What is Happening to Our Oceans?

For those of us who live near the Coast—any coast—the latest news, on top of continents of plastic waste, oil spills, and the kind of criminal chemical dumping I wrote about in my latest eco-thriller, REDTIDE, is disturbing: scientists have now discovered a mysterious warming trend in both the Atlantic and Pacific. We are already experiencing weird weather. Last winter's snowfall in Boston was unprecedented. On the West Coast, California continues into the 4th year of it's terrible drought. And this drought his now spread north all the way to Seattle and beyond.

Seattle, my current home, has long been known for being wet. Not any more. This past winter the Cascade Mountains received only 16% of it's normal snowfall, which needless to say decimated the ski industry. The farms in the dry agricultural regions east of the Cascades are starving for water, and there has been almost no rainfall since winter.

What more do we need to know--to do--before it's too late?

We need to wake up and pay attention, for starters, and start the long, hard process of making changes in our lifestyles. If you watch local news—at least in Seattle—the newscasters continue to rave about the 'beautiful' weather (never mind the brown haze everywhere as the heat continues close to 90 degrees, with no respite in sight).

Meanwhile, what is happening in the oceans? On the West Coast fish are swimming into new waters they've never entered before. And now there is a warm patch of water in the northern Pacific which, according to the University of Washington, is bringing unprecedented change to the ecosystem.


So what are we to do about all this? I don't have answers, but being aware of what's happening is a start. We are all in deep, deep trouble.

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