Environmental Problems Caused By …

Environmental problems caused by the environment?

In our rush to “think green”, sometimes we forget that humans’ role is not always as important as we believe.

An ocean dead zone has been appearing every summer off the Oregon coats since 2002. The worst year was 2006 when the oxygen level dropped to 0 and dead sea life of all kinds was washing up onto the shore. Apparently, similar dead zones in the Chesapeake Bay and Gulf of Mexico have been caused by fertilizer washing down the rivers.

The first reaction in Oregon – human caused troubles again. Not this time. Scientists have determined that northerly winds trigger an ocean-mixing condition called upswelling. This moves low-oxygen water that is usually deep in the ocean, closer to shore. This stirs up nutrients like nitrogen causing a huge increase in the plankton population. As these plankton die and decompose, they deplete the water of oxygen.

Humans don’t seem to be involved in this equation unless you subscribe to chaos theory (also known as the butterfly effect) in which case a human waving good-by to a friend may have caused the winds in the first place. Oh --- the power.

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Notyak! You don't have to become a yak herder to do something good for the environment. www.notyak.com

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See green articles our President, Dixie Schmatz, has written for businesses at www.EvanCarmichael.com/Going-Green/

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