Text Box: SOS: Oceans at Risks Text Box: Melting of polar ice caps which disrupts the ecosystem balance and desalinate the oceans waters thus making it unsuitable for marine animals to inhabit. Spread of diseases as insects are now able to migrate north carrying diseases with them. With increasing global temperatures, you will have increasing amounts of droughts and heat waves in some regions of the world. How can we as inhabitants of this earth help to stop global warming? Reduce the amount of energy that you use, i.e. turn off the lights or any electrical appliance when not in use, for short distances ride your bikes instead of driving your car, etc. Use recycled products as much as possible. Utilize renewable energy sources such as wind or solar, e.g.. Solar water heaters. Take shorter showers Buy fuel efficient cars and carpool as much as possible. Use less plastic products to reduce the amount of garbage being produced. Bring a cloth bag to the supermarket. Use less heat and air conditioning Use fluorescent light bulbs they save energy. Plant as many trees as possible, trees use up CO2 which is a greenhouse gas. Text Box: Our world’s oceans are at risk and so immediate action is required to restore and protect them before it is too late. We need to re-evaluate our perspectives, learn more about our ocean creatures and their habitats and how we can become caretakers. The theme for World’s Oceans Day 2009, (June 8th) was “one ocean, one climate, one future.” The theme highlights the crucial role that the ocean plays in maintaining the Earth's climate, and just how vulnerable ocean life is to climate change. There are many factors that contribute to our oceans endangered state. Some of these are overfishing, habitat destruction, pollution, the introduction of invasive alien species and more devastating in its effects, global warming. Global warming is caused by increasing amounts of greenhouse gases (produced mainly by the burning of fossil fuels) being released into the atmosphere and causing the heat from the sun’s rays to be retained in the atmosphere, thus increasing global temperatures. Some of the effects of global warming on marine ecosystem are: Sea-levels rising which causes flooding. Increase in the number of natural disasters due to waters warming. Irreparable damage to various ecosystems such as coral reefs, coastal forests and even deep-sea habitats.

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hurricanes, an effect of global warming

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Text Box: Over 60% of the world's coral reefs are threatened as a result of pollution, sedimentation and bleaching due to rising water temperatures caused by global warming.

In 2004 and 2005, we saw a record number of hurricanes due to global warming. (pics courtesy of  www.environmentalgraffiti.com