Dead Zones

No - nothing to do with a serial killer or anything like that but just as nasty for the environment. A dead zone is defined as “ Waters with little or no oxygen continue to form in coastal areas worldwide thanks to fertilizer washing off agricultural fields and fossil fuel burning.” The experts say the hundreds of sea areas of very low oxygen now affect a combined area the size of New Zealand, and that they pose as great a threat to life in the world's oceans as overfishing and habitat loss. The key solution, they say, is to "keep fertilisers on the land and out of the sea". Changes in the way fertilisers and other pollutants are managed on land have already "virtually eliminated" dead zones from the Mersey and Thames estuaries Ultimately, it may take revolutions in agriculture and transportation, along with the energy of hurricanes to bring life back to dead zones. Find out here what hurricanes have to do with anything and how Hurricane Katrina actually helped the seas off New Orleans and the guardian article here.

Thanks to catholicgauze for highlighting this one from Scientific American. Great blog! Have a look if you can folks