi Faynan region of southern Jordan, contaminated by copper about 7,000 years ago, a new study finds.
All Human-Made Objects on Earth Amount to 30 Trillion Tons
Scientists recently discovered that all objects on Earth created by people adds up to an astoundingly large figure. All of these objects are collectively known as Earth’s “technosphere.” Distributed evenly over the planet’s surface, the technosphere would translate into about 110 pounds (50 kilograms) for every 11 square feet (1 square meter).